Letter to the Editor of the Victoria Times Colonist, 17 February 1999
Sure, it’s easier to duck your head and dart past the lone projectionist standing on the cold sidewalk. With the bright lights, hot buttered popcorn, and a mob of people lining up to buy tickets, it seems like it’s business as usual at the theatres.
Only it is not. Capitol Six, The Odeon, and University Heights are scab theatres. They have replaced their entire non-managerial workforce in an attempt to impose 60% wage cuts on their projectionists. They would be shut down by law in Europe.
I wish I could go to the movies at the locked-out theatres. But I won’t. I do not cross picket lines.
It comes down to the basic question: Which side are you on?
Do you support six Victoria workers fighting for a living wage (an average of $40,000) after as much as 28-years working with the same company, or do you support the corporations, Sony and Viacom, that are implementing 60% wage cuts after raking in $13.2-billion and $1.7-billion in profits last year?
I guarantee you that admission prices will not drop by 60% as a result of this wage cut.
By crossing the picket line you are siding with the company and endorsing their actions. Bosses learn from each other, and if the projectionists lose, we all lose. Do you really want to live in a society of minimum wage ‘McJobs’? – because that is where the logic of the “they make too much” argument gets us.
“I just want to see a movie,” you say. Well six of your fellow Victorians ‘just’ want to save their jobs and go back to work. Help them out by respecting their picket line. They would certainly respect yours.
