LABOR MATTERS
Directors, Writers Agree on New Contracts
compiled by Jeff Burman
 Jeffrey Burman |
Negotiators for the directors and producers agreed to increase health care payments for directors but did not raise payments for DVD sales and rentals in a new three-year contract reached in late September, wrote Sharon Waxman in The New York Times on September 24.
Just weeks later, the Writers Guild of America (WGA), abandoning hope for higher DVD payouts, agreed to a tentative three-year deal with studios and networks that includes hikes worth $58 million, two-thirds of which are in health care gains, wrote Dave McNary in Variety on October 13.
The companies' contribution to the WGA's health plan will increase from 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent and possibly go to 9 percent in the last year of the contract. That should leave the health plan with a six-month reserve at the end of the contract.
The spotlight now shifts to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which are expected to launch negotiations later this fall, wrote Dave McNary in Variety, also on September 24.
DVDs and video-on-demand, the revenues of which have exploded in the last few years, have been an issue for all the Hollywood labor unions. But negotiators for the DGA said it was not the paramount issue for them.
“We never made it a critical issue. Our critical issues were health care, one, two and three,” said Gil Cates, the chairman of the negotiating committee for the Directors Guild of America (DGA). “We have a very good residual formula for DVDs, and we felt that it was not an issue we wanted to deal with during this negotiation.” In the new agreement, the studios agreed to increase payments to the union’s health plan by at least $40 million.
 ShopUnionMade.org offers a wide range of gift items for that special activist on your holiday shopping list! "Eight Hours," above, is a woodblock print by Ricardo Levins Morales, offered by the Northland Poster Collective. Used with permission. Visit www.northlandposter.com. |
Unions have argued that their members deserve a bigger piece. But the studios have said they won’t budge on the issue, contending that the profits are needed to offset soaring production and marketing costs, wrote James Bates in The Los Angeles Times on Sep-tember 24.
Faced with such resistance, DGA President Michael Apted said members were earning “unprecedented residuals” from home video, citing a 54 percent increase since 2000 to $53 million a year.
New York Governor Approves Film Production Incentives
New York Governor George Pataki has approved the first tax credit to benefit
film and television productions in New York, and many in the industry say
the incentive will help lure more film productions to the city and the state
and counter the flight of film jobs to Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, wrote
Ian Mohr in The Hollywood Reporter on August 25, and Glenn Collins in The
New York Times on August 17.
Passed as part of the budget approved by the state senate and assembly, the legislation commits the state to contributing $25 million annually for four years––a total of $100 million––in offering a 10 percent tax credit on the so-called below-the-line production costs, largely for blue-collar technicians and crew members. Actors’ wages and the cost of other creative work like scriptwriting are not included.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzeneg-ger has stated that he wants to pass
similar legislation––next year after the state’s fiscal
crisis has passed––aimed at luring film production back to California,
wrote Jill Goldsmith in Variety on August 12.
Pataki Signs COBRA Bill
Governor Pataki has also signed a bill that will use state money to help actors, performers and other entertainment industry members maintain their health insurance during their all-too-frequent bouts of unemployment, writes Jesse McKinley in The New York Times on September 23.
The bill, which was passed by the state legislature earlier this year and signed by the governor in September, will allow eligible unemployed entertainers to receive 50 percent of monthly premium payments to their individual union insurance plans, as prescribed by federal insurance laws.
Canadian Production on the Decline
There’s been a subtle shift in where productions are doing principal
photography, with Canada––which has long been synonymous with
the phrase “runaway production”––facing a production
drop of 20-25 percent this year, writes Dave McNary in Variety on September
5.
Key factors sucking the air out of the Canadian balloon:
•Hollywood is spending more money on fewer films, which means more
competition by locations for prime projects. As a result, producers get impressive
incentive offers from everywhere in the world, from Prague to Pretoria.
•The disappearance of Canadian tax shelters for films, which were popular
for major studio productions between 1998 and 2002, could take as much as
9 percent off the table.
“I can’t say what the impact of taking away the shelters was, but if the government were to reinstitute the shelters on terms equal to a few years ago, there’d be a line of people tomorrow wanting to apply,” said Mark Prior, president of Toronto-based Entertainment Partners Canada.
AMPAS, BAFTA Offer Members ‘Secure’ DVD Players
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and the British Academy
of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) will make available a secure DVD player
from Dolby subsidiary Cinea, designed to prevent voting members from illegally
copying films competing for awards.
BAFTA will distribute the SV300 DVD players to its voting members for films competing in the Orange British Academy Film Awards, which takes place February 12, 2005. The Oscar Awards take place February 27.
Just in Time for the Holidays: An All-Union Shopping Network
A new all-union shopping web site was launched on September 1 at http://www.
shopunionmade.org.
 "Defend Public Education" by Ricardo Levins Morales. Used with permission. Visit www.northlandposter.com. |
The Union Label and Service Trades Department of the AFL-CIO created the site to boost sales of union-made goods and services, particularly for the holidays. What can you get? Artwork, books, candy, clothes, computers, flowers, food, music, sports gear, toys and even vacations.
Economist Rejects Globalization’s Benefits
At age 89, Paul Samuelson, the Nobel Prize-winning economist and professor
emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), still seems to
have plenty of intellectual edge, writes Steve Lohr in The New York Times
on September 9.
Samuelson asserts as “a popular polemical untruth” the assumption that the laws of economics dictate that the American economy will benefit in the long run from all forms of international trade, including the outsourcing abroad of call-center and software programming jobs.
According to Samuelson, the global spread of lower-cost computing and Internet communications breaks down the old geographic boundaries between labor markets and could accelerate the pressure on wages across large swaths of the service economy. “If you don’t believe that changes the average wages in America, then you believe in the tooth fairy,” Samuelson said.
For generations of undergraduates, starting in 1948, the study of economics has meant a Samuelson textbook, now in its 18th edition. Because he has taught at MIT for six decades, the elite ranks of the economics profession are filled with Samuelson’s former students.
Federal Pension Guarantor Faces Grim Prognosis
It has been a struggle for some, particularly US airlines, but most big companies
are coming up with enough cash to keep their pension funds legally sound,
after three years of extraordinary losses. Not so their government backstop.
Slowly but surely, the federal agency that insures pensions is running out
of money, writes Mary Williams Walsh in The New York Times on September 14.
An independent analysis of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, made available to The New York Times, suggests that the agency will go broke in 2020 if current financial conditions persist. If the pension agency goes broke, one of two things would happen: The retirees who rely on it would stop getting their checks, or the taxpayers would have to bail the agency out. The agency currently pays benefits to more than a million people whose pension plans have collapsed. It also guarantees benefits promised to 43 million more people, according to Walsh.
Can This Man Save Labor?
Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
wants to radically retool the U.S. labor movement, writes Aaron Bernstein
in BusinessWeek on September 13.
When the New Unity Partnership (NUP) proposals emerged last year, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney quickly announced he would run again, surprising many who had expected him to retire. Five men, including Stern, the heads of the carpenters, the laborers, and the needle trades and hotel workers unions, which merged this summer, formed the NUP in 2003 to showcase what they want to do.
Now NUP, led by Stern, is accelerating its campaign, hoping to shake up the entire 16 million-member labor movement. The goal is to get unions growing again. Stern, who leads by far the largest and fastest-growing U.S. union, is aiming high, planning to force the federation to confront its malaise with constitutional changes when the AFL-CIO meets next July for its quadrennial convention.
Capturing the leadership is also in the plan; John Wilhelm, former hotel workers president and NUPster, is likely to run against Sweeney, who’s up for re-election next year. In a sign of how hard-fought the contest could be, United Brotherhood of Carpenters President Douglas McCarron, who quit the AFL-CIO in 2001, swallowed his pride and told the federation chief on August 24 that he would rejoin the AFL-CIO. That would allow him to cast his 520,000-member vote for Wilhelm next summer, adds Bernstein.
While some backers aren’t sure Sweeney really will stand again, insiders and AFL-CIO public affairs chief Denise Mitchell insist that he will, writes Bernstein. Sweeney’s retirement would open the door for 55-year-old AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, a fiery former mine workers union president who has been underutilized by Sweeney’s team but retains strong support among industrial unions. One possible compromise is a unity ticket with Wilhelm and Trumka, who have been friends for years.
Either way, America’s unions are poised for an internal debate more wide-ranging than any they have had in decades.
Jeff Burman represents Sound Editors on the Guild's Board of Directors. He can be reached at jeffrey.burman@nbcuni.com.