The leadership of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), including all 13 US West Coast unions, recommended that their members to vote ‘Yes’ and ratify the tentative agreement reached with Hollywood producers, in a statement released on Thursday.
“We continue to believe that not only did we reach the best agreement possible after these many months of negotiations culminating in a resounding strike authorization vote that was the turning point in us achieving what we set out to do, but also that the solidarity among the locals was inspiring and astounding and the linchpin to our success.”
It added that the future success of the movement will “depend on our ability to stay united rather than being divided.”
The IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative deal for workers under the Area Standards Agreement, as well as the Basic Agreement this month.
The deal, covering 36 local unions and over 60,000 members, brought negotiations between the technicians’ union and the producers’ representatives to a close and averted a nationwide strike, the authorization for which the trade union had obtained earlier this month. The next step is in the process is the ratification vote that will be conducted simultaneously for both the ASA as well as the Basic Agreement.
The new terms include an annual increase of wages by 3%, while the minimum hourly wage will be increased to $26. The deal also provides 54 hours of weekend rest and daily rest periods of 10 hours, among other provisions.
Several members of the union had expressed their unhappiness with the new deal.
The statement addressed these members and said, “To those of you opposed – we hear you, we see you, and we recognize we collectively still have work to do to change the culture of our industry. We ask you to stand with us as move forward.”
However, many members criticised the trade union for seeking support without disclosing all the terms of the agreement.
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A Twitter user, whose bio describes them as ‘Comedy Writer + Director‘, replied to the statement, and wrote, “Celebrating a deal before it is available to be reviewed by the workers who it will affect *and* encouraging those workers to blindly support it sure seems like manipulation.”
An Instagram user wrote, “I don’t say yes to a project without knowing the full details and I’ll be treating this the same way. How can I can say yes without reading the full details? From what I have read it’s a no for me.”
The ratification vote is expected to be conducted in the coming weeks.