Monday marks the beginning of basic negotiations for IATSE‘s new three-year contract with the studios.
Final week, the Affiliated Property Craftspersons Native 44 grew to become the thirteenth and ultimate native to achieve an settlement on craft-specific points within the Primary Settlement. Now, the union is laying out a few of the proposals it is going to carry to the desk for basic talks, which impression all members.
In a memo to members over the weekend, IATSE known as this leg of negotiations “extra advanced and consequential, as they embody the bigger and most necessary points impacting the crafts.”
Among the many basic proposals are wage will increase and residual funding for the well being and pension plan, in addition to protections in opposition to synthetic intelligence. IATSE can be seeking to set up a 401(ok), enhance penalties for relaxation durations, and improve sick go away.
The union particularly highlighted the necessity to “safe a considerable quantity of extra revenue” for the Movement Image Trade Pension & Well being Plans, after final 12 months’s work stoppages slowed employer contributions to the funds throughout a time the place claims had been going up.
IATSE estimates its proposals will pump one other $670M into the funds over the course of the brand new three-year settlement, if accredited by the AMPTP. Nonetheless, the union additionally notes that it’s “deeply conscious of the need to enhance well being and pension advantages for our members” and is exploring different avenues to bolster the fund.
Wages and job safety had been anticipated to be focal factors of those negotiations, given not solely final 12 months’s twin strikes but in addition the corrosive results of inflation and cost-of-living will increase — all of which have hit below-the-line union members notably laborious.
The union’s 2021 settlement secured extra funding for the well being and pension plans in addition to a 3% minimal wage enhance yearly throughout the contract. That contract is ready to run out on July 31.
Talks for the Primary Settlement are anticipated to run till mid-Might, at which level IATSE will proceed into bargaining for the Space Requirements Settlement, which covers 23 extra IATSE locals throughout the U.S.
As soon as IATSE has wrapped, the Teamsters and different Hollywood Primary Crafts will maintain negotiations in June. They can even regroup with IATSE on the negotiating desk quickly to deal with the pension and well being proposals that they collectively introduced to the AMPTP in March.
Deadline understands that the studios didn’t return a counterproposal concerning the well being and pension plans in the previous couple of weeks because the IATSE west coast studio locals negotiated.