Labor unrest is hitting SAG close to home.
Negotiations between the actors guild and Teamsters Local 986, which represents more than 40 of SAG's Los Angeles-based business representatives, have gotten bumpy. The contract between the parties expired June 1, and one issue still to be resolved is what wage increases the new deal will grant.
Yes, even unions have unions. In this negotiation, SAG functions as management, not labor. After about a dozen meetings, the two sides are far apart, with the key sticking issues being wages and a SAG proposal to require the employees to arbitrate discrimination and sexual harassment claims rather than file them in court.
For more details, see my piece in The Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i7ac2488e5367c3860b8b6e94dda149c5.
Friday, August 20, 2010
SAG Feels its Own Labor Pains
Thursday, August 5, 2010
IATSE and Teamsters Reach Mutual Assistance Pact
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Breakthrough in Teamsters talks; deal ratified
In a surprising development, Hollywood Teamsters leaders at a standing room only membership meeting this morning asked the membership to ratify a 2 year contract proposed by the studios. The membership then voted 97.3% to 2.7% to ratify, ending the possibility of a strike that could have shuttered much film and television production.
Most remarkably, the package that the leadership recommended -- which was achieved in back-channel negotiations Saturday afternoon -- differed little from the package the union rejected Friday night. The three Saturday enhancements were minor, and included such matters as reimbursement for Teamsters' renewal of their drivers licenses.
In essence, the union blinked, recognizing that a strike was not feasible in this economic climate. Union leaders also said they believed that management would not back down even if the union struck.
For details, see my Hollywood Reporter story.
Teamsters Ratify Contract; Strike Averted
In a surprising development, Hollywood Teamsters leaders at a standing room only membership meeting this morning asked the membership to ratify a 2 year contract proposed by the studios. The membership then voted 97.3% to 2.7% to ratify, ending the possibility of a strike that could have shuttered much film and television production.
For details, see my Hollywood Reporter story.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Teamsters, studios fail to break stalemate
Talks between the studios and Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 ended late Friday night with no movement and no new negotiating sessions scheduled. The union meets in Burbank early Sunday morning, where the leadership is expected to seek – and obtain – a strike authorization vote from members. That authorization would, in turn, allow union leaders to call a strike at any time after the July 31 expiration of their contract with the studios and producers.
For further details, see my piece in the Hollywood Reporter.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Transportation strike could paralyze Hollywood
Believe it or not, Hollywood may be headed for another work stoppage in just two weeks. In 2007-2008, the Writers Guild struck, shuttering television and film production. In 2008-2009, a Screen Actors Guild stalemate lingered for almost a year, shutting down primarily film production. This time, the Hollywood Teamsters may strike - and that could immediately halt television and film production. For details, see my exclusive Hollywood Reporter story.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
No More Sounds of Silence on the Music Composition Front?
Everyone knows that composers and lyricists make scales ... now they want to make scale as well. Union scale, that is (or, even better, above scale). One of the few non-unionized sectors of Hollywood, composers and lyricists - the people who write music (as opposed to musicians, the people who perform it) - are now in talks with the Teamsters for representation.
It's not as strange as it seems: the macho union of dock workers and Hollywood truck drivers (Teamsters Local 399 on the West coast and Local 817 in New York) also represents casting directors, location managers, and various other tenderfoots. An earlier bid to join the Writers Guild (WGA) apparently gained little traction.
All this according to recent pieces in Variety (here, here, and here) and a long piece today in the LA Times. An early-stage meeting Monday, which had been announced by the Society of Composers & Lyricists (a trade group, not a union) attracted over 300 people, about a third of the 900 who would be covered by a union agreement. About 200 of them signed union authorization cards, but the Teamsters are hoping for two-thirds (i.e., 600 or so) in order to move forward.
In other audible union news, AFTRA recently approved its interactive (i.e., video game) voiceover contract, while SAG voted down its similar pact, representing a rare defeat for SAG's new administration. Despite concerns with some aspects of the contract, that's unfortunate for SAG, because I'm told this sector is only about 25% unionized (AFTRA numbers + SAG's). That means that video game companies can easily move over to AFTRA - or go nonunion. The hard reality is that neither SAG nor AFTRA control the labor supply in this area, leaving them little leverage in negotiations. Sort of like bringing a PS2 to a PS3 meetup.
In still other news on the union front - sorry, I've been busy prepping for my UCLA gig, not to mention working for a living - the California Court of Appeals dismissed as moot an appeal by former SAG president Alan Rosenberg and his fellow Membership First plaintiffs newly-reelected 1st VP Anne-Marie-Johnson and board members Diane Ladd and Kent McCord of their suit against their own union. This cacophony lives on in the lower court, however, still costing the union money, but there's some hope that that court will adopt the appeals court's underlying reasoning and dismiss the entire proceeding on the same basis. Let's hope.
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