Georgia film and TV crews are waking up Wednesday to some possible good news: IATSE, which represents most TV and film crew members, released a statement at about midnight stating that a tentative contract deal has been struck with AMPTP, the group representing major media companies.
The IATSE unions representing workers outside the West Coast, including the local union 479 based in Atlanta, are still negotiating a separate deal, but The Wrap, an industry publication, said its sources expect that contract to be resolved soon. In all, IATSE represents more than 150,000 workers in North America including stagehands, wardrobe attendants, makeup artists and animators.
In a memo to IATSE members, some of the gains were summarized, including wage increases of 7% in the first year of the contract, followed by 4% and 3.5% in subsequent years. If a production goes beyond 15 hours, pay triples. There are also protections regarding artificial intelligence.
More details will come once both contracts have been agreed upon.
Last year, the dual writers and actors strike shut down a vast majority of production for months and the industry has yet to fully recover as streaming services tightened their belts and fears of artificial intelligence taking away jobs were amplified.
Even if the three-year deal passes, it may take several months before productions are in full gear again. The current IATSE contract was set to end July 31 so many current films and TV shows are set to wrap before then.
This means Georgia may see a slower than normal summer. Currently, about 39 active TV shows and movies are on the Georgia film office list, which is down slightly from a month ago.
Current active productions include NBC’s second season of “Found,” a “Naked Gun” reboot starring Liam Neeson, an Amazon Christmas movie “Oh. What. Fun” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and the second season of Sylvester Stallone’s Paramount+ series “Tulsa King.”
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