BRAVO!
It appears that The Performers Union is fully prepared to initiate legal action on behalf of performers, this is the first time that this has ever happened, BRAVO! At this point I think it would be very wise for everyone in this business to come together and start working together, for the betterment of the industry as a whole. performers are the backbone of this industry and I hope that this is a sign that the days of performers having no rights are about to be over.
Attention The Adult Industry
Effective Immediately!
The purpose of this Union is: To protect the workers rights to a safe more professional work environment. We do this by strengthening and safe guarding each of our members, by every lawful means so that we can carry out this Union’s purpose and obligations without limitations.
If you are on set and you request to use a condom and are sent home, contact us immediately! The production company will be placed with a hefty fine, by not providing you with the option of safe working conditions. And we will try to get you compensated for the income you have missed that day.
If you have an agent that pushes you to work in unsafe working conditions, or physically abuses you, or threatens you in any way, you need to contact us immediately! We will not tolerate, under any circumstances, any threats to a performer.
A one-time warning will be sent to that agent, the next time the state agency license will be placed on a probation period, in which the third time the agency state license will be revoked.
We will keep your identity private, and will keep you safe.
The same goes to anyone else that is on set, if you feel you are being forced to work in a unsafe working environment contact us directly!
I am also sending it out industry wide. We no longer care how politically correct we may or may not sound. Our SOLE objective is to protect the performers and all workers in the adult industry and that is our main focus and goal.
I.E.A.U. International Entertainment Adult Union
28 Responses
Finally… been saying for years that this is needed.
Lol @ the Gmail.com email address
@billy gmail is a very secure email address. you want them to have their own email domain? would just be open to attack.
CONGRATS UNION! keep kicking ass and doing good work if you work together you can make a difference. fight today not just for yourselves, but for the future and those who come after you.
If the union doesn’t get greedy on its demands it has the potential to do a lot of good for performers and crew members. The union officials need to remember that most unions started building on the worst of their members problems with their industry/employers and built on that later. I wish them well.
I did take a look at their website. It is a work in progress but there is potential there. Also, I apologize for my payment in sex joke a few weeks ago. I am so used to adult industry attempts such as this one being poorly thought out and laughable at best and my first reaction was that this would be the same. When something makes for good raunchy humor I like to wallow in it a bit. In this case I should have held back. I thought it was obvious that I was joking but from a comment on the union’s site I see it evidently wasn’t. Good luck and I hope your first order of business is to get the less ethical agents in line like you claim you can do on your website.
I’ve used nothing but domain based email addresses for the last 17 years. Any competent web host will provide secure email service, as well as provide tools for filtering spam. Using a gmail account just looks unprofessional.
well ok than. gmail looks unprofessional in porn. got it. (eye roll)
“A one-time warning will be sent to that agent, the next time the state agency license will be placed on a probation period, in which the third time the agency state license will be revoked.”
This …..shows whoever wrote this has no clue how state licensing boards operate. It assumes all states have a complaint process that assumes guilt at the outset when the opposite is true. Anytime a complaint is made against a license the holder has the right to a hearing with due process and the disciplinary processes rarely result in revocation. Even with numerous previous complaints the license holder gets to exclude those from the current complaint process as unrelated or prejudicial.
What’s the plan for states that only require Talent agents to register as a business entity with the Secretary of State? Making blanket promises like this doesn’t bode well for a Union that hasn’t held its first meeting yet.
Don’t give that “but it’s porn” BS. Being porn makes no difference. I run a network of sites where webmasters submit galleries that promote various porn sites. Think tube sites, but galleries of 10-20 sample images. It has been standard practice for sites like mine, for longer than I’ve been in the biz, not to accept submitted galleries from those using non domain based email.
Looks like I’m going to have to spell it out for ya. These people behind The Performer’s Union have done a lot of hard work. To criticize their work for using gmail, after everything else they’ve done….THAT’S WHAT YOU SEE? Cripes go donate your expertise to them, but what’s the use of cutting them down for one small thing like that.
No, I don’t need anything spelled out. I’ve been at this more than a couple of days. I applaud their efforts to date. Why undermine that with a less than professional email addy. If you want to be taken seriously, then you have to look like a serious organization. The gmail addy does not project that image. They have a web site, I’m sure it has email services that come with it. It makes no business sense to not utilize it.
Ive know Toby for many years he is somewhat legendary in certain circles, I also know that he isnt maligning the adult union in any way, matter of fact id bet he is more supportive than most. That said he does have a point and a valid ones, when I wrote about red flags for new performers one of the things I mentioned was lack of a domain based email addy….for instance, nobody at Vivid is going to contact you via a gmail email address.. an email address at your domain is a first level of insuring you are whom you say you arwe and as Toby noted it has been standard practice in the TGP world for ages….if you submit you have to submit from an email address associated with the site you are promoting, this kept people from stealing my galleries and submitting them as their own for example. If tube worked the same way we wouldnt have the problems with them that we do today…thats why well run TGPs didnt get the heat for being bastions of piracy that tubes do today. Back then porners kinda looked out for each other.. As an advisor to the adult union the email address is one of the things I immediately addressed but it means that the user has to learn a new email client, where they already know gmail…so I get both sides but as toby noted its a small thing and easily taken care of and in the long run it shouldnt ditract from the good work I believe they are trying to do.
Sometimes the criticism that cuts deepest is the most constructive despite feeling malignant in the moment.
The goals and objectives the union is promoting are admirable. I hope threats like this will be placed in an oops folder with the easily fixed gmail. I’ve read through their site including the outside references and 74 page document they took the time to create for submission to DOL to jump through the regulatory red tape of forming a union. They’ve taken on a monumental task and deserve every encouragement. In the most supportive circles criticisms will hit hardest because they can’t chalk them up to avesarial ridicule or malice. You don’t know till you know.
I think they will do much to unite workers and attract existing stakeholders by focusing on creating a worker safety training program that makes ‘model’ performer bills of rights a baseline standard every performer insists on and does their part to make it so.
Requiring members to participate in three worker safety training events instead of charity events will put employers on notice that these workers are trained and able to work to higher standards than taking a chance on untrained non-union members.
Working with existing agents instead of threatening them out of the gate opens doors to talent vs closing them. Agents filling new talent’s housing, banking, and transportation needs with no fear of calling a performer to demand they return to a shoot they walked away from for their personal safety aren’t going to support or suggest their clients join a union threatening them. They might support a union that trains talent to recognize and avoid STD, the importance of doing all they can to ensure production runs smoothly etc.
Look my point is the industry has so many problems, that gmail really should be the least of their concerns. I get the points that have been made, but again, instead of being condescending towards the people who made the website (Actually Mike did you say ONE person did it all by themselves?) what is the point of lambasting all that hard work for something like that. James Deen is roaming around gloating, Charlie Sheen and HIV, Diane and whatmacallit.
Why not support each other? If there are gaps in expertise, then make connections to help fix those gaps. First of all, it takes guts to even try any of this. Mike, I come to your blog excited about the changes that (some) people want in the industry. When I see someone like @toby, qualified as it is, talk down like that, it just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe he didn’t mean to come off like that, but you know what everybody on the internet is just a random person typing on the screen. We’re all equal here. I’m just sick and tired of people not valuing their own industry, and when people come in, as they have, being dicks. I don’t like that. ETA: Not really just talking about Toby here. Commenters you know who are.
It’s all about perceptions and first impressions. This organization is going to have a great deal of contact with people and organizations outside of porn. First contact will quite often be by email, so get that domain based email issue fixed now rather than let it influence perception.
@Ivy
Seriously WTF? Besides your outrage I’m not seeing any lambasting or belittling personal attacks.
Whether this organization is one person or 100 the criticisms offered ought to be welcome as genuine feedback they are free to consider or dismiss as irrelevant to achieving their stated mission.
Very few people would consider them using a gmail account to be some outrage. Maybe it is bad for you; most people wouldn’t think twice about it.
Put away the pitchforks and torches.
No pitchforks or torches. I’m not saying it’s a total outrage, it’s just not the most professional appearance. Any Schmuck can register almost any gmail addy, so long as someone else hasn’t reg’d it already. They don’t have to provide any proof they’re from company xyz in order to register [email protected].
I’m also not talking “most people.” I’m talking other business people, gov’t agencies, etc. It matters not what John Q. Porn consumer thinks, they’re not going to be emailing the general public as a whole.
I’d have left it at Billy’s one post if he hadn’t been taken to task for it. Y’all want porn to be treated like any other business, yet you don’t want to do all the things that other businesses do. This may be relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but you won’t find anyone at Teamsters using a gmail addy to conduct union business. Why should IEAU be any different?
I knew this was fishy from the start. If a “Union” cannot declare their legal government backing, or even proudly declare their legal representation, something is wrong. The first part of starting any business or entity is developing trust with the people you want to do business with.
This lady (Phyllisha Anne, Amanda Gullesserian) fails to do so. From her typing, I can also see that she is very uneducated and lacking the most basic language and grammar skills.
Even a major union would have to jump through TONS of legal hoops to fine another entity.
I would advise all to stay FAR away from this sham of a union attempt. It is ill conceived, under funded, has no legal backing, no clear cut plan for success, and being led/promoted by a person that has no history of project successes.
And I like unions as a whole…
I will let my readers take this one…..It’s obvious to me where this is coming from and as for facts, you don’t have any you are parroting a WAY lesser site. It is better conceived than The FSC to be sure, it seems pretty well funded to me, it has the legal backing of any union approved by the Federal government as a union and the plan for success depends on performers not being lazy and not shrugging it off as “it’ll never work” as you would have them do.
@chrisl
Do you have a regular habit of summarizing other people’s work and presenting it as your own opinion? Or is this some sort of special grudge?
Please provide substantiation to back your claims along with qualifications to convince me your advise is worth as much as the Charmin promptly flushed down the commode after an ass wiping,
***Sham?? have you been bilked by this organization?
***Ill conceived? As in poorly designed or malignant intent?
***Underfunded? Do tell what does it take to get a union started and where did IEAU disclose any sort of proposed budgets?
****No legal backing? The organization as an entity or the agent license threat?
****No clear cut plan for success? How many unions or worker programs have you successfully created?
****Led/promoted by a person with no history of project success??
Are you going to bash FSC for hiring Eric Paul Leue too? ICYMI his qualification claims are a failed attempt to remove Weinstein as head of AHF.
@MikeSouth
Lol got interrupted between starting my comment & hitting post button so didn’t see this. Feels a bit like showing up to the party wearing the same dress 🙂
PS I tried to be nice, didn’t mention OLMS or other stuff cuz well wanted to avoid stooping to the short bus window licker place this guy came from.
I don’t remember you posting here and now you show up trying to knock down the union. Hidden Agenda?
@BT
Stakeholders were still laughing and dismissing WGA until 1981 when they pulled off the three month strike. Off the top of my head I can name at least 20 powerful lobbying groups that were ridiculed as irrelevant till they weren’t.
The failed freelance writers groups a good one for IEAU to look into the history of for all the reasons you mentioned. Both industries are faced with the same dynamic….stakeholders want new fresh talent before they reach their goal of establishing themselves as a sustainable brand. Very different than the worldview of investing in proven track records.
I think the largest (established stable) producers would be willing to sign on before the independents & fly by night if the union is attracting a large base of new talent. That’s why I think it was a serious oops to threaten agents out of the gate.
The recent Model bill of rights changes by several company’s shows that OSHA and other regulatory efforts are having an effect. They aren’t offering pro-rated performance pay cuz they’re being nice…they want to avoid some seriously ugly wage law changes. They won’t care about a union unless the union is acting as an effective liaison and puts up when either side asks WIIFM (what’s in it for me)
The freelance writers group wanted a % of your income to support writers outside your geographic location…that won’t work in porn either. Even if they didn’t find you work but the benefits they offered offset the fees they asked you probably would have joined. AAA and AARP are powerful examples of voluntary membership ….the discounts offset the annual AAA
membership even if I never need a tow truck.
IEAU mentions a credit union with the focus on loans. Nice to have a friendly lender but they won’t stay friendly if the borrowers can’t pay it back. I’d focus on personal checking/savings and merchant processing and leave the SBA lending type stuff to those already doing it instead of opening the door to another adversarial competition.
Whatever happens every service or task the union aspires to offer is rooted in adversarial competition. This is true even with its most ardent supporters who will have to push other things aside to make room for the union.
@karmafan….hey that showed up under my post and we’re on the same side of this one for the most part 🙂
[email protected]
Two thumbs up. 🙂
“Sharing Resources and Ideas”
We apologize if we made our comment seem as a t threat, that is not and was not our intentions. However, the statement was made as a statement of fact. We have been formed as a Union to protect the workers safety with every lawful means to do so. We respect talent agents, as much as we do the talent and we understand in every possible way, that talent are not always the easiest to deal with. Talent Agencies are just as much needed in the adult movie world as they are the main stream movie industry but the abuse of any talent for any reason will no longer be tolerated under any circumstances.
Also, We agree 100% we have places, in which this new found Union, has gaps in which it needs to fill for it to run properly. We appreciate with all our heart those who are backing our efforts in the change this industry so desperately needs, and are asking you to please join with us, this Saturday in Encino, CA or if your not in the los angels area we can provide you with the number to conference call in. This meeting is to share resources and ideas to help fill those gaps, and we need every ones help in doing so. So join with us! “Together WE are stronger!”
@EAU
Thank you for clarifying your intents. Creating an industry atmosphere where abuse isn’t tolerated is a tall order. It won’t be easy respectfully asserting union goals in the face of stakeholders aggressively defending their current business practices.
In some respects the union is in the same boat as many industry stakeholders trying to identify their needs, gaps, how to fill them, and juggling existing demands while doing their best to slap patches on the biggest leaks to keep their boat afloat. Passionate idealistic folks have the additional challenge of validating ‘Beats a blank’ efforts for the the laudable feats they are by smaller or less established orgs….especially when the same effort would be cause for a minimum standards deviation reprimand elsewhere.
The process of filling gaps with people & resources to meet regulatory demands while establishing organizational standards may temper/balance today’s demands with achieving tomorrow’s goals for everyone concerned. Good luck and best wishes for a successful inaugural meeting on Saturday.