California’s Rigged Recall and the Potential IATSE Strike

name of the second person on the podcast. And who else? Who else is here today? Whoa whoa? Whoa? Hi? I am and this is Garrison. I'm filling in for Robert, who is otherwise predisposed at the moment. Otherwise predisposed makes him sound like he's on the toilet. Yeah he is. It's a very polite bathroom excuse yep. He's just got so so much food poisoned in the past month. It's just been a real issue. He's been pounding iver meton so he's shotting out his own heart. What do you expect?

What are you gonna do? Oh my goodness. The job requires a lot of extensive research. Sometimes and it has it has consequences, Yeah, exactly if you know, taking it for the sea. America. So today speaking of America, Yeah, the nation, the nation, the state, the nation state. UM, We're gonna, we are correct going to speak of America, the nation and the state. We do indeed speak of America.

We speak of um today. Towards the end of the episode, we have a really great interview for you, guys, um Ah with a very lovely young woman named Olga, who is here to talk to us about the potential strike in uh Ayatsi, which is the you know, overarching union for UH I mean everybody in the entertainment industry outside of actors and writers, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Perfect yayeah perfect yeah zoom and not at that acronym.

But it's it's a great interview. Stick around for that. Before we get there, we're gonna shoot the ship and we're gonna talk about some some goddamn news. We're gonna splatter the ship on the walls. That sounds like you want to start by talking about what Sophie you said newsom Yeah, Garrison, do you want to talk to us about all this voter uh going on with California recall, which bothers no results sho we probably we probably won't know results yet. I mean there's there's a decent chance,

but I mean hasn't cast his vote. Yeah, I have. The counters are waiting on Cody still, so as soon as this gets wrapped up then they'll be able to know. But yeah, as we're recording this, this is the election deadline with the California recall. And I've just spent the past week watching old Larry Elder stuff and doing research into the recall. It's a nightmare. Um. And you know the thing that we all suspected is going to happen,

and what is happening? Is there? Fox News the past month, ever since mid August has been prepping election fraud, uh claims if Elder loses because and and it's so big. Elder was that kind of ahead of the ahead of the polls in the beginning of August, and then you know, everyone mobilized to create ads saying that he's a bad dude. So then polls have flipped and nowhere it's looking like you know, the new symbol price stay in office. Um.

Probably well we'll see, um. But what they're what they're doing in response is that now they're now trying to get everyone all riled up to say that you know, this election fraud, the mailand ballots, blah blah blah blah, all the same stuff from last year. There's doing it again, and they're setting the stage for just having this same claim be used now in every election whenever the Republicans lose, right that, that's what's what they're preparing for. We're gonna

do this same circle again and again. Um. Yeah, it's not great, just real quick there. This is gonna happen over and over and over again, like you said, until the end of time. That's great, we love it. Um. One thing that we could not do is have like reporters constantly ask these people like it seems like a bad thing. Like you're like, what do you think they're going to say? Why are you asking this person? You know, let's not give them the chance to the same same thing,

hoping they'll say no, that's why they're asking. They want a story that they can the same thing. When reporters asked Trump about Q and on, You're like, you don't ask them that, there's no reason to do it. You're just making it worse. It's the same thing. Yeah, No matter no matter what answer he gives, it's gonna be bad. Yeah. Like there's no good solution to this. Like it's not

They're not going to say a good thing. Whenever I hear more stories or you know, just people saying like a fraud or they cheated all this stuff, I feel like they never you guys never read The Boy who Cried Wolf? Did you? The thing is it doesn't matter. I know it doesn't matter, but it does. Are you saying it matters to us? But for the thing I believe in it? It doesn't? Yeah? Um, well that's I was hoping that you're going to come on this show and give us something positive to chew on, and instead

you bring this. I do something, I do something positive for later. But but this, this can start. And I know last last weekend, Elder set up this whole website online. Cody, do you do you want to do you want to talk about the website? Um, it's it's just fine, shirt. I love it. It's amazing. I can't believe it exists already. It seems like a thing that they had planned and ready to go, and they just like accidentally published it early.

Um accidentally accidentally. Um. So he has his website and if you go, it's like a report uh fraud uh link and it goes to this other place, UM that claim it had already detected fraud, already detected detected fraud in the results of the California recall election, resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated as governor. And I don't know if anyone else was listening to Garrison earlier, uh, because it was mentioned that the election is not over. Um,

it's today, as as was pointed out. Also, I have not voted yet, Um, so how do they have these results? They really stated you have to be removed first. Also that's weird. Yeah, Like they literally can't start counting votes until today. There's there's like like like like actually like like they cannot count votes until the fourteenth. There's no way to detect fraud already because there's no one's counted votes yet, right. Yeah. But because Benford's law, don't worry,

it means it's legit. I can't believe this, Like it's just like wait, it's so it's just a slap dash incompetent and but also like part of it's like is it incompetent? It is do it early because they know it doesn't matter, because it does not matter. Um, now that they're setting this up, like Elder has been on Fox News the lot the past week plugging this site. He plugged the site at a rally a few days ago. Like he's talked about it like he's wanting people to

talk about it. Right, we're talking about it now, which is maybe you know, well, yeah it's good, but that's gonna that's the last ditch way of riling people up. He's saying that there's already been instances of voter fraud. Well that should get them out of their houses and voting on election day. Yeah, it's not great. You know, Tucker is talking about it every day on Fox News. They have a segment on it. It's gonna be like this forever. This is just how things are now because

they because of what happened in January six. Like, I guess we can do that again if we just keep trying. So now, if we're just doing this so yep, I love elections. Look elections, Um, what else we want to discuss here right now? Sells, we're talking about the dress. You wanna talk about the Met? You want to talk about the most torturous. What is the MET Gala? A gala? I don't know, doesn't does anyone know? Does anyone know? All I know is Vogue Magazines involved in and it's

a fundraiser. I believe UM speak our best guest. While what is the I've only been to the Met once. It was on a high school field trip and we were watching an opera and I left during intermission to get high, and I came back and it was I've got it. I've got the snow. They had fake snow in the second act and it was beautiful. It was like the sense, We're amazing, so so so okay, here I've got something you have. So the Met is, as

I assumed, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And according to a quick Will search, what is the purpose of the MET Gala? Affectionately referred to as Fashion's biggest night out, the Met Gala one is a fundraising benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The event welcome stars, young creatives and industry paragons. I did read that as industry pagans in my head, and I wish I wisht google. Um. Yeah, it's one of the regular events of the year where everybody loses their mind over

the ridiculous dresses that nobody should be wearing but are. Um. Also, people seem to share a lot of like old like dresses from like other like years and like, oh my god, look at this. It's like that's from like five years ago. Do we do this every year now? Well, I mean right now, they're comparing Hayley Steinfeld with her current look with her old look. And I'll accept that as reason too. So I don't care. I don't give a fuck. I I shouldn't sit here pretending like I do. There are

there are a few standouts. James Gordon's talks was magnificent. Just a beautiful, beautiful sculpted man in that black tux. Amazing. Um. But you know, the main thing people are talking about is is AOC's tex text or stress. I don't care about this at all, but some people on Twitter evidently do a lot of misinformation about it. They're like, We're like, I feel like she's more people just making assumptions. People

didn't buy herself a ticket to the met Gala. She was given a ticket to the met Gala and AOC decided to go there and use it as an opportunity to make a statement, which you do, you know, and and she did that. At the other end of it, Um, she should be aware that a lot of the people that got her into office already feel like she maybe isn't the person that they originally thought her to be, and that some people found this to be flip in certain ways, and um, superficial. I don't know, I mean,

I yeah, like I don't care enough about this. Um, but it is like, yeah, it's a little flip, it's a little um. It's I've seen a lot of people like, well, uh now, tax the rich is trend trending on Twitter. Uh So clearly the message worked. And it's like, I don't know. To me, people already want to tax the rich. It is a very popular policy to propose rich trends on Twitter pretty regularly. Like she didn't make anybody, uh like at the met gal like uncomfortable because she's among them.

And it's sort of like commodifying this sort of like so like it's like selling socialism in a capitalist way to like be like, look at my I don't know, it's just commodifies and it's in a weird way. Also, there's a Black Lives Matter protest right outside and they got literalized by the police. Yeah, protest so in the cops or about police brutality. A lot of shock but no like but like like, she's not that, it's not the people were acting like she she didn't spends on

a ticket for her dress. Politicians get invited to that event every year and attend. She was one of many that were there that night. Um, but like Garinson said, I don't care. She doesn't care. There is one There's one thing I do care about is that so someone was wearing a peg the patriarchy thing, which is kind of a little bit whatever. I don't care that either.

What I do care about is just today, Ben Shapier did the whole segment on this and he and he and he describes pegging as quote an obscure sexual practice in which women perform the more aggressive sexual act on men. And I think, and I think it's pretty funny. It is extremely but I just like that we now have Ben Shapira talking about pegging the outfit as it's like scantily clad. Then like there's not so outside what are

you talking about him? M it's like the Simpsons. The Simpsons think of the guy covering his eyes, right, Yeah, it's like my my freaking ears. Um. It's uh that I did see that. That's very funny that he every so often has to talk about things that make him so deeply uncomfortable. Yeah, it's pretty good. I have to. He really didn't have to. It does not matter. Um, No, it does not matter. But he was of course he was going to talk about it. Um. I have one

parting thought on AOC. I also don't care, but perhaps care slightly more than you guys, um, because then I think, like, what would have what would I have chosen to do if I was offered that, because it sounds very exciting to get invited when I'm not a OC and I don't represent you know, I'm not the same way. And if I was gonna go, I like that she you know she's gonna go. I like that she did what she did, but also feels a little bit pr movie. So it's it's slightly funny with me, but I don't

hate her for it. And part of me thinks that the little girl and me would have loved it, you know, I'm just being honest. Yeah sure, but also yeah, like you're not people are going to make fun of me that I don't know, like I I understand, um, everyone's opinion about it, and uh, no one will talk about it in a day, and she will continue to do

stuff like this that enrages people. And uh it's you know, there is a like a bit of like a packaging, uh that I think is kind of um, not necessarily helpful or uh, I agree genuine that you know, I don't love it. But the commodification is a really good point, just how we've seen a lot of these kind of ideas that used to be more radical as they get mainstream, they get very like watered down and turned into things

that they don't that they didn't originally represent. And we see this a lot with you know, even even to some degree with with like with like how popular Bernie got. But then again, like a lot of people who call themselves socialists or communist or anarchists wouldn't have gotten to that point if it won't if it weren't for someone like Bernie in the first place. That's very well said Garrison. But yeah, like having that like, you know, it's sort

of it's sort of waters down. Um this sort of like revolutionary aspect of like a lot of these like allegedly revolutionary aspect. Like there was even a moment where she was talking the red carpet red carpet or whatever, where she's talking about how like we need to like you know, it's important issue and like we need to fee the exact phrases like we need to bring uh you know, all classes into this conversation um about like

what to do and stuff. And to me, it's like, no, we don't, don't ignorecific class and let one actually like speak and uh, the like to see this sort of like it's very inclusive, like we need to bring all classes together. Evolution of her as a politician kind of feels represented in this decision to go. I mean I keep thinking about it. I don't think that I would

have done it if I was her. I just it seems like, yeah, this kind of thing where like she was like probably like I really want to go, but if I go, then it will look like this, so like something it's like I think that it's just not the best look. But also yes, people were misinterpreting and saying the wrong things about it. The one o the thing that actually in AOC news today, her and uh and a few other a few of the more like progressive UM Congress people are trying to introduce an amendment

to block the delivery of US made bombs into Israel. Um, and that that just got that just got announced today. Well that's there. At there's also like because they're just gonna be always going to be a split between like here's what the media is like sessing over and talking about and here's what they're actually like doing, um for their jobs. Um. But um, yeah, I don't know. It's it is what it is, what it is. She is who she is. And but also I will say we will,

we will. I absolutely agree we did totally should. I will say. It's the kind of thing where like, you know, I've I've seen a lot of like, uh, if Bernie went and he did that, you'd love it, and it's like, well, he wouldn't do that. I just had that same thought. I was like if Bernie would Bernie go, No, he just wouldn't. He wouldn't like and it wouldn't even be like prinssible, I don't want to go. He'd just be

like I don't do that. What's the point. It's like that that interview did with New York Times where he was talking about like birthday cards for people, and it's like, I just don't like, I just don't do that bullshit. I'm not a bullshitter. I'm not gonna bullshit you. Just so you write a nice thing about me. Um, but whatever, we don't need to talk about it ever again. Models

or friends. Yeah, we're friends who are friends. Products and services that products and services that together everything, so don't and we are back. Thanks friends for introducing all the products and services to the listeners before we get to the interview that we've already teased once. Um, we're gonna talk a real quick combo about supply chain stuff. Is it? Is it going well? That's going great? Oh good, we're

doing We're doing good. Everything's opened up, everyone's healthy. Chipping containers are going from place to place and that's no problem. Got enough chips, got chips, got chips, you got you got your car parts. Okay, let's say that that everything you just said wasn't true. Oh no, I I just I just I just got a text message from the head of UPS saying that we need to buy all of our Christmas presents now, because otherwise we're not going to get anything in December because the supply chains are

actually getting clogged. Oh no, just anecdotally. I bought some k masks from a month and a half ago, and they are just waiting at you as ups or usps wherever. They are not moving anyway. Let's talk about supplections. Um, yeah,

I mean there's a lot of different shortages happening. Um. One of the big ones is this chip shortage for vehicles that's affecting not just the new vehicle market but also used uh and also the rental car market, and it looks like it's not going to get better anytime soon. That's the thing about supply chains I'm learning is it turns out we've made a system that is like a big Jenga tower, and every little thing relies on something else working. So if one part goes missing, then it

all falls apart. And that's a that's a nice way to make things. If who could have thought of that? Who could have predicted enough? And if, like me, you want and looked at for a car over the weekend and there was none to look at, I am so sorry. Really, Yeah, glad I got my I mean all of it. It's bad. It's bad. And like and like the markup on vehicles right now for new and and and uh certified pre owned or whatever they're calling it whatever jargon that I'm not.

I'm carwards. Uh, the prices suck. And like I mean, yea, yeah, the markup. They're marking up prices really high because there's no supply. Yeah, it's a supply demand thing. I mean this is happening because like because of how many little specific things are needed to make so many different products, especially when they rely on like chips or any kind of computer parts. Um, it just makes stuff impossible to be old because you're missing too many important things, like

Toyota is making. I think I think they said, how did you just pronounce the name of that car, Toyota. I really liked it. I really said Toyota. It's it's Toyota. I really enjoyed it. Doesn't know how that is the that is the Canadian that is the Canadian Way. That was wonderful for thank you. But yeah, they're mak they're

making less less cars this year. A lot of other automakers based in Japan or based in Uh, in Asia, UM are are making a whole lot less because of just how many ports are closed in Asia still because they're trying to control spread of the delta variant and

all this kind of Yeah. And also that the you know, specifically in the situation of chips, Yeah, manufacturing at the beginning of the pandemic, big corporations and in these these companies, UM take a gamble and make a guess about how much you should produce based on what's happening globally and your lay them. I don't know, we should probably scale backs.

We're not wasting money and um and then it here we are with a shortage that's going to take that to counteract takes you know, years to make up the difference that has been lost. And like currently you know, Yeah, and which company you have hangars full of cars that

can't be finished because you can't get the chip in there. Yeah, and cars are not the only obviously not the only thing that No, this is a cross and this should also I mean, we talked about some of this stuff a little bit with Chelsea Manning a few weeks ago about supply chain issues that we're going to start seeing, and it's absolutely is not just cars and stuff, it's everything. I mean, it's our food supply. It's coffee also coffee.

Another thing that we've talked about is you know how global warming, how climate change is affecting our crops and crop production, and coffee is about to get really expensive and harder to come by. Yeah, it's also it's also it's also paper. There's a huge paper shortage right now and it's affecting our school supplies. Apparently I was reading

about that too this morning. Um, but yeah, the summary is that there's a labor shortage, there's a product shortage, and there doesn't seem to be any awesome structural timeline for when this will be fixed. Food is how we abolished cars. Abolished cars. Yeah, that's how. That's proptimistic. How would I drive to the poll to vote if I hadn't voted, which I have voted, but some somebody here has not? Who's that? What are you talking about? You? It's you? But I will have been a person who

has voted. Sign of selfie. I want proof, no selfie, no no vote. Gosh, I'll show you the sticker for legal reasons, do not. You might might not be is it legal in California, take a selfie when you vote. I don't know there's certain states, but that is illegal, which is I'll bring a bunch of bottled water. Um. Anyways, is there anything you want to add on the shortage care? I mean, that's that's pretty much. That's pretty much it. There's a shortage. It sucks. There's shortage on a lot

of things. Labor, everything, everything is, everything is a stacked Jenka tower and it's all going down and products are expensive. Wall come crumbling down in the walls come crumbling, crumbling, and I think that it just keeps saying that over again, right, And like Harrison doesn't know, he's too young. Nope, nobody knows. Nobody knows that I'm quoting a song. Okay, no idea. Cut it out or leave it in. I don't care.

Double it, do it twice? All right. This is the point in the show where I do a third plug for interview, which is coming up next. Okay, So, as we probably set up in the intro that we haven't recorded yet, today we have the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with Olga Lexel you. I'm going to redo that. Did I pronounce your last name? Right, the only person who's ever pronounced it correctly. I just got on in my head. Okay, keep keep all of this in, Daniel,

I did it. I did it well. Um Olga, who is a writer's assistant and a script coordinator, and she's here today to talk to us about what is going on with the I A T s e uh and the potential strike that's coming up. UM. First, thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, pleasure, Thank you for wanting to know more. Oh absolutely, I mean well we

we we live in Los Angeles. UM, so perhaps my feet is abnormally filled with conversations about this, but I'm pretty sure that our listeners have caught wind of it at some point, and if they haven't, they should and they will definitely care about what we have to talk about today. So to start, why don't you just tell us what I A T S C is, what it stands for and and and yeah, we'll start there. Yeah. Absolutely,

so is the YAZZI I like that. I know some people pronounce it yatsi though, and that's weird, but is essentially the largest union in entertainment, and um it represents basically almost all rank and file in the production world. Um, I think most people usually when they think of unions think of like the w g A. The d g AATs is like the less glamorous, younger brother of those unions. Um, we have like the fewest I think multi millionaires of any union instry, but we do have, you know, the

folks making minimum wage. Basically, anybody you meet on a set, especially in l A, is going to be a member of ayotsy. Yeah, it's pretty vital, you know. Obviously l A is known to be as being the attend entertainment industry and talks about the w g A or SAG negotiations are always pretty front and center in the mainstream media. But this is vital. This these are the people that actually do the really hard intensive labor, the truly back breaking labor of which there is a lot that goes

into making the stuff that we consume. UM And just as an example, not every iotsy, local and craft would strike. It's only folks who are part of the basic Agreement, which is a contract that was created, but that I includes props, grips, crafty, first aid cinematographers, sound, um, some assistant editors, costumes, makeup hair, electricians, writer's assistant script suprisors. It's like everybody. Yeah, so to be clear, everybody, almost everybody.

We do you within that, do you have like the union, So IOTSY is like, oh, there's individual unions within that kind of so IOTSY is known as the International is kind of the big body that represents different locals, and there's different locals operating in different regions. For example, I'm a member of IoTs eight seventy one, which represents writers assistants in Los Angeles. Um but if you're a writer assistant in New York, you're not represented by eight seventy one.

At the same time, you know, here in Atlanta, people who in l A would have been in eight seventy one are in one sixty one. So there's tons of different locals, Like there's there's some that have strong her affiliations with the Greater International, and there's some that don't. Um uh, there's It really depends on state laws wherever. But from what I'm reading this, if this strike were to take place, and we're going to get into the specifics of it, this would be the first industry wide

strike in the union's history. Yeah, I have pretty massive never gone on strike, which is wild to think about Um. Yeah, you know, the w g A has obviously gone on strike multiple times and it's a much smaller union and again more high profile, so they get away with that. This is these are the people that get taken advantage of. Yeah. I mean it's kind of cool because I feel like when the w g A want on strike, my memories are of like celebrity writers being yeah, whereas I don't

think anybody in AOTSI is really a huge celebrity. I guess not yet maybe wait wait till this this this podcast drops. Oh okay, um, all right, So where we're at right now is that the current contract deal expired on September ten, um, and so now it's expired. People are working under expired contracts. But according to what I understand is the most recent communications, the two sides are

still very far apart. And I know that you're not allowed to talk about everything that's happening right now, um, but I would love to hear about what's happening, what what you ever you can share, and then let's talk about what you guys are asking for. Yeah, totally. I

think this has been a really unique process. Um. I only joined DIOTSY a couple of years ago, and I haven't been through a negotiation, but from what I've heard, this is the first time that multiple locals have all come together to negotiate like this, which gives us bigger leverage, you know. So instead of like, oh, we're the writer's assistance and we're going to go on strike if you don't give us a raise, we're like, no, we're going to go on strike with the grips and everybody else

to know. Um, So, I think it's really cool. It's been it's been great to see other people have our backs. It's every every local and Nazi kind of has its own things that we deal with. Like you know, grips tend to make more money in the union, like forty bucks an hour or more, whereas writer's assistants make sixteen bucks an hour. Oh yeah, but writer's assistance, for example, don't necessarily work twelve hour days on set. They aren't necessarily doing like hard labor on set, which a lot

of other locals might be. So there's uh, it's been really interesting to see all the different components of um these negotiations, and the stuff that is kind of more publicly discussed is a need for reasonable rest um is a big one. So let's break some of these down as we go, because I think that's really important and to that blow through reasonable rest. And I think what most people don't understand when you're watching your TV shows

is what a day on set looks like. And under the current rules, I mean, we're talking twelve hour days

plus overtime of people being on their feet. If you are a camera operator, you're carrying a heavy, heavy piece of equipment that does long term damage to your body, you know, saying with the grips everybody, you're not having and then if you go there's just a standard, and it's it's it's so it's accepted that you you pack as much as you can into these days, and if you don't make your page count, you go into overtime. And what that does is that that doesn't give you

enough of a turnaround. For a lot of people, they go home, they don't have time to properly rest before coming back to work. And the crazy thing is the twelve hour work day in the industry has been a standard for so long that now people basically factor in the penalties for violating it into their budget. So the for example, we have meal penalties. If you don't get the meal break when you're supposed to, the production has

to pay a penalty. UM. Now you have a lot of producers who set up their budget assuming we're not going to have meals and we're just going to eat that. And when you have studios with infinite money, they can do that. But yeah, it's just it's just a monitor a small price, but they're not factoring in the human cost totally. I know in my union, for example, UM script supervisors, who track continuity between shots one of the

most essential jobs on a set for UM. I know, one big issue we've been having is there's a new type of schedule called the French hour, where you only shoot for ten hours, and instead of having a big break in the middle of the day for lunch, UM people take rolling breaks. So we'll have a group of people eat at eleven and then at twelve and then

at one. But the script supervisors are stuck in their chair as long as the cameras rolling, so when there's no break, they don't get to eat because they have

to be constantly tracking what's happening in the shot. UM. So reasonable rest and meal breaks have been a big thing for those folks in Yeah, I'm sure that this is complicated, keeping in mind, you know, negotiating something that's beneficial to this group of people, and then also you know, scripts are the gaffers and the script supervisors coming to the table at the same time and trying to negotiate

on everybody's behalfe complicated little things that we don't think about. Um. There's a great Instagram account called I a Underscore Stories that's all people in IOTSI talking about what they've experienced on set. And I was reading something from a sound person who talked about developing like a chronic bladder failure condition from holding it in and not being able to go to the bathroom because you know nobody's going to stop and wait for you to take a break. Humane.

It's totally inhumane. It's I mean, people have horrible physical problems because of this stuff. Yeah, it's I I just know, like I think, I feel like there's such a there's a cultural aspect to this industry, specifically with regards to that because in a lot of people's mind, like you know, you're making something, you're making a movie or a show, and like that's the important thing, and that's the thing that people before they even get into the industry, they do,

uh suffer for it. They do like go without meals, they do like work twelve to fourteen sixty hours a day because they're passionate about the project and then bringing all of that energy in and just sort of assuming like, well, surely you're going to continue to work like that and exactly exploring exploiting the this sort of idea of just like the project is an important thing. We're creating this, and you have to suffer in order for that to this.

I feel like she gets away with it more when I went to film school that you just like taught us that. They're like, yeah, you're good, You're good. You're gonna stand for fourteen hours. That's just part of the thing. So they would like have us just like practice standing an hour still holding holding like a boom mic, just like, yeah, you're gonna do this, Like that's just part of the therison.

That's wild. That's like film school pe. Yeah, So like they're just training you to do it right, because yeah, because you're you're when you want to do that kind of stuff, you do that anyway. If you're passionate about it, then you have to get it in. Yeah, because that's that's that that's your dream. We're laughing, but that's horrible. Yeah, yeah, no, it's yeah, that's not funny. I think. I think it's internalized capitalism to this idea how hard you have to work.

I want to get back to Yatzi, but this whole conversation makes me think about the broader conversation culturally that we're having um and we'll be having more of, I think and hope in the near future, is of the four day work week and how actually when you provide enough time for people to live their lives and be healthy human beings, you get more work done, more efficiently and a better product. And you're seeing that around the world. And the battle is fighting against this narrative that we

have to work work, work, work work. We have to push it and like that is to be celebrated, that this is to the glorification of the overworking anyway, well, and so much of it is about squeezing as much labor as you can out of every worker without you know, giving them paid for that. Like, one thing I've really learned throughout just my time in the industry is that a lot of these jobs in these negotiations are treated

as totally replaceable. Um. You know, you're like, if you're a grip, uh and you want to take a day off, we'll find another grip. But the reality is that like I don't know how to be a grip like I do, any of you know how to be a grip? Like they're going to find someone off the street who's going to be a grip um Like I can't. I can barely lift myself out of my chair, um, let alone

sixty pound lights. But there's this idea that you're so replaceable and if you ask for anything above the bare minimum, they'll find somebody else to take your job because everybody wants to work in Hollywood. Reality is I know more people leaving the industry than coming here. Absolutely, absolutely because of the way we treat people and and to your point, these aren't just replaceable people. That's a skilled trade. It's a talent and it takes a lot of time and

effort in training to be good at it. You can't be a g without like two years of training. I really love to see a production where they just hire scab makeup, hair grips, dps the whole work and see how it goes truly, because at the end of the day too, if I ask he goes on strike, I think the studios would lose more money than they would if they just gave us everything we wanted, which is

like a couple of bucks an hour and bathroom breaks. Yeah, I mean yeah, So some of the other things that you guys are talking about, Yeah, living wages, that seems reasonable. I know that that's tricky for negotiating because you've got a whole bunch of different UM types of jobs here. UM. I would love to talk about new media as well. Yeah, that's been really interesting. New media obviously has been around for decades. Not really new, is it, but we still

call it new media. Yeah, it's become mostly an excuse to just underpay people for something that's paid just does like a scrappy little startup when you know most of these companies have more money than god. UM. Netflix is part of the basic agreement, but there's a lot of other new media places that aren't UM. And I think the argument that we've been hearing a lot is that UM new media is an experiments and we don't know

if it will pay off. But it makes my blood boil when I hear that sentence a little bit like sorry, go ahead, yea, But I mean it's like Beta max is an experiment and that lasted like fifteen years, So should we just exploit people the whole fifteen years that we have? Also, at what point does new media stopping an experiment? All we Cody and I, separate from this show, have an entire company based around a YouTube show that

you know, people watch on their televisions. One of the biggest production houses is like Netflix and Hulu, Amazon Prime. They're massive. It's They're not some scrappy little upstart. And as for other places that are making low budget internet content, I'm sure that that is another part of the negotiations. That's own separate thing. In fact, we have ultra low

budget agreements um for different types of projects. So there's absolutely no reason why you should be looking at new media and trying to fit it under a one stop deal, right, I don't know, it's just really honestly, the only thing that I the thing I've been thinking a lot about is how most of the new media places, they are hesitant to embrace these things, see themselves as like disruptors in the industry, and what that means is that they're

backed by like tech companies, they're backed by VC funding, and more often than not, they're totally not generating the profits that they thought they would, and they want to stay in this business, you know, continuing to squeeze as much content as they can to recoup their losses. We've seen so much. You know, Quimby, they were like too short for us to pay you union wages look like that.

That's basically what that was. There's a lot of that going on in new media, UM and I think that's going to be the biggest sticking point this time around, because if if the corporations lose that, that's that's really the easiest way for them to be exploiting us. There's so many places that have new media arms that are traditional places to like any of these companies are owned by just bigger companies too, and all of them will

be soon if they aren't. Yeah, they Yeah, they're finding loopholes to make things like that that are like, well, it's just a it's a TV show you're making and you're calling it new media. Yeah. All the while that this is happening, I feel like I'm just constantly inundated with headlines about how well the companies are doing, Like everybody's home because it's COVID. Everybody is getting an Utflix

subscription we have, we're getting record profits. And that's such a good point because what you're actually you're making all that money and you're they're producing things again, we're shooting things again, and every person that we've discussed today is showing up to set and they're putting themselves at at risk to make a TV show so you can watch it at home. And I have shot a couple of things during COVID and it's not fun. It is hard, like it is fifty times harder, and uh, it's hard

to test, it's hard to coordinate where people go. It's hard to be lifting things and moving around with masks. Everybody's stressed. Um, it's where do you sit to have your own space where it's incredibly complicated. And so while they're making all of this money, you're putting your workers at risk and keeping them in absurdly long hours and

not paying them enough. That's the thing, you know. I have a friends who works at a studio who mentioned to me, you that's something that they were talking about on a business Affairs called recently about this was that IATs he is using COVID as an excuse to make it seem like this is a problem when it's not. And it's because I'm on set right now. Like we wear masks every day, we test every other day. It's grueling. Um.

We haven't had a single COVID outbreak and it's really hard. Um. But at the same time, if you look at like the l A County list of office outbreaks, it's like all TV shows Young Pelton had like twenty nine COVID outbreaks last year. That's because kims are filled with germs. Completely, it's totally Yeah. I mean it's crazy. And the least we're asking for his protections during this time. Um. And even that, it's like, you know, but we need to

make TV uh. And I think one thing that's really unique about IoTs is that when the w g A went on strike, there was kind of a backlog of content that people could still shoot. You know, scripts that were written can be shot and edited and aired. Um. Now basically everybody involved in the process is gone. Um. If we go on strike, I truly think that the entire industry would grind to a halt. UM, I don't see how it wouldn't write. It's almost everybody you would

think that that's uh, incredible leverage right now. So it is disappointing. I will say that, you know, you're currently at a situation where they seem very far away from where you guys are. Yeah, I honestly have no idea. You know, they they're not legally allowed to talk to members about, um, what's happening in negotiations. UM. So it's really you're putting a lot of faith in your union leadership.

But it's nice for me at least. It's reassuring to know that there are like twelve different union leaders all there in that room. Um, because they're all standing together. I like to imagine that there's like one studio guy who's just really scared. I think there's more than one. UM. Yeah.

I mean the picture you're painting is pretty inspiring too, of of how everybody is coming together and you know the magnitude of what this would be as the first you know, industry right wide strike from my ATSI, UM, do you know have any timeline as to when they think that they might start coming to some decisions? You know, I don't know now that the contract has expired. It's anybody's guests. They can keep extending negotiations. Um. But obviously

a strike authorization is also a big deal. So and there's a bunch of unions involved, so it might take some time for that to even them. I don't think we're going to strike like tomorrow, but um, maybe by the time this airs will be on strike. Who knows. Yeah, Well, do you have anything else to add that we should know about this right now? Some other hot details, salacious tidbits, trying there's there's just not that much goss um. Uh m,

you don't have to. This has also been wonderful. Um. I'm personally looking forward to uh getting a scabby of the rat costume and standing fox for twelve hours a day. If this happens, I'll come help, I'll come. He have bathroom breaks, yeah, at least you'll have something breaks, um, Olga,

it was really nice chatting with you. We are going to be following this closely and maybe UM invite you back in the future as this develops, and if you felt comfortable and wanted to talk about it, um, and go ahead and plug yourself online if you want for our listeners. If they wanted to follow you for sure. Yeah, you can find me on Twitter at at Ronaldo run dot com. No at want to read you that. Um, yeah, you can find me on Twitter and at RONALDA. Runs.

Should you want any hot goss. I know by the way, you're just the negotiations and we're we're allowed to spit out all the goths. So we'll circle back just for that, just for that. Um, alright, cool, thank you, thank you, welcome at together everything, So don't don't can you olga again for joining us? Keep keep on keeping on, keep on holding back your labor hopefully. Actually, well are we

just running with that all right? Yeah? I mean, like speaking of labor stuff, actually, um, uh in Portland starting in like August ten was the uh was the Nibisco strike that is still ongoing and it's spread to other cities. Such a good point. That's that's still happening. Um. We definitely should have talked about that by now. Yeah. It's it's I'm not sure if you have on the schorlarity, but yeah, it's the it's the it's the first major

strike since nineteen sixty nine for UM, specifically Nibbisco. UM. It's spread to like four like five other major cities started here in Portland. Um, you know, we got so cool. The whole Danny, the whole Danny DeVito thing happened last month with Twitter unverifying him after he's tweeted at support. We've had you know, senators like Bernie Sanders, um, and you know a lot a lot of other people including

including Organs ones you know, support the strikers. Uh. Portland police have come out and you know, taken away strikers. Nibisco has hired like an armed security force to harass and they've actually sort of attacking people who are striking. Um. But this is a still ongoing thing, right, It's been going on for almost Yeah, it's been going on for over a month now, UM, and we'll see what happened, I think. Yeah, so very good to keep in mind.

I don't have it in front of me, but you guys should look this up, uh, and just check out all the different brands and companies owned Oreos a lot Oreo chips, Ahoy, Ritz crackers, UM, A lot of a lot of these snack foods are just like the just like the Freed de Las thing from you know earlier this year. A lot of these companies are the same company. Yeah, so do your due diligence. I'm really hungry and listing off all these foods Katie. Also, don't eat, don't eat Newton's,

don't eat wheat. Things, don't eat tiskets, don't eat rice. Things, don't eat bovida, don't eat time. You're making me, You're making me so hungry. I have to saltine crack they own. So it's a lot. Maybe this is maybe this is part of all the same problems, just like supply chains, of making all of these same things reliant on so many different parts because all the same company and the same problem. Anyways, walls come tumbling down, and walls come

tumbling and tumbling. I want Katie's energy today. It's infections. Anyways. You can follow us at Worst your Pod on Twitter and Instagram. You can follow at Cool Zone Media on Twitter and Instagram. You can follow Garrison Hungry bow Tie. You can follow Cody at doctor Mr Cody. You can follow Katie at Katie Stool. I'm so fay whoa Okay, all right, okay, just kidding at Why Underscore, Sophie Underscore Why, and Katie, you have a final song for us. Where's Katie?

What happened to Katie? You just put me on the spot. Um, you put yourself in the spot for myself. Good Day Sunshine, Good day Sunshine, Good day sunshine, Good day Sunshine. No, you don't do it like that. You just say the words okay, good day, okay, good day sunshine, good day Sunshine, and the show Everything Again. I Tread Yes. Worst Year

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