Just around the time when FilmL.A. reported that on-location commercial production in Greater Los Angeles increased some nine percent in 2014 as compared to the previous year, prospects for a continued upswing took a hit with the news that Teamsters Local 399 Hollywood could initiate a strike action against spot producers starting on Feb. 1. Per a notice on the 399 website from Teamsters Local secretary/treasurer Steve Dayan , the union is organizing picketing that would potentially commence after its current two labor agreements with the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP)–covering California and a number of other Western states–expire on January 31.
At the same time, Local 399 has tentatively scheduled a ratification meeting for the morning of January 24 in Burbank, Calif., in the event that the AICP and union leadership can agree on a revised contract. Commercial gang bosses, drivers, location scouts/managers, wranglers, animal handlers and trainers would convene to go over the points of any revised agreement and then vote on it at that time.
Back in December, the AICP and Teamsters Local 399 had negotiated a tentative new two-year deal subject to approval from membership. But rank and file in attendance during a January 11th ratification meeting overwhelmingly rejected the agreement by a 414 to 36 vote. The thumbs-down vote is tantamount to a strike authorization, according to the Local 399 website.
The apparent major sticking point for union members centers on low-budget shoot provisions. Based on the DGA commercials contract, the tentatively approved and then rejected Teamsters agreement would have increased the maximum qualifying low-budget spend from $75,000 to $125,000 a day.
AICP president and CEO Matt Miller contended that the low-budget provisions were beneficial to both producers and labor. “I understand the concerns of union members but in order to compete for low budget work, we have to recognize certain realities. Our members are not allowed to work nonunion and they don’t want to. The reality is that our members and union workers are losing out on the increasing amount of low-budget jobs that are being done instead by ad agency in-house production companies, foreign and nonunion companies. The work is often going overseas or to other states where there are incentive programs for commercials. What we negotiated with the Teamsters seemed to be a good step in creating a new structure of the way we look at these jobs so that we and the union can get more of this business. There’s been a seismic shift in the industry and more of this low-budget work is happening. At the bargaining table, we tried to find a way in a tiered nature to pull back some of the rules so that we can better compete for this work and hire union members. Otherwise there’s just more work which we and they aren’t getting.”
The rejected agreement proposed four tiers of low-budget work–the bottom tier being for budgets less than $50,000, then tier 2 covering work from $50,000 to $80,000, tier 3 up to $100,000 and the top tier 4 up to $125,000. Rates would have been individually negotiated at the bottom two tiers while tier 3 could be negotiated no less than 80 percent of scale and tier 4 no less than 90 percent of scale. Staffing requirements were also selectively relaxed, said Miller, to create “new opportunities for new types of work–to expand the industry and to expand employment. I understand that this can be a lightning rod for union members but what we had tentatively agreed on was designed for mutual gain.”
Plans call for AICP and Local 399 representatives to meet and talk again prior to the expiration of the current contracts. Meanwhile during the interim with an uncertain future containing a possible strike, SHOOT has heard of a number of jobs being diverted from California.
