by David Robb

Negotiations will begin Monday for a new contract covering some 38,000 Hollywood-based members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. A strike is considered highly unlikely, as the union has never launched an industry-wide strike and there don’t appear to be any pressing strike issues. As long as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers doesn’t ask for any major rollbacks and the union doesn’t try to make any major gains beyond the bargaining pattern set in deals ratified last year by the DGA, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the talks should wrap up in about two weeks.

The current contract, which expires July 31, covers 14 Hollywood locals representing a wide range of behind-the-scenes film and TV workers including cinematographers, editors, art directors, costumers, sound technicians, animators, grips, lighting technicians, prop makers, studio teachers, set painters, script supervisors, publicists, makeup artists and hairstylists.

A separate round of talks – the last in the current three-year cycle of industry negotiations – will get under way in May for a new contract covering Teamsters Local 399 and the Basic Crafts unions representing laborers, plasterers and plumbers.

http://deadline.com/2015/04/iatse-contract-talks-alliance-of-motion-picture-television-producers-1201404202/