Unions take a different approach to film industry

Allen Park -- Jim Presnal, interim director of the Lifton Institute for Media Skills, told thousands of job-seekers recently gathered in suburban Detroit to hear about the upcoming Unity Studios project that they wouldn't be entering 9-to-5, 30-and-out careers.

And a couple dozen got up and made a bee-line for the door.

When he said they'd be working lots of overtime, but hours weren't guaranteed and future work depended on quality, not seniority, a few dozen more left.

While unions dominate the Los Angeles-based entertainment industry, they operate very differently than unions in Michigan.

Movie unions operate more as a traditional guild, where the employee groups take pride in vetting the best quality workers to maintain reputations for the group as a whole. They're strong on issues of workplace safety but flexible in things like seniority and work hours, which fluctuate often, given what projects are active at what times.

"We've had very good working relationships with the unions," said Jimmy Lifton, founder of Unity Studios, which expects to hire 3,000 unionized Michigan workers in the next couple of years with many of them laid off from other union jobs.

The one union in Hollywood that's familiar to Michiganians is the Teamsters, whose members operate trucks, forklifts and other equipment on sets. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which already has an established local representing workers on movie sets and in live theater productions, is likely to grow as more workers train to enter the industry.

Even with the different work, labor leaders have applauded the welcoming reception they've gotten from investors looking to boost Michigan's film sector

"(Lifton) understands the state's union history, and he understands Michigan," said Bill Black, executive director of Michigan's Teamsters. "We're willing to work hard together."