Background Image
Table of Contents Table of Contents
Previous Page  446 / 658 Next Page
Basic version Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 446 / 658 Next Page
Page Background

444

Saturday, November 12

0 9 : 0 0 – 1 0 : 3 0

PP 565

Entry Level Workers' Disconnection from the Collective Memory of TV and Film Professionals in the UK: Insight from Survey Data into

Experiences, Attitudes and Resistance to Unpaid Work

N. Percival

1

1

Northumbria University, Faculty of Arts- Design and Social Sciences, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

The media industry was formerly one of the most heavily unionised sectors in the UK.With the shift from broadcaster-producers to independent production,

the end of national collective bargaining in 1988, and the rapid growth of casualised freelance working, those entering or attempting to enter the film and

TV industries now face an entirely different journey to many of their predecessors, although principles of collectivism still underpin the attitudes of more

experienced workers.This paper draws on the conference theme by examining the disconnection of entry level workers in these creative sectors from the in‑

dustry’s shared collective memory, and the discontinuity in attitudes towards employment conditions, unpaid work, and career development which this has

brought about. The paper revisits findings from a 2011 survey carried out by the writer of 1100 workers in the UK film and TV sectors, which set out to mea‑

sure ethical attitudes to unpaid work, and to explore correlations to factors such as production budget and age. While confirming that workers in the film

industry are more prepared to accept unpaid labour than television workers, the survey also revealed that those with more experience in either sector view

unpaid labour considerably less favourably than newcomers. The paper reflects on possible reasons for this; there are signs, especially among the survey

comments of older workers, of a greater awareness of principles of collectivism, perhaps motivated by their own anxieties about being undercut by unpaid

entrants, but also reflecting legacies of older histories of craft solidarity and altruistic desires for fairness within the sector. While generalised results from

the survey have been published elsewhere, this paper also explores findings from a section of the survey that has not yet been disseminated: six questions

designed to explore the existence of factors identified by mobilisation theory, as being necessary pre-requisites to, and drivers of, collective action. These

questions asked respondents whether they thought unpaid work was a source of injustice, whether they felt their views were widely shared, whether those

to blame could be identified, and whether they felt collective action could bring about change; it also asked whether they felt unionised or non-unionised

action was more effective. Perhaps surprisingly, apart from the latter question, survey findings indicate a high overall presence of such mobilising factors,

with very low variations in response regardless of age or production budget - suggesting that even a largely non-unionised body of young workers still ap‑

preciates the value and efficacy of collective action, however organised. The paper concludes by discussing one notably successful campaign against unpaid

labour which was conducted in the UK television industry ten years ago. It explores how the organisers of this non-unionised campaign have since embraced

social media as a tool for collective activism, and how their current activity has continuing impact on attitudes and practice in the sector in 2016 – demon‑

strating some of the mobilising factors identified by the survey, but using both unionised and non-unionised mechanisms tailored to a digital generation.