After nearly two weeks of negotiations between IATSE President Matthew Loeb and AMPTP President Carol Lombardini, the labor union and the studios seem to have come to an accord and have drafted up a new 3-year Basic Agreement contract and a new Theatrical and Television Motion Picture Area Standards contract that will have to go to IATSE’s 60,000 members for a vote. This according to Deadline, but yet to be corroborated by either IATSE or Loeb; the news outlet says that “the union and the Carol Lombardini-led AMPTP are expected to make the agreement public very shortly.” (We’ll add the two parties’ statements later tonight or as soon as released.)
In other words, STRIKE AVERTED!
This is great news for those concerned about the damage a IATSE strike might do to the television and film industries even if it ended up being only for a matter of days. Both film and television production had already been deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic which shut down production and then necessitated costly new protocols, so IATSE workers doing their job without a new contract — the previous one lapsed on Sept. 10 — was probably a bit nerve-wracking for all.
The current negotiations had been going on for nearly two weeks after 90% of IATSE’s members voted to give Loeb strike authorization, and he announced the deadline for a strike last Wednesday.
As mentioned previously, some of the deal points have included 10-hour turnaround times between shifts, increased funding of the health and pension plans and a 3% rate increase every year for the duration of the yet to be approved contract, among other changes.
