Following a short picketing action, IATSE has successfully organized the pilot and projected series of a new ABC game show, Set for Life, that’s due to air in primetime during the current season with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.The breakthrough is the latest in an ongoing campaign by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to organize workers on reality and game shows.The show, an Endemol USA production, began shooting in late August with Lock and Key Productions handling the project. But unsatisfied with a collective bargaining agreement it had received from the company, the IA on August 28 set up a picket line in front of the program’s production facility. When the crew arrived it refused to cross the picket line.Within an hour, according to the IA, the company’s lawyers began negotiations, the crew went back to work, and both sides signed a memorandum agreement.Terms incorporate full wages, benefits and working conditions under the 2006 Videotape Electronics Supplemental Agreement. Benefits are retroactive to each employee’s date of hire, and no individual employee’s wages or conditions will be reduced as a consequence of the memorandum.
Written by Jack Egan
