The actors’ strike against the advertising industry has pushed back Teamsters Local 399’s planned timetable to secure health and pension benefits for spot location scouts.
As earlier reported (SHOOT, 3/3, p. 1), a labor contract fashioned by Local 399 and some 90 Southern California-based commercial scouts failed to gain much support from production houses. This prompted the Teamsters to suggest an alternative whereby those scouts who have asked the union to represent them could gain health and pension benefits, without production companies becoming signatory to a spot scout labor agreement (SHOOT, 4/21, p. 1).
The goal of attaining health and pension benefits is what motivated the group of scouts to seek union representation in the first place. Toward that end, Local 399 noted that commercial production companies can pay health and pension benefits to scouts under an ongoing "assumption agreement." The agreement has existed as a side letter to the Teamsters feature and TV contract for location managers. Per this method, the payments would be made through a payroll service company that is signatory to the Teamsters contract covering film and TV location managers. A number of commercial production houses have already been doing this for certain spot location scouts.
Delay in may
Initially Local 399 hoped that a majority of production companies would start to pay pension and health benefits to scouts under the "assumption agreement" by this past May or June. If not, the Teamsters had said it would then consider other action, including possibly exercising legal recourse.
However, the strike by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) began on May 1. "That has slowed down the process," related Teamsters business agent Steve Dayan, who noted that Local 399 currently represents more than 70 commercial location scouts. "It would be unfair to assess industry performance during a strike. We need to wait until the strike is resolved and production returns to normal."
Dayan related that the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) has informed its member production companies that if they so choose, they can pay benefits through the alternative assumption agreement. AICP president Matt Miller confirmed this, noting that the AICP had made members aware of the assumption agreement option. Whether they elect to use it remains an individual company decision, he added.
When the proposed location scouts contract surfaced earlier this year, the AICP expressed concern that it could create confusion among commercial production companies. This caused the AICP to immediately issue an advisory memo to its members to point out that the agreement between the group of scouts and the Teamsters is in no way related to the contract covering drivers that was negotiated between the AICP and Local 399 (SHOOT, 7/24/98 and 1/14/00, p. 1). Companies that are signatory to the drivers’ pact aren’t obligated to negotiate the location scouts category, read the advisory memo.
Dayan remains optimistic that most production houses will ultimately adopt the assumption agreement option to pay benefits to scouts. His long-term goal is to have location scouts included in the next Teamsters drivers’ contract with the AICP. The current drivers’ contract expires in June 2002.
