Despite 4 weeks of intense bargaining, it appears the negotiations between IATSE, representing film, TV, and stage actors, and AMPTP for new contracts has broken off. This despite the fact their contracts will expire at the end of July. BLAKE & WANG P.A Entertainment Attorney Los Angeles explores the situation.
Brandon Blake- Entertainment Lawyer Los Angeles
The news certainly doesn’t seem good for the West Coast production locals covered by the union. Reports are that ‘very little progress’ has been made towards reaching any kind of deal. For now, talks will be put on hiatus until July 6. This will still give them 3 solid weeks of talks before the contracts expire, however, so there is time to make an agreement still.
However, the negotiations- which began on May 17th- were only scheduled to last 2 weeks, so something is definitely not going as expected. While there are still renegotiated proposals in development, the issue seems to lie in marrying the wants of both sides on key areas- not good news overall, as it leaves little room for give and take.
It seems the events of last year are partially to blame. Union reps state that, now employers have shown they can increase workplace safety fairly easily, there’s no need to backtrack to ‘before’ and dangerous working conditions across the industry need to be addressed. This is far from the only issue, however, with the matter of funding pensions also a key stumbling block.
All the same, IATSE does include some good news to share around diversity and inclusion measures, so it’s not all gloomy. Nor is there a union strike on the table at the current moment, although that will likely be revisited should negotiations sour further. BLAKE & WANG P.A Entertainment Lawyer Los Angeles will, however, be awaiting the resumption of negotiations with interest.
