The deals, which tackle AI regulations, long workdays and wage adjustments, cover tens of thousands of crew members across the country.
Crew members belonging to Hollywood’s major below-the-line union have voted to ratify two new three-year contracts.
According to the union, 85.9 percent of voting members supported the Basic Agreement in the ratification vote tally. The Basic Agreement covers around 50,000 members who are represented by 13 West Coast Locals, including the International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600) and Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700). Meanwhile, 87.2 percent of members who work under the Area Standards Agreement voted “yes” on that contract, which covers around 20,000 members who belong to 23 Locals in regions outside of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Per the union, all Locals voted to ratify the agreement, and thus all delegate votes supported the deals.
IATSE uses an electoral college-style system for its ratification votes, whereby each of its Locals has an assigned number of delegate votes corresponding to its size. Whatever result the majority of each Local’s members vote for (“yes” or “no”) becomes the vote for each of that Local’s delegates in the overall tally.
Seventy percent of West Coast Local members turned out to vote on the Basic Agreement, while 53 percent of Locals covered by the Area Standards Agreement voted in their ratification contest. The deals, now officially greenlit by members, will go into effect beginning August 1.
“IATSE’s rank-and-file members have spoken, and their will is clear. Between significant wage increases in addition to several craft-specific adjustments, bolstered health/pension benefits with new funding mechanisms, improved safety provisions, critical protections preventing misuse of artificial intelligence from displacing IATSE members, and more, the gains secured in these contracts mark a significant step forward for America’s film and tv industry and its workers,” IATSE international president Matthew Loeb said in a statement. “This result shows our members agree, and now we must build on what these negotiations achieved.”
In a statement, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which negotiated the agreements on behalf of entertainment employers, praised IATSE’s interest in a “fair and collaborative” negotiations cycle. “From the first day of negotiations, IATSE leadership demonstrated a clear commitment to a fair and collaborative process, which resulted in agreements that contain historic gains and protections, reflect the immense value that IATSE members bring to production, and ensure our industry will continue to deliver well-paid jobs and exciting content for years to come,” the statement said.
With the clear majority of members supporting the deals, these results vary greatly from IATSE’s ratification vote three years ago, during its last contract negotiations cycle. At that time, amid a larger crew conversation about working conditions, the Basic Agreement deal was ratified due to a majority delegate vote, but was narrowly rejected in the popular vote by members. The Area Standards Agreement vote was also close, with delegates passing the deal but only 52 percent of members voting “yes.”
This time around, IATSE members voted between July 14 and 17 on the tentative deals with the AMPTP. Major gains in this round of bargaining for the Basic Agreement deal were unusually high minimum wage increases (7 percent in the first year, 4 percent in the second year and 3.5 percent in the third year), a $700 million infusion of funding into the union’s health and pension plans, language governing the use of AI in the workplace and new penalties for long workdays. Meanwhile, Area Standards leaders touted their deal’s wage rate increases (the same that Basic Agreement workers received), AI regulations, a standardized benefit contribution rate for all areas and some of the same penalties on long workdays that workers under the Basic Agreement received.
Several West Coast union members who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter prior to the ratification vote emphasized the role that a slowdown in L.A. production has played in their views about Basic Agreement. “Everyone I’m talking to is basically like, ‘I’m signing this thing because we’re all getting crushed, I don’t really have a choice financially,’” said one artist in the Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800). Several union members lauded the deal’s minimum wage rate increases. But other deal points were more controversial, like the agreement’s language governing long workdays and AI.
In recent days, the deal’s AI language has prompted backlash from particular Art Directors Guild members. The Local’s set designer and model makers council reportedly wrote members that it was urging a “no” vote because the council concluded that the contract’s AI language “allows our combined crafts within Local 800 to be put at direct risk of an emerging technology not designed to enhance creativity but instead to learn from and ultimately replace us.” Not long after, a number of illustrator and matte artist members, including Twisters storyboard artist Sam Tung and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 senior illustrator Fae Corrigan, published a letter urging union members to vote “no” on the deal because the group believed the proposed language is “detrimental in the short term, and sets a damaging precedent for our future negotiations.”
Prior to a tentative agreement being reached on June 25, many in the entertainment business were jittery about the possibility of a third devastating worker strike in two years, following the 2023 actors’ and writers’ strikes. However, IATSE negotiators did not take a particularly confrontational tone when publicly discussing the 2024 contract talks. Instead, union statements emphasized that the talks had been “productive” and that negotiators were hoping to reach an agreement that their members would ratify. That message stood in sharp contrast to IATSE’s last contract negotiations, in 2021, when leaders called its first nationwide strike authorization vote in the union’s history as talks stalled.
Read original article in: Hollywood Reporter
