It was getting a little too close to the deadline for comfort, but the Teamsters and the studios have a deal.
Teamsters, Basic Crafts Still At Odds With Studios Over Wage Issues As Contract Deadline Looms
After a long final sprint of talks that had more than a few executives and labor leaders on edge, Teamsters Local 399 announced just before midnight Saturday that the Hollywood Basic Crafts and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached an agreement.
A tentative agreement that is. A tentative agreement that sources on both sides confirm, but are keeping the details very closer for now to the proverbial chest.
“After a long last 48-hours, we are proud to report that ALL Hollywood Basic Crafts Locals have reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP late this evening,” the Lindsay Dougherty-led Local 399 said late on July 27. “The basic crafts spent today working closely with our member-led negotiating committees to finalize a deal with the AMPTP that we can now say is being unanimously recommended by our member-led bargaining committees.”
“More information to follow tomorrow afternoon after Teamsters Local 399 General Membership Meeting.”
Swirling around the past few hours before it was made official and with wage increases the last significant hurdle, the deal comes just over 24 hours after Local 399 sent out a missive that painted a bleak picture of the weeks long talks. Late Friday, the Teamsters said the AMPTP had put on the table a ‘last, best and final’ offer” earlier that day. In response, the Teamsters and Basic Crafts put forth a counterproposal “with what we know to be a deal that would be recommended for ratification.”
As the counterproposal sat with the Carol Lomberdini-led AMPTP, Dougherty stated publicly that “we think our response to the producer’s package is reasonable and would be a deal that gets this over the finish line.” At the time, it seems talks between the parties were done for the weekend, and no more updates were expected until after the Local 399 gathering Sunday.
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However, with work in Hollywood still nowhere near what is was in late 2022 despite the WGA and SAG-AFTRA resolving their months long strikes last fall, no one wanted these negotiations between the Teamsters, Basic Crafts and the AMPTP to spin out to a strike, I hear.
At the same time, the Teamsters negotiating committee were no\t about to back down on their core issues, especially wage increases. An apparent head on labor collusion waiting to happen, the fluid situation turned earlier Saturday as the AMPTP went over the Teamsters’ counterproposal and common ground emerged.
The Teamsters, Basic Crafts’ tentative deal comes a time when Tinseltown labour is looking at some mixed realities. On July 18, IATSE members strongly ratified their new Basic Agreement (85.9% approval), and the Area Standards Agreement (87.2%.approval) with stronger unity of purpose than we saw in 2021. At the same time, on July 25, SAG-AFTRA called a strike for video game actors against the likes of Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Epic Games, Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and WB Games Inc.
Coming after two years of bargaining with the APMP over a new and tighter Interactive Media Agreement, the video game performers’ strike has been in effect since 12:01 am on July 26. There was no word when a strike call would occur.
There is also no word when the tentative agreement will be sent to Local 399 members and that of other Hollywood crafts for ratification.
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