Even before the ink dried on two major IATSE and Teamsters Local 399 contracts at the end of 2021 and start of 2022, members of the unions — which collectively represent a significant portion of union crewmembers in the Los Angeles area — were fretting about climbing consumer prices. But especially now, after inflation hit 40-year highs at several points in 2022 (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index measuring all items), some are arguing that the 3 percent compounded annual scale increases codified in IATSE’s Basic Agreement and the Teamsters’ “Black Book” contract aren’t cutting it.
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“We’ve massively seen a rise in the price of everyday goods of almost all kinds,” says IATSE Local 600 member and camera assistant Andy Kennedy-Derkay. He notes that, due to the travel his job requires, he sometimes uses a full tank of gas in a day, taking a chunk out of his daily paycheck when prices at the pump are steep. (An IATSE spokesperson notes that their 2021 Basic Agreement offered lowest-paid members of Local 871 much larger minimum wage bumps than 3 percent, and that changes in other areas, like meal penalties and overtime, can improve compensation as well in a field where sprawling work days are standard.)
Faced with a harsh economic environment, union reps say inflation likely will play a role in talks for agreements expiring in 2024 as well as in more immediate negotiations. (Soon to be hashed out are IATSE’s Pay TV agreements and Low-Budget Theatrical agreement, as well as the Teamsters Local 399’s Commercials contract.) “We’re planning for that now, coming up with our proposals and just prepping for our contract negotiations,” says Local 399 secretary-treasurer Lindsay Dougherty, who also oversees Teamsters entertainment organizing in North America. Adds the Motion Picture Editors Guild’s (IATSE Local 700) national executive director Cathy Repola, “I think that there’s a general recognition that, because of inflation, the traditional 3 percent wage increases are not enough.”
The bumps from 2017 to 2021 have cumulatively lagged behind the increased cost of living in Los Angeles, according to the Consumer Price Index. While the union increases over that same period have outpaced the national inflation rate, workers aren’t thinking about how their 2018 salary increase stacked up to the CPI when their most recent bump is well below the current year-over-year inflation rate.
Since both industry employers and unions sometimes look to “pattern bargaining” — pointing to recent changes in one union’s agreement to argue for similar provisions in another’s — to gain an edge in negotiations, all eyes are now on the Directors Guild. The DGA will kick off the latest round of major Hollywood labor talks sometime before its latest Basic Agreement expires in July (a guild spokesperson says the union doesn’t have a timeline for talks yet). Dougherty says industry employers don’t want to “upset the applecart” by ceding more ground to one union than another. Still, according to a spokesperson for IATSE, “The standards can change at any point, and one person sets a precedent and then other people will fight for that.”
This story first appeared in the Oct. 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
