In an exclusive with Deadline, Ken Loach, director of The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), Jimmy’s Hall (2014), and Sorry We Missed You (2019), spoke against the UK’s biggest film and television union.
Loach warned that Prospect is at risk of failing its 150,000 members. He claims that the union’s interests aren’t in its members. Four women in the union’s top committee recently protested against the management by quitting. Louch said there’d been a “clash of cultures” since the union’s merger with Bectu and “damaged” its identity.
Loach has been a member of Bectu for sixty years and did not favor its merger with Prospect.
According to Deadline, there had been clashes regarding budgets, accessing information, and disciplinary action taken against Bectu members who had apparently broken union rules. The source with knowledge of the National Executive Committee claims that the women were painted as “troublemakers” when they tried to hold Prospect decision-makers accountable.
“Our idea of a union is one in which members call the shots,” Loach told Deadline. “Prospect officials seem to be more interested in control rather than in working together with the members and really carrying out members’ wishes. The officials are more worried about telling us what we should do rather than listening to what we say.”
“People in the industry are very vulnerable. There are a lot of young people desperate to get experience, and this leaves them open to exploitation. People are joining Bectu because they see the need for a union, particularly younger members. We need a clear voice so all the members can feel confident that it is their union.”
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