“HPI”, “Top Chef”, “Marie-Antoinette”… Around sixty film crews on strike for better salaries – Libération

2023-11-17 15:29:47

Several dozen filming and post-production sessions for TV shows and series were disrupted this Friday, November 17, during the third day of strike by audiovisual technicians, who are protesting against salaries that have not increased in ten years.

Third day of strike, this Friday, November 17, for around sixty film crews from series, TV films and TV shows who are mobilizing in favor of an increase in the salaries of audiovisual technicians. On Wednesday, dozens of technicians, responsible for lights, cameras, management and even makeup, gathered in front of the headquarters of the Audiovisual Production Union (Uspa) behind banners proclaiming, for example, “audiovisual +20% , otherwise nothing on your screens. Because “since 2007, due to the non-revaluation of minimum wages, employees have lost 20% of purchasing power in this sector”, according to them. “They have seen their working conditions deteriorate, working hours have exploded with the arrival of digital platforms, and they remain faced with equal job insecurity,” according to a union press release (Spiac-CGT and SNTPCT, joined by CFTC Media +).

The filming of the series HPI, broadcast on TF1, and Ça, c’est Paris for France Télévisions have been particularly affected by these strikes and walkouts since Wednesday, according to the Spiac-CGT union. Also affected are the shows Top Chef and La France A Un

During a general assembly of technicians Thursday evening in Paris and by video, it was decided to renew the strike this Friday and to call for a new day of action next week. The producers’ representatives offer “nothing”, except “a meeting on December 5” so “no other choice, we continue”, according to the Spiac-CGT. On the employer side, Uspa and the Union of Independent Producers assure that on December 5 they will make “a proposal to increase minimum wages”, after already two boosts at the start of 2023. In a press release, they also emphasize that “the economic response to the demands of employees cannot be achieved without efforts shared by all parties contributing to the financing of the works”, thereby calling on broadcasters, both public and private, to make an effort.

“Not yet as publicized as the crisis of screenwriters and actors in the United States, the anger expressed among audiovisual production professionals reflects identical forms of dismay,” estimate the unions of audiovisual technicians. “What until recently remained “jobs of passion” are today transformed into an increasingly restrictive and grueling professional exercise, with constantly decreasing salaries in a context of galloping inflation, and a consideration often missing,” they add. Last week, the same technicians mobilized to protest against the overhaul of unemployment insurance for intermittent workers in the entertainment industry, a subject which remains on the table.