UPDATE: We’re gettin’ paid! See above post for more information.
I had resisted, until now, writing about the MTV Street Team ‘08 debacle on this blog (Covered here on Gawker, here on the Huffington Post, and here on Erica America.) Why? To be honest, I was scared–and, perhaps, something of a coward. But I realized that successful action requires as many workers as possible to name themselves and echo the protests of others.
I did comment on a few of the media posts.
One Gawker commenter wrote: “Why did anyone keep working on this after the first late check? That’s the difference between being an amateur and a pro. I’d hate to be a co-worker at her day job.”
I responded: “I was the New York member of the team, and I think I can respond to your question, at least personally. I kept working after the first late check because I loved doing the work. It was interesting and fun and exciting, and I was lucky in that I had a day job and another freelance gig bringing money in. And many of the folks we worked with were very cool, interesting people.
I also knew that many folks at MTV News were working their asses off to try and get us paid. And I knew they weren’t the ones holding the purse strings, and I respected and appreciated their efforts. It really was out of their control.
Having lived here, and seen the protests that happened in December ‘07, I can’t say that I was surprised by this situation. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t frustrate and disappoint me, too.”
I can also understand the disappointment expressed by some of the aforementioned folks we worked with, who I suppose feel that our going public with this issue somehow sells them out. It doesn’t. It’s not about them. They made it clear to us that they had no control over when we were paid, and that they tried very hard to advocate for us, and I believe them. I also know that they fielded many of our angry/confused phone calls and emails during the two and a half month period during the summer when we were not paid. They even gave us a week off to try and make up for it. They were good to us.
And our supervising producer in particular was a wonderful steward of this project, keeping our enthusiasm up, being unfailingly optimistic, and working incredibly hard. I have nothing but good things to say about her, and would vouch for her good heart, common sense, and creativity as a manager and as an artist in her own right.
And sure, a few folks we worked with are pissed at us for speaking up (oh, the Facebook defriendings! Oh, the pissy status updates! Oh, the adorable vague threats of “blacklisting” and “no recommendations!” It’s actually pretty funny.) Ironic, since these same folks took to the streets last December to protest for better treatment of workers. They sure were riled up and passionate about their benefits and their wages and their rights as workers. But I guess a glamorous year of dental benefits can make a person forget what it was like to work for peanuts and be told “the check is in the mail.”
But these individuals are few and far between, and the majority of the people with whom we worked understand that none of our protest actions are targeted at them.
It’s not about them. It really, really isn’t. I don’t know how to make this any clearer, but it’s a very important point.
It’s about their boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss (or something like that). During the Enron scandal, did the whistleblowers blame fellow low-level staff? No. They blamed the big guys at the top. It’s always the big guys at the top. But they’re so high up in their (literal and figurative) towers that they refer to themselves as “the Network.” So you don’t get an explanation from the guys who decided to freeze payments to Viacom vendors. You get an explanation from his underling’s underling’s underling’s underling’s underling, who is charged with the unhappy task of telling 51 people that they won’t be receiving the $800 they are owed anytime soon. And that sucks.
We were charged with the job of reporting the stories that go unreported, the tales of the little guy who is usually ignored and left in the shadow of the big guy. We were given the tools to do so: training, gear, pay. That $700,000 grant from the Knight Foundation scored us beautiful laptops with editing software, easy-to-use handheld cameras, a digital camera, a 3-day stay in NYC for training, and a pretty rad backpack. I didn’t feel entitled to those things. I felt grateful. I still do.
On Super Tuesday, I shot live-to-web footage with a fancy Nokia cellphone. I went out into the field with MTV News. I got to be on TRL (OMG!) And I went to the Clinton party at Hammerstein that night to shoot her speech.
I went on Brian Lehrer’s TV show to talk about the project. I did a few newspaper/blog interviews. And, best of all, I got to sit people down in front of a camera to talk about issues that were important to them.
My technical skills were zero. My camera work is fairly abysmal. My audio editing is amateurish at best. Sometimes I didn’t go to events that I really should have covered, and instead chose to go with easier and more convenient stories. Sometimes I fucked up, and when I did, I apologized. But I tried and I tried and I kept on trying, and I am proud of the work I did. I know I wasn’t the best reporter in the group by a long shot, and I was exhausted from juggling a day job, freelance work (especially daily Palin videos in September, October and early November), and some semblance of a comedy career, but I believe that is what you do when you are young and hungry and creative: you work your ass off, and you freak out sometimes, and you get sick sometimes because you’re not sleeping enough, and you drop the fucking ball on occasion, but you keep trying. And eventually, the hope is, you “make it,” whatever that may mean to you.
This project changed my life and was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I am grateful to so many of the people with whom I worked.
But it doesn’t change the fact that Viacom freelancers and “vendors” are getting royally fucked this holiday season. And I’m one of them, and I’m speaking out.
Good for you for speaking out Sara!
This happens a lot to freelancers unfortunately, and I have totally had it happen to me.
It stinks that if you enjoy your work and believe in it enough to continue to work, you still might not get paid the amount your promised. It’s almost harder to fight for the money then because you’re like: Well I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything, but I am getting sick of eating Saltines… so yeah, I’d trade those services for cash now, please!!
Good luck,
Funke
Tell it, S-dawg!
I feel much the same as you. I was grateful to be a part of this team. I think the world of a certain documentary filmmaker who was brought on board to lead this project – she kicks ass and is a very talented, classy lady who I admire a lot. I, too, know that I wasn’t always at the top of my game, but I’m proud of telling the stories I told. I learned a lot, and for that I will always be grateful to my two editorial board advisors and the fine people who trained us in New York. But stiffing 51 economically vulnerable young people on their hard earned money is not OK … I quit a second job to do the Street Team, and that was income I needed to pay my bills. I’m swimming in late fees thanks to those late checks, and even when I finally get my last check, MTV isn’t going to make that up to me. Given the warm reception we got last January, it’s a real shame the project had to end on this sour note.
Sara, thanks for writing this! I do agree with much of what you said. Again, I don’t know why some of our supervisors are taking this so personally…no one has said anything bad about them, only the company’s treatment of us and the lack of pay.
And like I said to you before, most if not all of them were out there last December (this same time last year, I might add) protesting and rallying for dental benefits! I wonder if their managers treated them this way when they blogged about it on their myspace pages?
Anyhow, the whole situation is so sad. It’s a terrible way to end what was meant to be such a phenomenal project.
Great post, Sara. Thoughtful and sincere.
Thanks for speaking out.
Nadir
Michigan Correspondent
MTV/Knight Street Team ‘08
http://www.distortedsoul.com
To emphasize further the answer to a “if you weren’t being paid, why did you continue to work” question: people with a steady paycheck don’t really get that freelancers are used to not being paid on a really regular schedule. Most clients will pay you within 30 days of invoices, but the ones that don’t aren’t always sleazy by definition; some just have longer lead times than others, and sometimes the same client’s lead time will vary. As a freelancer, you just know this and roll with it, and thus it can often take until things have gotten really bad for you to finally admit to yourself that you’re being screwed — and by that time, you’ve already done one or two additional months of work as well, payment for which will be similarly delayed.
I can relate to many of your experiences – this was a really cool idea that turned out to be a little gritty in the execution, but I guess that’s sort of the way these things roll.
Processing payments and stuff at big corporations takes time – maybe next time, they’ll set up an expedited system that treats the Knight group as a special case.
Fuck anyone who thinks that you are being “difficult” or “selling out” for going public with this. It’s SO important that you do, and you’re exactly right, you don’t owe it to anyone to just take this on the chin in silence. You and many other freelancers are owed payment for services rendered- simple as that. Great entry, Sara.
Proud of you. It takes balls to speak the truth.
sara,
what you said was fair and concise, yet not wimpy.
i feel the same way. our leadership may not have been perfect, but i know they tried hard to get our paychecks for us and have been blocked on their own, too. maybe they didn’t always handle themselves the best way they could have, but even some of us (myself included) did not, either. it was as much a learning experience for them as it was for us.
i am sure they’re right with us when they think our paycheck situation sucks. these emotional reactions that are coming out from their side are simply that–emotional reactions. we’ve had our own, too. and you’re right–they are not the people we are blaming, because they shouldn’t be blamed for the paycheck debacle… it’s the financial staff who are keeping our checks from getting cut. i am sure we didn’t meet those people on our orientation trip last january… i’m pretty sure that everyone we met in january, while not all of our personalities may have meshed, certainly were the ones looking out for our best interests in terms of getting paid.
and, yes–i liked the work, too. it wasn’t always perfect or the most creative or the greatest, but one can only do what they can.
Sara, Thank you for propelling this conversation forward. What would Sarah Palin and Dina say? LOL.
Hey dudes: Thanks so much for reading this post, and for the support. It’s great to know that, thanks to speaking up on the Inter-nets, we put enough pressure on the company to pay us before the end of the year. And Ian Rowe’s phone call was very classy and I appreciated it so much.