Global Courant
Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 has reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Independent Commercial Producers on terms for two three-year contracts, thus averting a threatened strike.
One of the contracts covers drivers, wranglers, animal handlers/trainers and hyphenated drivers. The other covers location scout/managers in commercials. The union’s current contracts had both been set to expire on June 30.
Overall, there are about 500 of the local’s members who work regularly in commercials, although more than 1,000 of its members have worked at least one-day under the contracts over the last year.
Earlier this month, Lindsay Dougherty, the local’s principal officer, threatened to take “a commercial break” if the AICP did not offer a fair contract. “If we are provoked,” she said, “we will strike.”
In the wake of the new deal she said that “We are happy that we were able to reach a tentative agreement that addresses our members core issues prior to the end of the month.”
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According to the local, key bargaining issues included enhanced overtime compensation and addressing work that happens off the clock during the prep and wrap of commercials.
“I want to commend our member-led bargaining committee,” said Joshua Staheli, vice president of Teamsters Local 399 and chief negotiator with the AICP. “Our committee was engaged and involved the entire way. Each member brought something to the table to help the companies truly understand the issues both on the driver, animal handler/trainer and wrangler agreement, as well as a location scout manager agreement. Even though these are two different contracts with many unique issues, these two committees came together and fought for each other, side by side, the whole way. We are proud of their hard work.”
The local said that no details of the deal will be shared until an informational ratification meeting on June 28.
