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Agreement Raises Wages by More Than 20 Percent Over Course of Four-Year
Contract
June 24, 2005
Hollywood's casting directors overwhelmingly have voted to
become members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, completing a
organizing process that included the threat of a strike, union officials said
Thursday.
The final tally showed that the casters voted 243-9 to unionize, setting the
stage for them to negotiate a contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture &
Television Producers, which represents the major studios and networks.
"We're very pleased by the results," Teamster Local 399 business agent Steve
Dayan said. "Now comes the hard part -- we have to sit down and negotiate a
collective-bargaining agreement so we can get these guys some medical benefits
and the working conditions that they're entitled to."
The AMPTP refused to grant the casters collective-bargaining status but tried to
resolve the dispute by offering to address one of the casting directors' chief
concerns, health coverage. With the Teamsters' backing, that was rejected as
insufficient and threats were made to walk off the job and have Teamster drivers
and location managers respect the picket lines.
In the end, the industry alliance decided in February to
leave the decision to the casters in an election supervised by the National
Labor Relations Board.
According to Dayan, NLRB officials said it was the smoothest election they've
had in 25 years.
"In light of the election results, we will honor our duty to bargain in good
faith," AMPTP spokeswoman Barbara Brogliatti said.
The casting directors likely will get the health and pension they were seeking
as well as minimum wages and working conditions, but they also will have to
start paying dues and stand ready to support other Teamsters in organizing
efforts.
The industry's resistance was fueled by its belief that casting directors are
independent contracts who, as a rule, can't legally unionize. The Teamsters
maintained that the casters were employees who had an inherent right to
unionize.
It was left to the NLRB to determine who was eligible based on their work
record.
Those members will now be members of Local 399 in Los Angeles and Local 817 in
New York.
The article originally appeared in The Hollywood Reporter
on June 24, 2005, and was written by Jesse Hiestand. |
