IATSE members have approved a new Hollywood Basic Agreement, the contract covering 30,000 workers at 17 locals, union leaders said Thursday.
The contract, which raises wages and benefits, was approved by more than two-thirds of the members, though exact figures were not released by the union. Two of the larger locals voted against the deal in an unsuccessful bid to defeat the contract.
"The new IATSE contract for members working in motion picture and television production is quite frankly the envy of the industry," IATSE president Tom Short said. "We owe the success of this agreement to most of the IATSE Hollywood locals and the strength that those locals gave us during the hard bargaining over this agreement."
The contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers goes into affect Aug. 1 and runs through July 31, 2009.
Short, as chief negotiator, concluded early negotiations Dec. 16, and the negotiating team voted 54-1 to recommend ratification of the contract, which is the main collective bargaining agreement between IATSE and Hollywood's major studios and networks.
The new deal includes a wage increase of 75 cents per hour in the first year of the agreement and a 3% wage gain in the second and third year.
Contributions to the Individual Account Plan benefits will go up 0.5% in the second year and by the same amount in the third. There also will be a 25 cent-per-hour increase in contributions to the Defined Benefit Pension Plan.
Contributions to the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan will go up 25 cents per hour, allowing for a continuation of health-care premiums to be paid 100% by the employer.
Retirees also will receive a "13th and 14th" check during the full term of the contract as long as the reserves remain at a level of least eight months. If the level of reserves does not drop below eight months by the first quarter of 2009, a 10% increase in pension contributions for active employees will be made by the producer retroactive to Aug. 1, 2006.
Two of the 17 locals -- Local 600 representing cinematographers, camera operators and publicists, and Local 44 representing set decorators, construction coordinators and other craftspeople -- voted against the contract at the recommendation of their boards.
Local 600's leaders were angered by a provision, applicable only to their local, allowing producers to decide whether a cinematographer can also operate the camera, eliminating the camera operator's job in certain cases. It is feared that this is an attempt to eliminate a job category, though sources on the producers' side insist it is intended to benefit top-tier cinematographers who have the skill and the desire to also operate a camera.
In a letter accompanying the ballots, Short warned members that a "no" vote was a vote to strike. A rejection of the contract, which never has happened, would have sent the parties back to the bargaining table and been an embarrassment for IATSE's leadership.
While Local 600 and Local 44 have about 5,700 members each, their opposition was not enough to derail the agreement because it was supported by all of the other locals.
In announcing the new contract, IATSE officials said that some elected leaders, both at IATSE and other Hollywood unions, have "lost touch with what it means to work in the industry or hadn't worked in the industry long enough to develop the background necessary to represent adequately their working membership before being elected to office."
Added Short, "We have a couple of local unions that have too many chronically unemployed or retired officers and officers with issues that have kept them from working in the industry."
Short said the solution might be to require that elected officers work in the industry for a predetermined period of time in order to be eligible for office.
"When I look down the road to the future of the IATSE, I see that only knowledgeable leadership on the local level, real leaders who are working members able to communicate with working members, can make us stronger," Short said.
Separately on Thursday, the Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839, said it has agreed to a new three-year contract that offers the same wage increases and health and pension gains found in the Hollywood Basic Agreement. Local 839's negotiating committee has unanimously recommended that its members approve the contract, which was negotiated Monday and Tuesday with representatives of Adelaide Prods., Cartoon Network and several of the major studios.
Jesse Hiestand writes for The Hollywood Reporter.
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