Matt Williams for 891 Senior Steward

My name is Matt Williams, and I am running for Senior Steward of our Local, IATSE Local 891. I am a Primary Category member in good standing of the Grip Department and a Second Category Member of the Construction Department, the Art Department, and the Greens Department.

As Film Workers we have had a difficult time over recent years including facing previously unseen challenges including prolonged work stoppages. At the same time, workers everywhere are seeing an erosion of their working conditions while employers try to roll back previously agreed benefits asking workers to do more for less. If I am elected as Senior Steward I will work to protect what we have, while fighting for better. To provide member centric leadership that communicates with the membership, that listens to them, and is accountable for its decision making by openly explaining the reasoning behind decisions. I am also committed to representing our membership and our industry in BC, across Canada, and internationally.

A central element of my beliefs is that nothing can succeed without a strong foundation. For us that means a strong membership, that is well informed, engaged, and well represented. Informing the membership empowers the membership and an informed membership is able to participate in the decision making process addressing the problems and challenges that face them both individually and collectively.

I also believe that the membership deserves strong and empathetic representation. For leadership to effectively represent the membership they need to know the membership. Through engaging with and listening to the membership a Union’s leadership will get to know and understand the needs and wants of the membership and can then effectively represent them and their interests.

I am confident that through my education, training and experience that I am well qualified to be the Senior Steward that our membership needs and deserves.

I am an honours Law Graduate with a specialization in Labour and Employment Law and a Qualified Arbitrator. I also have extensive Labour Education and Training from The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the BC Federation of Labour (BC Fed), Vancouver District Labour Council (VDLC) and , and our own Local. In addition to these qualifications I am currently completing a range of courses in Business Law, Employment Law, Conflict Resolution, Negotiation, and Mediation with both the JIBC and BCIT and will soon be a Qualified Mediator (Q.Med).

My experience includes being a very active member of our Local, a previous career in business and a military career where I learnt the value of belonging to something bigger than oneself. As a member of our Local I am the Chair of the Grip Department where I have worked hard to keep the department members informed through email updates about the issues that affect them. I am also a member of the Bargaining Committee and the Executive Committee where I maintain positive relationships with the other Department Chairs.

As a Film Worker, I have almost equal amounts of experience on set, and off set as a Grip and a Rigging Grip working under the terms of The Master Agreement. This has seen me interact and work with multiple departments including AD’s and Production Managers. As a result I have a good understanding of the needs of Film Workers and our industry as a whole. I am also a Production Shop Steward, which has given me the ability to address issues for members both individually and collectively and to understand the challenges faced by our membership.

Prior to my time in the film industry I had a successful career in operations and business management. Here I gained valuable experience in contract negotiations and administration which are skills that would help me as the Senior Steward of our Local. During my military career I learnt that leadership is a service role and that decisions made by leaders are made on behalf of those that they lead. It also gave me a deep insight on how large, diverse, and multidisciplinary organizations such as ours work and how they succeed.

Perhaps the strongest qualification that I have for the Senior Steward’s job is that I really do care about Film Workers and all workers. It would be easy for me to make a number of promises without any real way of knowing how to even if they can be achieved, and I won’t do that. What I can and will do is make a commitment and a promise to do the best that I can for the membership and for the wider Film Industry. I am committed to communicating with the membership about what is happening in our industry. I am committed to listening to the membership and involving them in decision making wherever possible. And I am committed to representing the membership to achieve the best for all of us.