IATSE vs. Studios: Fear, Smoke and Possible Fire
The union's Mike Miller tells me, 'Nobody's looking to win the lottery. We're looking to be treated fairly'
As promised, my new paid standalone Series Business newsletter (fka Strikegeist) will offer periodic stories about labor FREE to all our subscribers. I’m happy to make today’s newsletter available to all.
Two editions of Series Business in a week? What could merit such a thing? Answer: Netflix, the $260 billion market cap streaming giant, creeping into the $70 billion-plus global TV sports business, and now the possibility of another industry-paralyzing shutdown.
Talks are underway between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and Hollywood Basic Crafts. Recall: IATSE is negotiating two contracts expiring July 31 that impact more than 60,000 film and TV workers. First up on the docket are pension and health benefits, which the union is negotiating in conjunction with Basic Crafts, a group of unions that include Hollywood’s Teamsters, electrical workers, laborers, plumbers and plasterers. (After health benefits are sorted, IATSE will then negotiate its own specific issues with the AMPTP.)
So far, this coalition has given the AMPTP an initial set of pension and health proposals, with talks expected to continue all week, according to an update by IATSE on Monday. A kick-off rally on March 3 was livestreamed on YouTube and accrued comments speaking to the state of workers in Hollywood:
I spoke with IATSE VP Mike Miller on Friday about the issues that matter to his members, and I also got a sense from one senior studio exec about what some of the challenges, from their view, might be in implementing those demands.
Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll learn in this edition:
IATSE’s quality-of-life framing of its demands
How the studios might frame their position about costs
If WGA and SAG-AFTRA are ready to support IATSE
The state of safety conditions in 2024
The impact of artificial intelligence on Hollywood crews
IATSE’s resolve to strike after last year
What Does IATSE Want?
“Nobody's looking to win the lottery,” says Miller. “We're looking to be treated fairly.” He frames his concerns in the context of the kind of quality-of-life issues that are widely popular: Spending time with their families “for an hour or two a day.” Being able to pay their bills. Making sure that they have health care and retirement benefits. “Rents are so expensive, interest rates are rising and groceries are exorbitant,” he notes. “That has had a very serious effect on our membership.”
In 2021, IATSE secured additional 10-hour minimum rest periods for more classifications, but crews still work “extraordinarily long days,” Miller notes.
“I think that reasonable people could agree that 10 hours off is not a significant amount of time, particularly if you're wrestling with L.A. traffic,” says Miller. “The idea that overtime can be a disincentive to long days is going to be helpful. It's not safe. It's not beneficial to anybody to work 15, 16, 18-hour days. Just because we can doesn't mean we should.”
Safe working conditions are a perennial concern for crews who work long days, often in far-flung locales. A long commute to and from, say, a production in the middle of a New Mexico desert, could lead to nearly falling asleep behind the wheel on a long drive home.
When I asked if the recent death of a crew member on Marvel’s Wonder Man tied into the union’s concerns around on-set conditions, Miller would only say that “the obligation to provide a safe workplace is absolutely the employers’, and we are going to continue to hold our employers responsible for that.”
The union intends to propose having safety supervisors on sets.
The Studios: Focused on Costs
However, at least one senior studio executive I spoke to earlier this year contends that there are no easy fixes to those core issues. If crews want pay increases, that means higher production costs.
“Where do you save that money? Shoot less days? With simpler scripts? With fewer principal actors in an episode? That’s the only way to manage it on the creative side. Stage-rental costs are ridiculously high now, because no matter what city you go to, they’re full.”
When I asked why studios don’t just add filming days to the production if crews need more rest breaks, this studio exec replied, “You can’t take days off because you’re renting stages — you really need to be working five-day weeks. What you could do is instead of a 10-day episode, you do an 11-day episode — but now you’ve added a day of shooting to each episode. That’s $300,000 to $400,000 extra.”
Other considerations by the AMPTP: As Teamsters boss Lindsay Dougherty told me last week, not all studios and streamers are playing the same game — or, as she asserted, even getting along. “The problem is, ultimately, their room is divided. You have two different types of companies in that room,” Dougherty told me. “None of them like each other. So it's hard to get anything done.”
After all, a (for-sale) Paramount might have a different view on spending; Warner Bros. Discovery already in its most recent earnings reported losses at its film studio and ongoing declines in its linear business. But hey — if Disney, WBD and Fox can come together for Sports Hulu, anything is possible.
What About the WGA and SAG-AFTRA?
On the picket lines last summer, IATSE members marched alongside writers and actors in their quest for higher wages, streaming pay parity and AI protections. So far, WGA and SAG-AFTRA members seem poised to return the favor.
At the solidarity rally on Sunday, scribes and performers joined IATSE, Teamsters and other Basic Crafts unions, chanting “Nothing moves without the crew!” Trade reports put the estimated crowd at around 1,000 people, and writers and actors, from Adam Conover to Evan Handler, turned out in support.
That kind of cross-union solidarity could make all the difference for IATSE as it embarks on what could be a months-long negotiation over two contracts. Many writers who waged war against the studios both in 2007 and again in 2023 notably felt less alone in their fight last year, bolstering their resolve. The WGA’s and SAG-AFTRA’s recent wins are likely to stoke the fire under the stagehands union as they look for improved safety conditions and higher compensation.
IATSE’s AI Worries
During the 2023 strikes, we got a pretty good idea of the things that kept writers and actors up at night when it came to AI. Will studios try to use ChatGPT to develop or write scripts? Can it use a performer’s likeness without their consent or own it in perpetuity?
With crew, the worries are more varied, given the wide range of professions under the IATSE umbrella, from motion-picture editors to lighting technicians. Miller rattles off “costume designers, production designers, lighting designers” as all potentially being impacted. “The ability to create digital scenery that replaces prop makers, building of sets,” he adds, or the “digital application of makeup and hair to actors” are other trades where AI could replace jobs. (Tyler Perry recently said that he used AI to save hours in makeup on two forthcoming films.)
AI could even have an effect off set, in the production office, Miller says. “Scheduling, ordering of supplies — administrative AI is also impactful to many of our jobs.” As a result, “we have to put our members in a position to feel like they have some job security . . . that they're not going to be replaced with machines or robots.”
The Big Q: Will IATSE Strike?
Nearly three years ago, members were pretty willing to walk off the job — and had a near unanimous strike authorization vote to prove it. This time around, despite members being strained by pandemic-era production shutdowns and last year’s work stoppages, Miller pushed back on the idea that people would just be happy to go back to work without bargaining hard for a deal.
“It would be a real mistake for anyone to think that we’re weakened because of that. That approach was tried and tested in 2021 [after Covid], and I think that we are in a really strong position going in.”
With IATSE unwilling to extend past the July 31 deadline, this means the union will be standing firm on working toward a deal over the next few months — or else.