Postproduction workers at Vice Media have ratified a new three-year IATSE contract that reduces their working hours per week without diminishing their net weekly compensation.
After months of negotiations, in a meeting on Saturday 97 percent of eligible Vice Media workers voted to ratify the agreement, which will decrease previously standard 50-hour work weeks to 40-hour work weeks. IATSE Local 700, the Motion Picture Editors Guild, bargains on behalf of about 100 staff and freelance postproduction workers based at the company’s Brooklyn headquarters and working in unscripted television, digital video and broadcast news. The Guild announced the deal’s ratification on Sunday.
Related Stories
“Behind every piece of content on a screen there are hundreds of talented workers losing sleep and time well-spent with their loved ones,” Vice News Tonight editor and negotiating committee member Ilaria Polsonetti said in a statement. “Today we said enough is enough, a different way of working in film and TV is possible. I hope what we accomplished here can be a stepping stone towards reclaiming the healthier work-life balance that is so badly needed in our industry.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Vice Media for comment.
While the reduction in weekly work hours without diminishment of weekly pay will result in higher hourly rates for all, another key feature of the agreement, the Guild says, is that the unit’s lowest-paid employees will receive a higher pay increase (an 8 percent increase to guaranteed net weekly pay). Minimum hourly rate increases enshrined in the contract range from 8.1 percent for the unit’s highest-paid role to 48.4 percent for its lowest-paid role. Employees covered by the contract will also receive a $750 ratification bonus.
“We are pleased that, in VICE, we had a bargaining partner who recognized that time off the clock is critical to workers’ well-being,” Editors Guild national executive director Cathy Repola, who led negotiations on behalf of the union with Vice Media, said in a statement. She added that she hopes this agreement will be “precedent-setting” and said, “Other employers in our industry should aspire to offer their employees the sort of sustainable, healthy hours our members at VICE will now enjoy.”
Work-life balance was also a key issue during IATSE’s Basic Agreement negotiations last summer and fall, which resulted in the union securing an unprecedented strike authorization vote and ultimately narrowly ratifying a deal with employers. In December, the Writers Guild East ratified a new contract deal with Vice Media covering 160 workers. The contract will raise minimum salaries to $63,000 by the end of its three-year term and offer minimum annual raises ranging from 3 to 3.75 percent.
