LABOR'S PERSPECTIVE ON SAFETY QUESTIONS

by Jim Utterback

This is the opening article in a series examining safety in the entertainment business. I have adopted a simple question and answer format, addressed to individuals with particular expertise in their part of the industry.

My first interview is with Tim Wade, Chair of the IATSE Labor/Management Safety Committee, a member of the ETCP Council, and one who has been instrumental in developing the film business’s “Safety Pass Program.”

The first question will introduce that program to those readers unfamiliar with it.

The California film industry has developed the Safety Pass Program to address OSHA requirements and promote safety in the entertainment business. How does it work to increase safety on the job? And how successful is the follow-through on its procedures?

We have tried to make the Safety Pass Program work to create safety awareness, make people conscious of the surroundings they are working in, teach them to see the things they need to do, and to make them safe. If you are climbing on scaffolding and you see something loose, we want you to bring it to the attention of the people that erected the scaffolding and let them correct it. If you are working with fall protection equipment, we want you to make sure it’s working properly; or if not, to bring it to your supervisor’s attention and get it taken out of service. If you are working in an elevated lift, like a Condor, and you have to work in the street, most streets are crowned for water runoff, and there are ways to level the machines properly that we have learned from working with the manufacturers. We are making the operators aware and this is another part of the Safety Pass Program.

And there is evidence that the Safety Pass Program is working on the job sites?

Yes, there is. We are receiving calls in the safety departments at the studios pointing things out, or they will come to us and tell their Business Representative of a problem, and we will correct it for them. Sometimes the issue is a minor thing, sometimes it is something with much more potential for injury. But these concerns are being noticed and reported to us. Safety is key, and it is working.

The program starts with classes?

Yes, every classification in the film industry has requirements as to what classes you must take. Again, we are here to teach the employees safety awareness. The Safety Pass Program is not about developing job skills to enhance your position on the job, but rather to develop the ability to look at an issue on the job, to recognize that something is wrong, and identify the need to correct it.

Our business has changed enormously in the last fifty years. How would you summarize the critical Advancing safety in the entertainment business effects of those changes on safety conditions on the job in your part of the industry?

That is big. In the heyday of the Hollywood studio system, each studio had technical departments: electrical, props, grips, cameras, makeup and hair, sound, etc. As the business climate changed, so did the nature of the studios, to address better ways to operate quicker. The studios have eliminated almost all of the departments. In addition to the changes in the business, technological changes have occurred in cameras, lighting, grip materials, trussing, etc. It is a new way to work; what is happening with this current system is that people are not being trained in skills on the job. They are not being taught correctly. That type of training has to come from individual locals or programs between the employer and the employee.

So that training used to be passed on in the studios’ departments?

Yes. Let’s say you were a young kid, starting out, learning how to light. You didn’t start out on the set; you would start working in the gangs. They would come in after the grips had put up the sets, and hang all the lights and cable that were required. That is how you learned. You learned all about electricity, how to do it correctly, how to rig, at that time. Then after awhile, you could go out with the shooting crew. Grips were the same way. That is where you would learn to tie knots, how to pull chain, how to make things level, how to use winches. But all that instruction has been lost with the studio system. The studio system had its own way of creating employees that were trained. When they closed the departments, those training positions were lost. What has happened is that you have people working with no training. Once you are on the set, they do not have time to train you. You better know what you are doing, and a lot of people don’t. So you either learn incorrectly or you don’t learn at all.

That’s exactly parallel to the stage business.

Oh, it is. There is no difference. The money issue hit you just like it did us. You did not have studios in the stage business, but you had your dad that would bring in his kids to learn, and it was the same. You mentioned change in the use of theatrical lighting and rigging equipment. How has that made a difference? I was at a performance of Mamma Mia the other night, and I said to my wife, “if I were shooting now, I would be using moving lights.” You can do so many more things with them. They save set-up time; you can program automated lighting for fades and dissolves. The same thing is true for truss rigging. Truss can be used for lighting and so many other things. We have adapted to all that equipment. When you look at the entertainment business in general, what is the most pressing safety issue for IA labor? Fatigue. What happens is—if you are working on a television series doing a one-hour drama, you are working 5-day weeks. It is not uncommon to work 60 or 70 hours a week. After nine months you are exhausted. Somewhere along the line, there is going to be a fatigue factor. This is the opening article in a series examining safety in the entertainment business. I have adopted a simple question and answer format, addressed to individuals with particular expertise in their part of the industry.

The Safety Pass Program is not about developing job skills . . . but rather to develop the ability to . . . recognize that something is wrong, and identify the need to correct it.

You are going to hit the wall. People fall asleep at the wheel on the way home from work; there are injuries, accidents, and sometimes it is fatal. And that is the biggest problem.

It’s just the schedule.

Schedule is money. Money is important.

Is there anything the International IA could do, that they are not already doing, to push the safety agenda in the business?

No, I think they are doing a great job. This is not the type of industry where you are working with heavy construction, where they have a different problem. They are dealing with the public, and pieces of machinery that are covered by different laws; an example would be machinery that is covered by the D.O.T. The construction industry has a training system that is set up similar to ours, in that it is funded by the employers. But we do some unique stuff where you can not provide training.

How do you train for doing a pyrotechnic effect?

Yes, we have done it a thousand times. But say you put it in a car—that is one thing new. Put that car on a cable pull—that is a second thing new. What happens? Your guess is as good as mine. There are too many variations involved, like physics and the mechanical ability of the car to maintain a straight line when its steering is tied down. There are too many factors to take into consideration. But what I think the International is doing correctly is backing ESTA to go out there through the ETCP and get people certified. That tells me the studio system we were talking about earlier is being replaced by the unions doing their duty to get their members trained.

So that system is working.

Oh yes, I do not have any problems with it. I think it is great. Anybody can say it should happen faster. I think so too. But in the real world things do not happen at our pace, and we some times do not have the ability to make a different choice.

What is the most important improvement that employers could make to increase job site safety?

Don’t rush. That’s the reality. But how do you achieve it? We are trying to educate employers everywhere about how important safety is. There are people out there in the industry who don’t care. And there are companies that don’t care. We have to inform as many people as we can, and make them care. Look at the small companies and the big companies involved in ETCP who have invested time and money saying this program is important. They are backing it with their words and their actions. They are saying these people must have the skills to perform the job, but perform the job safely as well. They see the same thing that we have both seen, that there is not enough training, and that safety is really important.

How do you think the ETCP certifications, in rigging and the upcoming electrical, will change the business?

Just as we have been discussing, the more you train, the more you raise the awareness level, the better the industry will be.

Are you seeing any difference from the certifications?

I think it is still too early to tell, but we are beginning to hear feedback that employers are requesting certified riggers on their jobs. This is very positive; we should have more response by the summer.

Are you seeing tangible effects of the work by the ESTA Standards Committee, e.g., the Camera Crane handbook?

You will see that more in the stage and theatre end of the business, along with the Fog and Smoke standards and other areas.

The camera crane handbook is out so the operators have a heads-up about safety; but the standard is not complete yet. We are meeting soon to discuss the next step, to work with the crane manufacturers, and develop the standard to the same level as the other standards. It is a hot button issue here. But we do have three manufacturers that are working with us.

In addition, remember that in the motion picture industry, we have what is called the Industry-Wide Labor Management Safety Committee. Through that committee, we have drafted 40 bulletins. As an example, the latest bulletin deals with foam(ed) plastic. Lots of sets are constructed using foam, and if there is a fire, there is off-gassing from that foam that is deadly to the people in the area because of its toxicity. Other examples are bulletins dealing with issues like wind chill and extreme heat.

Thank you, Tim, for the valuable information you have shared with our readers.

10/26