IATSE Members Overwhelmingly Ratify Hollywood Basic and Area Standards Agreements
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) announced its members have overwhelmingly voted to ratify both the 2024-2027 Hollywood Basic Agreement and the 2024-2027 Area Standards Agreement, Thursday.
With 85.9% of members’ votes in favor of approving the Hollywood Basic and 87.2% in favor of approving the Area Standards Agreement, all Locals voted in favor and the delegate counts in favor were unanimous for both contracts. Turnout was historically high, with strong majorities of members participating in both votes.
This represents only the second time in history that the Hollywood Basic and Area Standards agreements were negotiated and voted on concurrently. The Hollywood Basic Agreement is an umbrella contract covering roughly 45,000 behind-the-scenes film and television workers primarily located in Los Angeles, across IATSE’s 13 West Coast Studio Locals. The Area Standards Agreement covers 23 local unions and approximately 25,000 film and television workers across the U.S., excluding Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.
IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb said, “IATSE’s rank-and-file members have spoken, and their will is clear. Between significant wage increases in addition to several craft-specific adjustments, bolstered health/pension benefits with new funding mechanisms, improved safety provisions, critical protections preventing misuse of artificial intelligence from displacing IATSE members, and more — The gains secured in these contracts mark a significant step forward for America’s film and tv industry and its workers. This result shows our members agree, and now we must build on what these negotiations achieved.”
With these contracts going into effect August 4, IATSE will continue to educate its members on the new terms and launch an enforcement campaign during the deal’s three year term. Additionally, IATSE looks to continuing their support the Teamsters and Hollywood Basic Crafts, who remain in Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — as well as the Animation Guild as their agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are set to expire on August 16th.