The agreement includes wage increases and the protection of artificial intelligence, a provisional contractual agreement that makes another major strike unlikely.
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The union that represents the majority of the teams that work between backstage in film and television in the United States has reached a provisional agreement with studies for some 50,000 of its membersmaking another major strike that paralyzes production after a year of labor unrest in Hollywood unlikely.
Both sides announced the three-year agreement last night (Tuesday, June 25) in a joint statement. The union, International ‘Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’**, said in an email to its members that they still must vote to approve the agreement, which includes the salary increases and the protection of artificial intelligence for whom they had been fighting.
The contract, known as the Basic Agreement, affects about 50,000 crew members belonging to 13 West Coast unions, including art directors, set painters, editors, camera technicians, costume designers, hairstylists and makeup artists. Another agreement affecting some 20,000 staff across the country is still being negotiated.
The harsh strikes by scriptwriters and actors last year and the 2021 talks at IATSE, which lasted beyond the contract expiration date and were on the verge of leading to a strike, had raised fears that 2024 would bring more strikes in a industry that has not yet fully returned to work after remaining stopped for much of 2023.
A provisional agreement
Actors including Mark Ruffalo and Kerry Washington sent a letter to the AMPTP last week asking for a fair contract for the teams. Several individual branches had already reached separate agreements on the issues that are their own. The Basic Agreement affects team members in different jobs.
IATSE reached the agreement Tuesday night with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and production companies such as Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon Prime. It is the same alliance that fought to reach an agreement with writers and actors during last year’s prolonged strikes. But the provisional basic agreement comes almost a month before the previous contract expired.
The letter to IATSE members said that more details on the agreement tentative will be released later in the week, but “includes new protections around Artificial Intelligence, including language ensuring that no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any way that could result in the displacement of any employee covered.”
Also includes scale rate increases of 7%, 4% and 3.5% during the period of three yearstriple time for workers who exceed the 15 hours in a day and tuition payments to help make up for a shortfall in the union’s health insurance budget, the letter says.
