MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: JULIA NEVILLE
Julia Neville, an IATSE 891 member for over 35 years, helped lay the groundwork for a thriving BC film industry. She’s being celebrated as a leader who helped advance the collective power of workers across Western Canada. As she retires from her role as an IATSE International Representative for almost two decades, we shine a light on her legacy of positive change that is inspiring the next generation of film workers, organizers and labour activists.
Julia Neville is not used to being in the spotlight — on purpose.
For the last two decades, she's been assisting in organizing efforts across Western Canada as an IATSE International Representative. She’s used to keeping a low profile while bringing people together to slowly but steadily make big things happen.
When she announced her retirement this year at the IATSE General Executive Board Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, she got a standing ovation for a career of persistent progress on workers’ rights. Usually more comfortable behind-the-scenes than the centre of attention, she accepted the praise humbly, but there is no doubt that she’s someone worth celebrating, having built a legacy sure to ripple positive change for workers far into the future.
Organizing to bring more workers into IATSE 891 has taken on a new level of support in recent years. There’s a culture shift happening, Julia says, but it didn’t happen overnight.
“Sometimes people get stuck in thinking of the pie of our work as being a finite pie, and if we organize and these people come in because they were organized on a show somehow that takes a piece of the pie, without understanding that it's an ever-expanding pie,” she says.
Julia recognizes members may sometimes question the benefits of bringing more new workers into a highly skilled and at times competitive workforce, but she strongly believes expanding union membership can benefit everyone.
“Production work in BC is work that we didn't have before, that we now have. I think people sometimes can feel threatened when they don't understand that.”
“There's a lot of non-union production in British Columbia that’s been going on for a very long time and those workers deserve representation. They deserve health benefits. They deserve the protections of a collective agreement, just like everyone does. It's all about expanding the pie.”
Julia has not only helped expand membership of existing unions, but assisted workers in starting their own new locals. With her extensive knowledge and experience of the bargaining process, she’s helped secure dozens of collective contracts in theatre, film, and the entertainment industry across Western Canada.
Her work and perseverance as an IATSE International Rep. has had a tangible impact on the lives of countless entertainment workers in Canada, while inspiring the next generation of film workers, organizers and labour activists.
HOW IT STARTED
Julia began working in film when she was 23 years old. One of her first jobs involved working as a production assistant on Rocky IV.
“Sylvester Stallone was the writer, the director, and the star,” she recalls. “He was dating the lead actress, Brigitte Nielsen, and every night in his hotel room he would write her part bigger, and then I would have to go run the gauntlet of his bodyguards, get these handwritten revisions, and take them back to the office and type them on a typewriter.”
It was her quick introduction to being one of the many workers behind-the-scenes, rolling with the punches and pivoting under pressure to make motion picture magic. The actors, she says, would get the new scripts in the morning and would learn their new lines on the spot.
Julia went on to spend 15 years as a Production Coordinator before moving up to the position of Production Manager.
Working in the Production Office, handling administrative tasks for an intricate yet massive flow of work, gave her a bird’s eye view of how hundreds of people come together to make a film or show. It left her in awe.
“You've got this incredibly diverse set of crafts that all do completely different things, that all mesh together, and it's amazing. It's incredibly collaborative.”
“Professional technicians, they have learned how to interact with others and move around each other to make it all happen. I've never seen anything anywhere else that's like that to that extent. You're talking about hundreds of people on a show, right? That's my favorite part - the collaborative nature of it.”
Her interest in seeing the big picture, how things connect, and problem-solving, laid the foundation for a strong set of leadership skills that she’d later harness effectively at the bargaining table and beyond.
LEGACY OF EXPANDING WORKER POWER
With two young children to care for while working in film, Julia first joined the Union to access health and dental benefits, but being a union member soon became something more. Her intelligence and work ethic did not go unnoticed at the Union, and peers and leaders quickly saw the benefit of recruiting her to get more involved.
Don Ramsden, the IATSE 891 President at that time, encouraged her to join committees. She became fascinated with how people could come together to problem-solve and improve things.
During her 36 years as an IATSE 891 member, she stepped into numerous leadership roles at the Union. She served on the Good and Welfare Committee, became the chair of the Production Office Department, and ran for a seat on 891’s Executive Board, getting elected as the Union’s Corresponding Secretary.
It's no overstatement to say that in the early days of BC’s film industry, Julia was one of the pivotal people who helped secure fair and stable working conditions that allowed the industry and its workers to thrive.
Julia was a member of 891’s bargaining committee that helped usher in the first ever term agreement in BC between three film unions (that now make up the BC Council of Film Unions) and production companies and studios (represented by the AMPTP and the CMPA).
“I’m very proud of that agreement,” she says of the BCCFU Master Agreement.
First negotiated in 1996 and now renegotiated every three years, the Master Agreement was a historic achievement for workers in the industry. It established a more stable, equitable, and safer motion picture industry in BC.
“A really integral piece to what the Union provides its members is this contract that imposes terms and conditions and protections in the workplace for everyone,” says Julia.
The bargaining process, she says, is an important way to learn about what your colleagues are going through in other departments and to understand the workplace as a whole.
“Bargaining of the collective agreement is the most important thing that we do. That’s what really affects every single member that goes to work.”
Her contributions to BC’s film community didn’t stop there. Julia also helped expand health benefits for 891 members as an elected Health and Welfare Trustee.
“I felt like my work at the Health Plan made a difference for people,” says Julia, touting the Union’s 60+ Health Plan, a co-pay retirement plan based on cumulative hours under contract with 891.
“I learned a lot,” she says. “My experience with the 891 Health Trust ended up informing future work. I went on to help set up a national collection of health plans with the International that bargains collectively. All of the locals that are participating in it get a better deal because they're doing so collectively.”
BEING PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER
One of the things that Julia values most about being part of a unionized community is a sense of belonging and sharing solutions.
Being part of IATSE 891 gives members a direct connection to workers in other film and theatre unions all across North America, through an alliance under the umbrella of IATSE International.
“When I became an officer at 891 and we started engaging with the International and going to meetings where other locals were participating, you see a much bigger picture.”
“The locals have autonomy that they learn from each other and the ability for a local officer to pick up the phone and talk to their counterpart in another part of the continent or country about an issue they're having, and to be able to help each other, it's a great resource. It makes all of the locals stronger.”
Julia says coming together allows workers from across the country and the continent to understand how similar their challenges can be. People build the understanding that we’re all in this together.
“One of the most gratifying parts of my career was really feeling like I’m part of a much bigger thing, that was not only bogged down in whatever issues were coming up in my department or in my local, but being able to be a part of initiatives that were even broader than that, across the country, or even across the continent.”
“As a member, that was the biggest benefit that I got out of being involved with the Union - that sense of not being alone.”
Julia Neville (right) with her childhood friend Allison Easter (left) at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. on January 21, 2017.
As an IATSE International Representative since 2007, Julia describes her role over the past couple decades as being a support resource for grassroots organizers with her encyclopedic knowledge of the bargaining process.
Her main focus has been helping smaller locals and newer unions get started – helping animation workers in Vancouver unionize, arts and cultural workers form theArts and Cultural Workers’ Union, and supporting workers in visual effects and equipment houses. She’s been a conduit for workers from different industries to learn from and help each other create fairer workplaces.
“In the last 20 years, more and more workers see the benefit of having a unionized workplace. When I started in film, that was not something that I ever heard even talked about. It just wasn't part of our culture at that time, but over the years, it has become, and I think a lot of it has to do with the messaging that we're not in a vacuum. The entire labor community has become more galvanized about organizing.”
“Once you start to have success, it breeds more success. So we now have workers in facilities all over the continent that are really interested in organizing and being represented by a union and their workplace.”
“I think that's part of the broader community and the awareness that workers are having about their ability to have a say.”
With her retirement as an International Rep., she’s looking forward to some down time and travelling ahead, but says she’ll always answer the call from her community and encourages other members to seek ways to get more involved.
“I will always be there for 891 and for the International. We have another 891 member, Nancy Hum-Balbosa out of the Set Dec. department, who's replacing me as the International Rep. based in Vancouver. I have told her and others that I will always answer the phone. I will always be available to help.”
Read more 891 Member Spotlights at Ourwork.ca/blogroll. Help shine a light on other 891 members making BC’s motion picture community a great place to work. Email spotlight suggestions to communications@iatse.com and visit Ourwork.ca for more on the benefits of joining the Union. Questions about organizing in Western Canada? Contact incoming IATSE International Representative Nancy Hum-Balbosa at nhumbalbosa@iatse.net. Questions about organizing in BC? Contact 891 Lead Organizer Sano at sano@iatse.com.
