IATSE and the group representing Hollywood studios have reached a tentative agreement for the Hollywood Basic Agreement, the labor contract that covers the 13 West Coast locals of the below-the-line union, the guild and studio labor representatives announced jointly Tuesday.
While talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Studios are still ongoing for the Area Standards Agreement, which covers IATSE locals outside of Los Angeles and other major production hubs, insiders say that a deal is expected to be reached soon. To allow those talks to be completed, IATSE will wait to release full summaries of both tentative agreements simultaneously.
In a memo sent to members Tuesday night, IATSE revealed some topline gains negotiated in the contract, including scale wage increases of 7% in the first year of the contract, followed by 4% and 3.5% in the subsequent years. The deal also includes significant wage increases for crew members on productions that go longer than 15 hours.
“Hourly workers will receive triple time (3x hourly) when any workday exceeds 15 elapsed hours, all On Call classifications will now receive double time on the 7th day of the workweek, and additional increases in pay will take effect on non-dramatic productions under the Videotape Supplemental Agreement,” the memo read.
The strenuous nature of film and television productions that can begin before dawn and last well past sundown has become a major point of frustration for IATSE members, who have shared stories of suffering health issues and physical exhaustion through the grassroots “Give Us A Rest” campaign that originated during the 2021 contract negotiations.
While the new bonuses will provide extra financial support to IATSE members who work on these lengthy shoots — an aid at a time when many of them have had their savings depleted by last year’s strikes and the drop in active productions in Los Angeles over the past six months — the memo stops short of announcing any hard limits on shoot day duration.
IATSE also announced that protections around artificial intelligence were negotiated both by the main negotiating committee and those for respective locals. While details were light, the union did note that the agreement included “language that ensures no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee.”
The union also says that the new deal would include “additional payments from employers that would address the $670M funding gap, including new streaming residuals. Additionally, no participant shall incur a break in service for plan year 2023.”
Read the full statement from the West Coast IATSE locals below:
Dear Basic Agreement Sisters, Brothers, and Kin,
The Basic Agreement Negotiating Committee has reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. Below are a few of the details about the proposed deal.
A complete summary of the tentative agreement will be released in a few days, and in addition to local town hall meetings, a multi-local webinar will take place on Saturday, July 13th at noon PST to review the proposed language in the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). To avoid undermining our fellow members in the Area Standards Agreement (ASA)Locals, who remain in negotiations with the AMPTP, we will wait to release full summaries of both tentative agreements simultaneously.
Some of the proposed changes in the Basic tentative agreement include scale rate increases of 7%, 4%, and 3.5% over the three-year term. Hourly workers will receive triple time (3x hourly) when any workday exceeds 15 elapsed hours, all On Call classifications will now receive double time on the 7th day of the workweek, and additional increases in pay will take effect on non-dramatic productions under the Videotape Supplemental Agreement.
The tentative deal includes new protections around Artificial Intelligence, including language that ensures no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee. These changes in the Basic Agreement are in addition to the tentative agreements reached in the Local Agreement negotiations.
For the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans (MPIPHP), the tentative agreement includes additional payments from employers that would address the $670M funding gap, including new streaming residuals. Additionally, no participant shall incur a break in service for plan year 2023.
We thank everyone who participated in the 2024 Basic Agreement negotiations process. From start to finish, your input was invaluable and ensured that our Negotiations Committee was at the bargaining table with clear goals and a consensus for how to achieve them. The ratification timeline will be forthcoming and we look forward to presenting to you the complete package.