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The IATSE and AMPTP have ended their fifth day of make-or-die contract talks and will resume negotiations for a new film and television pact on Monday. But if an agreement is to be reached and a strike is to be avoided, it will have to be concluded quickly. Union president Matt Loeb said on Friday anyway, “It’s a matter of days, not weeks.” The two parties have been negotiating intermittently since mid-May.
Union members are clearly ready to strike, if that’s what it takes to get a fair deal. Last weekend, members of 36 locals across the country, including 13 in Los Angeles, voted unequivocally – 98.68% out of more than 53,000 votes cast – in favor of giving Loeb power. to call the union’s very first national strike if an agreement cannot be reached.
The union’s largest local, the International Cinematographers Guild, which has national jurisdiction, approved the strike authorization by an even wider margin – 99.2% – with 92.2% of its eligible members voting.
The main topics of the talks relate to what the union calls “the most serious problems” in company workplaces:
• Excessively dangerous and dangerous working hours.
• Unlivable wages for the lowest paid artisans.
• Constant failure to provide reasonable rest during meal breaks, between work days and weekends.
• Workers on some “new media” streaming projects are paid less, even on productions whose budgets rival or exceed those of traditional blockbusters.
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