The unions represented Hollywood’s Basic Crafts ratified a new three-year contract agreed to with Hollywood’s studios. The unions involved in the agreement include the Teamsters, Electricians, Plumbers, and other essential trades.
The negotiation was a tense affair that was not completed until the final days of the current agreement which expired on July 31st. As recently as July 27th, the Teamsters were signaling that they were prepared to go out on strike if studios did not agree to an acceptable increase in compensation and other key terms.
However, on the very next day the two sides announced that they had settled their differences and come to an agreement. The members of all unions voted quickly to ratify the agreement and call off a planned strike.
This circumstance was only the latest scare in Hollywood, after struggling to recover from the crushing impact of last year’s strikes by writers and actors. Last month, the IATSE union representing Hollywood’s “below the line” production workers agreed to own a three-year contract with the studios after prolonged negotiations.
At the time, IATSE negotiators had staked out adversarial positions on a variety of issues and threatened a strike if the studios did not accept their terms. Tough talk from the Basic Crafts unions had many wondering if yet another strike was imminent, disrupting production once again and sending the entertainment industry off a financial cliff. In the end, all parties recognized the danger and resolved their differences.