After reaching tentative agreements on new contracts with the studios late last month, IATSE has now released the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for both the pending new Basic Agreement and Area Standards Agreement, giving union members their first look at specific contract language they’ll be working under for the next three years.
That is, if IATSE members choose to ratify the deals. With the MOAs now available, members in each of the 13 West Coast Locals and 23 Area Standards Locals will have between July 14-17 to vote to ratify each of the deals, and results of the votes will be revealed on July 18. IATSE’s negotiating committee members are all unanimously recommending rank and file members vote in favor of the deals, and the union’s current contracts expire on July 31.
Read the full MOAs for the Basic and ASA on each of their respective contract websites.
“I encourage every eligible member to review these comprehensive documents and vote. It’s my hope that members cast their ballots in numbers that reflect the spirit of engagement and participation as part of their union,” IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb said in a statement.
For the last couple of weeks, IATSE members have been mulling over the summaries released by IATSE and sitting in on town hall meetings going over the deal points as hosted by each of the locals. Wage increases have been in line with what was won by the other guilds last year, with 7 percent in the first year of the deal, followed by 4 percent, and 3.5 percent in subsequent years.
Other highlights IATSE has touted is that hourly workers will receive triple time (3x hourly) when any workday exceeds 15 elapsed hours, and all On Call classifications will now receive double time on the seventh day of the workweek. IATSE also received protection around artificial intelligence, with no employee required to write an AI prompt that would displace a fellow crew member.
But specific information and language, particularly around facets like artificial intelligence and other safety concerns, have been vague. The full text of the MOAs was not provided to press prior to the documents going live.
Per IATSE, the language in the MOAs however address everything from: Wages, Pension/Health & Residuals, Sideletters, Rest Period Penalty, Courtesy Housing (Rides and Rooms), Bulletin Re: Meal Penalties, Juneteenth, Triple Time, Seventh Days and Holidays for “On Call” Employees, Climate Control, Distant Location Provisions, Artificial Intelligence, Safety Officer Pilot Program, Vacations, Severance Pay, Bulletin re: Non-Roster Classifications, Paid Sick Leave, Bereavement Leave, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Grievance Procedure, Subcontracting, Contract SATF-Related Items, Gender Neutral Language, and more.
As for the agreements reached by each of the 13 West Coast locals pertaining to their specific members needs, leadership for those locals have sent separate documents to their members. The full contract though is voted on as a package, not individually between locals.
In 2021 the last time the contracts went up for negotiation, members narrowly voted against the Basic Agreement, with 50.4 percent of members voting to send negotiators back to the bargaining table. But IATSE used a delegate system, not unlike the Electoral College, that allowed the agreement to be ratified anyway. It’s unclear whether such a system will be employed again this time around.
