Late last week, we reported about a nasty Teen Mom Family Reunion fight. That was just the beginning.
Now, crew on the show — from camera operators to audio techs and more — are on strike, seeking union recognition.
Production isn’t acknowledging their employees’ collective bargaining power.
Now, crew is striking. Production is hoping that workers from the franchise’s past will cross the picket line.
That huge fight on the set of Teen Mom Family Reunion saw two cast members sent packing.
Briana DeJesus and Ashley Jones had to go. So did their respective mothers. Crisis averted?
You can usually make a show without a couple of cast members. You cannot make one without camera operators, audio technicians, and more.
The Ashley reports that the crew members who are (or were) filming the show are on strike.
The crew, currently located in Oregon, are not filming, recording or mixing audio, or otherwise helping the show to run.
As a result, everything is on hold. And production is worried that it might stay that way.
The strike is not merely rumored or indirectly reported.
IATSE (the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) confirmed it on Monday of this week.
Labor Day is a very fitting time for the announcement, right? It’s sort of the whole point.
There are different types of strikes. This is a “recognition” strike, which is largely self-explanatory.
Simply put, these hard-working crew members want their employer to acknowledge their union.
They are bargaining collectively, and want their employer to meet them at the negotiating table.
The company for Teen Mom Family Reunion is different than the one behind Teen Mom 2 or Teen Mom OG.
Apparently, this company also works on other major MTV reality shows, not just this one)
Just as in any strike, the main thing for people who aren’t personally striking to do is simple: don’t cross the picket line.
But what does that mean? This isn’t a situation where customers need to avoid buying a specific brand for a few weeks in solidarity.
Instead, right now, it just means that IATSE and good old basic human decency say that other professionals shouldn’t volunteer to fill in.
A “scab” is someone who crosses a picket line to take a job, weakening the collective bargaining power of a strike.
Yes, workers have nothing to lose but their chains — but some people cannot imagine life without it.
Production is hoping that crew members who have worked on the franchise in the past will throw fellow professionals under the bus and help them film.
“They are frantically looking for [crew members] who are willing to fly up to Oregon immediately,” an insider dished.
“So they can finish the filming and don’t have to shut down,” that same source explained.
“They’re basically begging people to come up there,” a second insider then characterized.
This source noted: “Between the fights, some COVID issues and now the crew strike, this filming has been plagued with issues. It’s kind of a disaster!”
Obviously, our best wishes go out to the crew members as they advocate for themselves and for fellow workers.
Selfishly, we would all like to see Teen Mom Family Reunion resume filming ASAP. We would like to see it soon.
But that decision rests with the striking crew members’ employer. The ball is in their court. They can recognize their unionized employees, or they can go without employees. Seems like an easy choice, right?
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