The Hollywood Reporter: The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and studios have agreed to a new tentative three-year Theatrical and Television Motion Picture Area Standards Agreement deal following the Oct. 16 tentative agreement reached for workers covered under the union’s Basic Agreement that averted a major strike.
3 comments:
It has been very rewarding to follow the IATSE situation from its conception over the last few weeks. It is also great to read articles from many different sources at different times in the progression of the negotiations. Over time my opinion of the negotiations has changed and matured as well. In the beginning, I was hoping for a strike because I believe in big motions to get the attention of those in power. But as things progressed a strike seemed less effective, even if it would be making history. At this point, I still feel the mixed feeling that many of the workers feel. In addition, there is so much fine print and small details that I am not enlightened on. But one good aspect is the raising of wages for some of the workers, as jobs providing a living wage in the US is a huge issue. Obviously, there are still some ways to go, but it's good to see more concrete deals being reached.
I was caught off by the title to this article. I had forgotten that IATSE had to reach an area standards agreement in addition to the basic agreement. I thought that this article was going to be about the ratification vote and announce that IATSE membership had voted to approve the contract. I am glad that the area standards agreement also includes the important changes that the basic agreement included like stricter penalties for meal breaks and longer turn around times. I wonder if now that more people have secured these changes if that will sway the responses online to be more supportive of the agreement. I personally am torn because on one hand I do think that it is important to take those incremental forward steps and not risk what you have gotten so far. On the other hand, I do think there is a lot of momentum right now that could be used to pus for better hours and wages.
The article title is a bit interesting because it makes it seem like a final decision has been made when it hasn’t even been voted on by the members yet. I also find it interesting that the “new contract” is only going to be in place for three years. I know there aren’t specific agreements listed but I have that a lot of IASTE members that aren’t happy that the penalties for failing to provide meal breaks and rest periods when the original point was to make it so that wasn’t an option. I didn’t know that they were working on such big pay raise over the course of the contract. Although that basically only covers inflation that they should have been getting paid that over the years anyways, if they were working for an honest and respectable company. The request basically covers the bare minimum. I agree with those that dispute that they should have stood their ground for a longer turn around time. I am interested to hear what is in the fine print though.
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