Teamsters Local 399 & 817 Ratify New 3-Year Agreement for Los Angeles and New York Casting Professionals
New York and Los Angeles Casting Professionals Ratify New 3-Year Deal with AMPTP with 91.85% accept vote.
(Los Angeles / New York): Today, Teamsters Local 399 in Los Angeles and Local 817 out of New York announced that Casting Directors, Associate Casting Directors, and the newly organized Casting Assistants have ratified a new 3-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP).
This ratification comes after negotiations that took place over August and September of this year. Mid-August, Casting Assistants unanimously voted to join the Teamsters in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. This election ensured that Casting Assistants, for the first-time ever, would join the existing AMPTP agreement, rounding out a fully unionized Casting Department and making this recent ratification their first Union contract.
The top issues in this round of negotiations were:
Establishing a weekly minimum for Casting Directors in television.
Increasing the Associate Casting Directors compensation to be reflective of their role in the department and their years of experience in the industry.
Securing a first contract for Casting Assistants with yearly wage increases and access to pension and health benefits.
The terms and conditions of the newly ratified agreement can be found in the Memorandum of Agreement and are recapped in the recently published Summary of Key Changes.
“Our Casting Teamsters have always been fighters. Since their original fight for representation in 2006 to now, this group continues to stand united and work collaboratively to understand how to better advocate for the art and craft of Casting, as well as the livelihood of those working in this career.” Lindsay Dougherty, Motion Picture Division Director, and lead negotiator. “I want to commend our member-led committee. They fought until the bitter end in these negotiations on behalf of all classifications, and this group has already begun laying a foundation for our next contract fight and the enforcement of their new agreement that lies ahead.
Key takeaways from new 2024 - 2027 Casting Agreement are:
For the first-time ever, establishing a meaningful weekly minimum rate for Casting Directors working in television to set a floor for compensation that can grow and combat wage deterioration over time.
This minimum also came with language that explicitly allows Casting Directors to continue to negotiate higher rates than the minimums, just not lower.
Significant wage increases for Associate Casting Directors over the life of the agreement. This new rate further acknowledges this group for their years of experience and role they play in the Casting Department.
Associate Casting Directors have also been moved to an on-call Weekly position which in turn secures them additional benefit hours weekly.
Casting Assistants will now have access to Motion Picture Pension & Health Benefits and yearly wage increases.
Both Casting Directors and Associate Casting Directors saw major increases to the base rate on which their IAP retirement benefits are calculated.
The results of the ratification saw an 83% voter turnout with 91.85% YES vote in favor of ratification.
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