As IATSE ‘s contract ratification vote begins today, union members pressed leaders Saturday during a virtual town hall for details on the AI provisions of the contract negotiated over the past four months with Hollywood’s major studios and streamers. IATSE held a nearly three-hour session with IATSE International president Matthew Loeb and other leaders for the roughly 50,000 members of the 13 locals that work under the Basic Agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Variety has learned. IATSE members began voting today to ratify the three-year tentative agrement reached on June 26.
IATSE leaders vowed earlier this year to have the new deal ratified before the July 31 expiration of the current contract. Guild members will vote through July 17 on whether to approve the contract. The results are scheduled to be announced July 18.
Sources who spoke with Variety are convinced that pact will be ratified this week. There’s hope that a swift passage will spur an uptick in work as production has been slow and many in the industry have been out of work for an extended period. The IATSE contract talks were carefully watched this year on the heels of last year’s long strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA.
On the thorny subject of AI, the big focus is how the technology will impact job retention. Loeb and members of the union’s contract negotiating committee effectively conveyed to members during the town hall that this deal is a st.
