Nearly half of IATSE‘s west coast studio locals have now struck tentative deals with the AMPTP.
This week, the Motion Picture Studio Grips (Local 80) and the Make-Up Artists and Hairstylists Guild (Local 706) both finalized negotiations with the studios, Deadline has confirmed.
They are now among the six out of 13 locals that are bringing their deals to members for ratification.
Local 700, the Motion Picture Editors Guild, was expected to wrap talks as well, but after already adding an additional day to its schedule this week, leadership decided to extend negotiations into next week.
“After concluding another full day of bargaining today, we made significant progress, but there were still several complicated proposals that require a great deal of consideration,” Local 700 leadership wrote in a memo to its members Thursday night.
“Therefore, our committee decided it is in the best interest of our membership that we not rush through the process and ensure there is adequate time to evaluate and prepare responses,” the statement continued.
Deadline hears that Local 700 will restart bargaining with the AMPTP on Monday.
Local 706 negotiating committee
This wraps the second full week of local-specific bargaining and, so far, things have been moving fairly quickly.
Earlier this week, Local 695 — which represents technicians across production sound, video assist, video engineering and studio projection — also reached a tentative agreement.
These deals follow the Cinematographers Guild (Local 600), the Set Painter & Sign-Writers (Local 729) and the Art Directors Guild (Local 800), which all struck tentative deals last week with the AMPTP.
Negotiations kicked off March 4 with the leadership of IATSE, the Hollywood Teamsters and other crafts guilds meeting with the AMPTP for several days to discuss health and pension benefits, and offer proposals. Then there was a week of caucusing before the first of the 13 LA Locals sat down at the bargaining table with the studios. So far, the AMPTP has not returned a counterproposal on general issues.
Next week, Local 728 is expected to begin negotiations as well. The IATSE locals are operating under a new strategy where “two locals will negotiate simultaneously at any given time” with the studios over the next month.
The current contracts are set to end July 31. Overall, around 60,000 industry-related IATSE members are affected by the contracts.
