Members of the Teamsters Local 399 have ratified a new three-year agreement that will offer members three percent annual raises, penalties for shortened weekends and their first New Media sideletter.
Local 399 announced on Wednesday that 89 percent of voting members voted “yes” on their “Black Book” agreement and 11 percent voted “no.” Turnout was 67 percent, “one of the highest in the Local’s recent history” for the contract, according to 399. The “Black Book” agreement applies to members including drivers, dispatchers, animal trainers/handlers, wranglers, mechanics, auto service and DOT administrators. Some of the deal’s terms, such as the three percent annual wage increase and infusion of funds into the health and pension plan, are retroactive to when the predecessor agreement was originally set to expire on August 1, 2021.
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Members also ratified an addendum agreement to the “Black Book” contract that covers chef assistants (who recently joined the Local, in 2020) and chef assistant-drivers on film and television productions in a separate vote on Wednesday. For that vote, with 72 percent voter turnout, 98.4 percent of members voted “yes” and 1.6 percent voted “no.”
“Our rank-and-file members have been with us every step of the way throughout these negotiations,” Teamsters Local 399 recording secretary and lead negotiator Lindsay Dougherty said in a statement. “Our goal as the negotiating committee was to address our members’ core issues and leave no money on the table… Our members ultimately had the final say on their contract. Their overwhelming vote in favor of ratification gives me the confidence that they were heard loud and clear through this round of bargaining.”
Like the IATSE agreement that preceded it, the new “Black Book” deal addresses certain issues pertaining to rest and safety and work-life balance. The agreement implements financial penalties for weekend turnarounds that are shorter than 54 hours, adds triple-time overtime wages for 16 elapsed hours, institutionalizes a budget-based media sideletter, adds Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a holiday and offers a $3 cell phone allowance each day. Teamsters Local 399 members also won an additional $10 a day in meal money, for a total of $50.
Members first received a one-sheet summary of the deal on Jan. 31 and, the following weekend, Local 399 offered an informational meeting to discuss the agreement in greater detail. After that meeting, the Local released a memorandum of agreement, summarizing the agreement in more detail, and summary of key changes to members. Members voted on ratification electronically between Sunday, Feb. 6 and Wednesday, Feb. 9, with a simple majority deciding the deal’s fate.
The “Black Book” agreement is negotiated as part of the Hollywood Basic Crafts negotiations process with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Ratification votes on the tentative Basic Crafts agreement will take place separately at IBEW Local 40, OPCMIA Local 755 Plasterers and UA Local 78 Plumbers later this week.
Dougherty, who is also the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ Western vice president-elect, led negotiations on behalf of the Basic Crafts and will soon be heading up negotiations for Local 399’s casting director and location manager members. “Teamsters know that the fight doesn’t stop after a contract is ratified,” she said in a statement. “There are always more issues to be addressed and gains to achieve for our members. I believe this agreement lays a strong foundation for our next round of bargaining.”
