Work for IATSE crew union members has declined precipitously.
During the pandemic, there was so much demand for content that the studios spent a lot of money teaching foreign crews how to produce films. They sent a lot of staff to Eastern Europe and Asia to train local crews. Serbia, etc., where the crews are making well below union wages and can work long hours without regulation.
Since 2023, 60% or so of productions have vacated LA, Atlanta, and New York in favor of being shot overseas. They just fly the cast out. It's significantly cheaper than filming at home.
IATSE membership is being decimated. Lots of folks have moved out of California because the jobs just aren't there anymore.
I'm much more anti-union than the average joe, but Hollywood is one example where it kind of makes sense, disregarding the international competition angle for a sec: it is a highly specialised kind of work, sometimes dangerous, with a very limited number of employers that are operating in a cartel-like environment that is known to be financially (and sometimes also sexually and ethnically) ruthless and opportunistic. The negotiating power is very uneven.
Considering that even in a big and highly competitive environment such as Silicon Valley they managed to establish illegal hiring cartels between the big companies (Apple etc), I'd be sceptical to dish out free market arguments.
Hollywood is not loosing relevance due to inflated wages, they stopped making movies people want to see. The reason for that is quite obvious, but a totally different discussion.
I’m sorry, but this is a ridiculous take and you clearly have no actual insight into film crews (American or otherwise).
The standard work week for a union film crew in Los Angeles is 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. Often those days can stretch into 14-16 hour days. Crews regularly find themselves having to work a 6 or 7 day week and even holidays while on a project.
Without a union, crews would likely be working close to minimum wage for highly skilled and often physical and dangerous high pressure work. These jobs have almost no work life balance. The power imbalance between studios and their employees is massive, especially in regard to below the line crew.
The film crew’s union (IATSE) in one of its most recent contract negotiations, had to seriously fight to get workers a ten hour turn around- meaning that productions are now obligated to give film crews 10 hours off before having to be at work the next day. Studios and filming locations are often a 40min-1hr drive each way with LA traffic, so crews sometimes only get about 8 hours at home before they need to be at work the next day. That’s 8 hours to let the dog out, eat, shower and sleep before having to go to work the next day. And that’s only just a recent union win.
The union frequently has to fight the studios from clawing back healthcare and the members regularly accept very modest pay raises (3%) even during the last almost decade of high inflation. Only in the last contract was the crew able to get any sort of raise the reflected the rate of inflation but barely made up for decades of stagnant raises negotiated in the past.
To top that off, crews rarely actually get to see that full rate that is negotiated because studios have negotiated to exclude certain productions from the base rate. Instead, those exclusions get a discounted rate for below the line crew which many productions fall under (called roll back rates, which covers several tiers of movies, season 1 & 2, and it resets if the crew is replaced, streaming pays less into healthcare, etc, etc.)
Film crews in general (american and international) tend to be very hard workers. International crews don’t work any harder than American crews (I’m sure they work just as hard though), however their cost of living is much lower and the studios don’t have to pay healthcare because most countries that studios are filming in have low healthcare costs or some form of socialized healthcare. These countries that studios are bringing production to tend to have cheaper locations and often have huge tax incentives to draw in productions which overall has had a pretty big effect on the American film industry.
Crews make a very middle class salary in America but have to live in HCOL cities where the studios and filming hubs are. Many crew members really end up making a poor or lower middle class living because it’s an incredibly competitive industry and not always very stable work since crews are constantly needing to find the next job after their project has wrapped.
There are many reasons that productions are moving over seas. The union or the workers aren’t the problem here.
Another veteran movie insider's take on this issue:
"I say Los Angeles WAS the best, because I don't think it's true any more. For many decades, film tax incentives have sucked production from Hollywood (and New York). Also, due to technological advancements, it's a lot easier to shoot away from a production center." [0]
Some hard numbers:
"Lockdowns, strikes, and exploding production costs have pushed many productions overseas, especially for streaming services with global ambitions. Hollywood production volumes have declined steeply since the second quarter of 2023. Stateside production is down 40% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to peak television levels of filming during the same period in 2022." [1]
