Do-Or-Die IATSE Contract Talks Expected To Continue Friday; Carol Lombardini & Matt Loeb Have Long History Of Finding The Deal

IATSE and the AMPTP are “still talking” and are expected to return to the virtual bargaining table again Friday. Armed with strike authorization from his members, IATSE president Matthew Loeb can call a nationwide walkout of film and TV workers at any time if he and AMPTP president Carol Lombardini can’t reach a fair deal.

But if they can make a deal, it would continue their perfect records of major contract talks without a strike.

Lombardini became president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in March 2009, and there hasn’t been an industrywide strike on her watch. Loeb took over as IATSE president less than a year earlier, and there hasn’t been a strike on his watch either. In fact, IATSE never has had an industry-wide strike.

And Lombardini has negotiated a lot of contracts. She also negotiates with SAG-AFTRA, the DGA, the WGA, the American Federation of Musicians, Teamsters Local 399 and the Basic Crafts, and has always made a deal without a strike.

Loeb also has negotiated a wide range of contracts covering films and TV shows, low-budget films, pay-cable TV contracts and videotape agreements – all without any a strike.

The AMPTP says that it negotiates “58 industry-wide collective bargaining agreements on behalf of hundreds of motion picture and television producers.” That’s 58 union contracts that all have to be renegotiated every three years or so. And all done without a single strike – not even a writers strike – during Lombardini’s reign.

This is the fifth time that Lombardini and Loeb have met – though this time virtually – to negotiate a new set of Basic and Area Standards agreements, covering some 60,000 behind-the-scenes workers nationwide. And all without a strike – so far.

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