Filming on Game of Thrones season 8 has proceeded largely without any problems, and with significantly fewer on-set leaks than we had ahead of season 7. Whoever’s responsible for security for the show is doing a fine job.
That would be the employees of security firm G4S, and apparently, all is not well among the ranks. The Belfast Telegraph reports that the GMB (General Municipal Boilermakers) union, a UK trade union with over 600,000 members, is speaking out behalf of the GS4 employees, who are angry over a “measly” pay raise of 8 pence (about 11 cents). “Winter is still here for our members working on Game of Thrones,” said GMB organizer Michael Mulholland, showing off his knowledge of Thrones catchphrases. “They’ve seen their pay reduce from 55p above the minimum wage to just 30p above. Now they’ve been offered a measly 8p an hour extra. It’s an insult.”
According to Mulholland, G4S did not involve the union in negotiations about the pay raise. Now, he’s fighting back, and he’s clearly done his homework when it comes to how much money HBO spends on the show.
Game of Thrones is the highest grossing TV series in the world – which costs £10million per episode to make – and they are paying nothing more than poverty wages. If they can afford spend £1 million on a purpose built castle for series eight, they can afforded to give our members a proper pay rise. If they think this offer is acceptable – they know nothing.
Mullholland’s Thrones puns are on point; if nothing else, he deserves a raise for his Ygritte callback.
G4S defended itself with a line of standard business-speak from operations director Kevin Scruby:
G4S provides a range of security service solutions for its clients across Northern Ireland and employs a number of staff for this purpose. We provide competitive rates of pay and other benefits to our employees along with long-term employment and career development opportunities.
Your move, General Municipal Boilermakers.
HBO has thus far been silent on the issue, but considering how much less leaky the set has been this year (give or take things they can’t prevent, like people taking photos from far away when the show films outdoors), maybe it’s in the network’s best interest to keep the security people happy?
Finally, here’s a video of eagles being used to take down drones. It’s only tangentially related to what we’re talking about, but GS4 did once contemplate doing something like this to prevent spying on the Game of Thrones set, and eagles are cool, so there you go.
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