Film and TV Crew Members Reach a Tentative Deal With Studios to Avoid Another Industry Strike

IATSE members outside Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California last year - Credit: David Livingston/Getty Images

Hollywood may have narrowly avoided another summer of strikes thanks to the IATSE union reaching a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The union, which represents, 170,000 technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry, told its members in a letter Tuesday night that some of the proposed changes include increases in general pay and overtime pay as well as streaming residuals.

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"Hourly workers will receive triple time (3x hourly) when any workday exceeds 15 elapsed hours, all On Call classifications will now receive double time on the 7th day of the workweek, and additional increases in pay will take effect on non-dramatic productions under the Videotape Supplemental Agreement," the letter reads.

The Basic Agreement will also involve new Artificial Intelligence protections, "including language that ensures no employee is required to provide AI prompts in any manner that would result in the displacement of any covered employee."

Members are expected to review the tentative agreement and vote on ratification in the next two weeks.

Back in May, Rolling Stone spoke to a dozen crew members who work in the industry regarding their concerns about safety on set while the union was negotiating their new contracts. All 12 said they hoped the union would prioritize standardized safety inspections and limits on the length of a workday.

"Your wages don't matter if you don't make it home at night," Malakhi Simmons, a lighting technician who is the vice president for the IATSE Local 728 and a part of the negotiating committee, told Rolling Stone at the time. "I think what needs to be changed is the culture. We have a culture in our industry where it's like, 'Just get it done and tough through it'…We need to change the culture of whoever's scheduling these long days because with better scheduling, a lot of this can be avoided."

It's been a chaotic handful of years across the entertainment industry, laden with uncertainty and a lack of job security. From the COVID pandemic shutting down productions and dramatically impacting the business of Hollywood to last summer's dual WGA and SAG strikes, not to mention the changing landscape of studios and streamers, there hasn't been an abundance of stability. With IATSE's tentative new deal, the hope is that productions won't be stalled and the industry can sustain momentum, although what lies ahead for Hollywood is still to be seen.

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