The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reached a tentative deal on a new Hollywood Basic Agreement and Videotape Agreement.
The agreement caps more than three months of bargaining between the union and the studios. The key provisions include a 7% raise in minimums in the first year, followed by raises of 4% and 3.5%, matching the terms won by SAG-AFTRA last fall.
“We got a deal!” the union announced in an email to members on Tuesday night.
The three-year contract still must be ratified by the union’s membership. The AMPTP still has to negotiate deals with the Teamsters and the other Basic Crafts unions, as well as the Area Standards Agreement with IATSE.
But the tentative Basic Agreement — which comes more than a month before the current contract was due to expire on July 31 — will calm fears of another industry shutdown so soon after last year’s double strikes.
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The full terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but they include “new streaming residuals” to address a $670 million shortfall in the pension and health plans — one of the key issues in the talks.
The union also reports that the tentative deal includes new protections around the thorny subject of artificial intelligence, “including language that ensures no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee.”
“These changes in the Basic Agreement are in addition to the tentative agreements reached in the Local Agreement negotiations,” the message states.
The union also sought additional “quality of life” protections to address long work hours. Under the new agreement, workers will receive triple time for any hours worked beyond 15 hours. The goal of such provisions is to make it prohibitively expensive for productions to run such long days.
Quality of life issues were central to the IATSE negotiations in 2021, which nearly resulted in a strike. In that round of bargaining, the union called a strike authorization vote, and the membership nearly rejected the tentative deal.
This time around, both sides seemed keen to get a deal, given the struggle to recover from last year’s strikes. They scheduled extra time for bargaining, and the union did not see a need to resort to a strike authorization.
The major issue in the final days of talks was the benefit plans. The Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans are largely funded by hourly contributions and thus took a hit due to last year’s six-month work stoppage.
“The tentative agreement includes additional payments from employers that would address the $670M funding gap, including new streaming residuals,” the union reported. “Additionally, no participant shall incur a break in service for plan year 2023.”
The Basic Agreement covers an estimated 50,000 entertainment industry workers in 13 locals. The largest are the International Cinematographers Guild, Motion Picture Editors Guild and Art Directors Guild.
The union’s Bargaining Committee, which represents all 13 guilds in negotiations with the studios, unanimously supported the deal.
Members and signatories will have access to a summary of the agreement in the coming days and a Memorandum of Agreement is expected in roughly two weeks. The West Coast locals will hold meetings with members to go over the terms, and IATSE will hold a webinar for all locals affected by the contract on July 13.
The letter, signed by leaders in each of the 13 Locals, that was distributed to members follows:
Dear Basic Agreement Sisters, Brothers, and Kin,
The Basic Agreement Negotiating Committee has reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. Below are a few of the details about the proposed deal.
A complete summary of the tentative agreement will be released in a few days, and in addition to local town hall meetings, a multi-local webinar will take place on Saturday, July 13th at noon PDT to review the proposed language in the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). To avoid undermining our fellow members in the Area Standards Agreement (ASA) Locals, who remain in negotiations with the AMPTP, we will wait to release full summaries of both tentative agreements simultaneously.
Some of the proposed changes in the Basic tentative agreement include scale rate increases of 7%, 4%, and 3.5% over the three-year term. Hourly workers will receive triple time (3x hourly) when any workday exceeds 15 elapsed hours, all On Call classifications will now receive double time on the 7th day of the workweek, and additional increases in pay will take effect on non-dramatic productions under the Videotape Supplemental Agreement. The tentative deal includes new protections around Artificial Intelligence, including language that ensures no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee. These changes in the Basic Agreement are in addition to the tentative agreements reached in the Local Agreement negotiations.
For the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans (MPIPHP), the tentative agreement includes additional payments from employers that would address the $670M funding gap, including new streaming residuals. Additionally, no participant shall incur a break in service for plan year 2023.
We thank everyone who participated in the 2024 Basic Agreement negotiations process. From start to finish, your input was invaluable and ensured that our Negotiations Committee was at the bargaining table with clear goals and a consensus for how to achieve them. The ratification timeline will be forthcoming and we look forward to presenting to you the complete package.
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