#5 in a Series The Eastern Breeze News and Information from the Eastern Region by Martin Levenstein In December, the Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) concluded a new Eastern Region Majors Contract. This agreement was long in coming. Negotiations had been postponed twice: first in 1997, by agreement between Local 771 and the AMPTP and second, in 1998, because Locals 771 and 776 were exploring and implementing their merger. Negotiations between the producers and the merged local 700 finally began in March, 1999. The Guild's goal was to achieve a national contract, combining the best parts of the East and West Coast agreements while allowing for some historical differences in hours and conditions on each coast. The producers fired their opening volley with a long list of significant giveback demands and indicated that they had no interest in a national contract. Talks were temporarily discontinued because an agreement could not be reached. We met again in June, but these basic positions did not change. Our final meeting occurred on December 16th. Ron Kutak, our executive director, led the negotiations for the Guild. In a show of solidarity, he was joined by IATSE President Tom Short. Our team also included: Donn Cambern, Guild President Lorraine Seidel, Assistant Executive Director, Eastern Region Norman Gay, Eastern Region Business Representative Louis Bertini , Eastern Region Board Member & Health/Pension Fund Trustee Steven Spivak , Guild attorney Joe Aredas, IATSE International Representative-In-Charge myself, Guild Second Vice President, Eastern Region Ron began by reiterating our desire to negotiate the Local 771 Majors Agreement as part of a national contract for Local 700. The producers replied again that they had no interest in a national contract. After a heated exchange, the parties caucused separately. Both sides seemed to realize that they were too far apart to continue. When we returned, we began exploring the possibility of simplifying our goals and finally settled on preserving the Local 771 Majors Agreement but with a significant wage increase. Approval by the committees followed and negotiations were concluded. Though this outcome did not meet all our goals, it brought us an important wage increase of more than 9% (which went into effect on January 1st, 2000). The result is that New York members have lost none of their hard-won benefits and conditions, some of which are superior to those on the West Coast, and it makes our majors contract one of the best in the region. Since this would have been the last year of a three year contract, it will expire December 31, 2000. Preparations will soon begin to negotiate a successor agreement.   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 21, No. 1 - Jan/Feb 2000   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 2000, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700