With 85.9% of members’ votes in favor of approving the Hollywood Basic and 87.2% in favor of approving the Area Standards Agreement, all local unions voted in favor and the delegate counts in favor were unanimous for both contracts.

Turnout was historically high, with strong majorities of members participating in both votes. This represents only the second time in history that the Hollywood Basic and Area Standards agreements were negotiated and voted on concurrently.

The Hollywood Basic Agreement is an umbrella contract covering roughly 45,000 behind-the-scenes film and television workers primarily located in Los Angeles, across IATSE’s 13 West Coast Studio Locals. The Area Standards Agreement covers 23 local unions and approximately 25,000 film and television workers across the U.S., excluding Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.

IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb said, “IATSE’s rank-and-file members have spoken, and their will is clear. Between significant wage increases, several craft-specific adjustments, bolstered health/pension benefits with new funding mechanisms, improved safety provisions, critical protections preventing misuse of artificial intelligence from displacing IATSE members, and more — The gains secured in these contracts mark a significant step forward for America’s film and tv industry and its workers. This result shows our members agree, and now we must build on what these negotiations achieved.”

With these contracts going into effect August 4, IATSE will continue to educate its members on the new terms and launch an enforcement campaign during the deal’s three year term.

Additionally, IATSE looks to continuing their support the @/Teamsters_399 and the Hollywood Basic Crafts, who remain in Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — as well as the @/animationguild as their agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is set to expire on August 16th.

I never met Rico Priem but I did know Spike who fell to his death from completely neglected 100-year-old wooden catwalks back in February. For a goddamn Marvel show.

I just got back from a candlelit vigil and walk for our fallen union kin. A lot of people mentioned both of those men as well as Halyna Hutchins, the director of photography who died on Rust.

Before Rust, the most recent preventable death in the industry was Sarah Jones, a young camera assistant who was killed when her production failed to secure the correct permits to film on train tracks.

The vigil pretty much became a live version of the Instagram, ia_stories. (Where people anonymously post their onset horror stories)

I wanted to mention it to my fellow crew members but didn't get a chance, but the amount of television fans that supported us during the strikes and were even enraged when Rico died meant the absolute world to us. I found out about Rico's death from a Facebook post of one of his friends, it didn't go into detail. I googled it and one of the first links was your blog and after learning more I posted my own post out of absolute disgust and anger.

We're literally dying to entertain you and the support does not go unnoticed. So thank you.