Guild's Growing Role

It’s a new year, the industry has revived from the doldrums of the last year or so and work is flowing in from home and aboard. It sometimes feels like there is too much happening, but at least that allows new people to get a chance to prove their worth. It is a pity that some people were forced to find work in other fields and now the industry has lost their expertise. Now we have to strike a balance between local and international projects to ensure we service both of them to the best of our ability.

It’s just a few months into my time as president and I have begun to gain new respect and understanding of the role of the Techos’ Guild in the film industry. I was always aware that we were important. But we are a key communicator between the various interest groups that make up the industry. Karla Rodgers, as our executive officer, spends a lot of time keeping that dialogue open. There is more to do and I believe it is crucial that we continue to represent the largest group of film and television workers in the country. As a member it is important to be active, support the people who are working on your behalf and keep recruiting fellow technicians who are not part of the Guild. It is not a union but it is a shared organisation that facilitates the environment that we work in.

I was lucky enough at the end of last year to attend a film festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Camerimage is a large festival that celebrates cinematography. It was very inspiring to be amongst a large group of international filmmakers. To see the camaraderie of the filmmaking community from all over the world and realize that everyone is working towards the same goal of producing amazing films. This camaraderie is what should cement this Guild together, and it exists already and we should build on it.

The Guild was involved in recent discussions on jobs for the broadcast of the ICC Cricket World Cup. NZ technicians were led to believe that there would be jobs available in the television coverage of the games. It has since become apparent that only a small minority of NZ technicians have been employed, around 10% of the total jobs available. The overseas company who won the contract have employed and been given work status in NZ and Australia for South Africans, Malaysian and Indian technicians to do the jobs.

The Guild has been involved in bringing this issue to the attention of the country. Karla, has managed the publicity with great care and Andrew Little and the Labour Party have taken it up. It highlights an area of the Guild’s work, which is growing in importance as some of the policies of the Government cause concern for NZ technicians’ working environment. Immigration laws, which allow people to come in without any oversight, new health and safety laws which will tighten up on the responsibility of managers and persons in positions of responsibility. Some good and some bad but all needing us to reconsider how we function and relate to our work environment

One of the key tasks for the Guild this year is to undertake an update of The Blue Book and the Safety Code of Practice. This year the Government is passing new legislation relating to Health and Safety so we need to be proactive in keeping our working conditions in line with the law. Although we are a multi-million, sometimes billion-dollar industry, we do not have large companies like Fletchers Construction and Downer (like the building sector does) to ensure on-going projects and established infrastructure. These companies have created complex systems to ensure work safe practices and have invested in creating these systems. Our projects are so often one-off entities created for the film project we are working on. The Guild has become the de facto provider of health and safety information without the resources of the building industry.

Although we have in the past dealt with many issues around the film industry it feels like we may have to take another step up and become more proactive in putting our point of view. The Guild should never become a union but we have to examine our values and put them forward. Because if we don’t, the free-market will pass us over. We need to grow, embrace more of our film and television industry workers, make it more relevant to our members and lobby the policy makers and politicians so they understand how our industry can help grow this country.

We are masters of our own destiny.