IATSE Sets Strike for October 18 If Negotiations Don't Yield Results

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees International president Matthew Loeb announces today that unless an agreement is reached, union members will begin a nationwide strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on Monday, October 18 at 12:01am, PDT.

Loeb said the union will continue bargaining with the producers this week in the hopes of reaching an agreement that addresses core issues, such as reasonable rest periods, meal breaks, and a living wage for those on the bottom of the wage scale.

"However, the pace of bargaining doesn't reflect any sense of urgency," Loeb says. "Without an end date, we could keep talking forever. Our members deserve to have their basic needs addressed now."

Last week, IATSE members who work in television and film production at 36 IATSE local unions across the country voted to authorize the union's international president to call a strike if contract talks didn't result in a new contract for 60,000 film and television workers. Voter turnout was 90%, with 98.6% of those voting in support of authorizing a strike.

According to Variety, "Sources say the sticking points in the negotiations continue to be the details around working conditions: the schedule of meal breaks and rest periods and the prevalence of so-called 'French hours' shooting schedules where the production works through lunch with no formal break in order to finish the day faster. But that has become onerous for many crew members amid COVID safety precautions that bar anyone from bringing food on to the set."

In a previous statement, IATSE said, "It is incomprehensible that the AMPTP, an ensemble that includes media mega-corporations collectively worth trillions of dollars, claims it cannot provide behind-the-scenes crews with basic human necessities like adequate sleep, meal breaks, and living wages. Worse, management does not appear to even recognize our core issues as problems that exist in the first place.

"These issues are real for the workers in our industry, and change is long overdue. However, the explosion of streaming combined with the pandemic has elevated and aggravated working conditions, bringing 60,000 behind-the-scenes workers covered by these contracts to a breaking point. We risked our health and safety all year, working through the pandemic to ensure that our business emerged intact. Now, we cannot and will not accept a deal that leaves us with an unsustainable outcome."

For more about how union members are gearing up for a strike, go to https://bit.ly/3DL3az3.