Negotiators from Hollywood Basic Crafts stand outside the offices of the Motion Picture and Television Producers Association.
Courtesy of Teamsters Local 399
At the end of the latest week of negotiations with Hollywood studios and distributors, the unions that make up the Hollywood Basic Crafts Coalition struck a defiant tone.
The union said in a statement on Wednesday that the entertainment giants at the negotiating table “can and should respect” the workers they collectively represent, including about 7,600 drivers, electricians, plasterers, caterers, plumbers, laborers, location managers and animal trainers.
The group, which is made up of Teamsters Local 399, IBEW Local 40, LiUNA! Local 724, UA Local 78 and OPCMIA Local 755, said it expects that in the coming weeks “we will see companies attempt to use fear tactics against the reasonable terms our members are seeking in these negotiations,” but did not specify what those tactics might be. Additionally, the group argued that “it is not our members who are being expected to balance the budget for the company's poor business decisions from the past year.”
On Tuesday, the Federation of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents management in Hollywood labor negotiations, presented its latest counterproposal to the union. Hollywood Basic Crafts Group said it would have a response ready by the time talks resume on Monday, July 8. Negotiations are currently scheduled to end on July 19, ahead of a July 31 deadline for some contracts.
When talks resume on Monday, “we hope that the AMPTP will be ready to sit down at the negotiating table again, negotiate and be 'considerate' of the issues facing its members,” Hollywood Basic Crafts said.. “As we have said before, we are not interested in negotiating against us and we are prepared to ask for additional dates to ensure that our members’ core priorities are heard, understood and acted upon by their employers. [sic] If you're not ready by July 19th,
The Hollywood Reporter AMPTP has been contacted for comment.
The last time Hollywood Basic Crafts updated its members on the negotiations, union leaders argued that the studios were showing a “lack of urgency” in addressing members' core concerns. “We want to make it clear that at the end of negotiations, scheduled for June, we have no intention of negotiating against ourselves,” Hollywood Basic Crafts President Lindsay Doherty and four other union leaders said at the time.
The two latest messages from the Hollywood Basic Crafts negotiating team are different in tone from those sent by fellow crew union IATSE, which has given its members the impression throughout recent discussions on the Master Agreement and Area Standards Agreement that progress has been made at the negotiating table. IATSE reached tentative agreement on the Master Agreement on June 25 and the Area Standards Agreement on June 27.
With contracts for key crew members nearly complete, and IATSE members need to ratify the contracts before they go into effect, all eyes are on Hollywood Basic Crafts as negotiations approach the July 31 deadline. Thursday In June, she said there were no plans to hold a strike authorization vote, but if members reject what leaders have agreed to, “that's a strike authorization.”
