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COMCAST MID-ATLANTIC
Continuing its longstanding drive to empower freelancers
with union representation, IATSE overwhelmingly won
a 2005 vote to represent freelance technicians at Comcast
Sports Net Mid-Atlantic. The unit included technical directors,
camera operators, video operators, digital recording device
operators, audio technicians, graphics operators, audio
assistants, video assistants, utility technicians, score box operators,
stage managers, phone ad’s, font coordinators and
runners engaged by the company on live sports telecasts in
Maryland and Virginia.
TRO CREWING, INC.
In 2005, IATSE achieved blanket sports broadcasting coverage
in Arizona, when Local 748 members overwhelmingly ratified
an agreement with TRO Crewing, Inc. The contract, modeled
after IATSE contracts with Fox Sports Net Arizona and
Burke Brothers Productions, included immediate health and
welfare and annuity contributions, as well as subsequent pension
contributions.
BIG TEN NETWORK
In another breakthrough with sports broadcasters, more
than one-hundred and twenty-five local freelance broadcast
workers at the Big Ten Network voted overwhelmingly to be represented
by the IATSE in 2014, after often going for years without
raises and working with no guaranteed overtime or holiday pay.
The next year, they ratified the first ever college sports network
union contract with IATSE Local 745 in Minnesota, and
Local 414 in Wisconsin. Broadcast workers at the University of
Wisconsin and University of Minnesota campuses received guaranteed
rate increases, health contributions, and eventually pension
and annuity contributions under the new contract. These
workers produced telecasts of events ranging from Championship
Women’s Volleyball to Big Time College Football, featuring
some of the top ranked teams in the nation.
MUSIC VIDEOS
In the wake of the MTV phenomenon, IATSE’s long efforts
to organize this growing sector of the entertainment industry
bore fruit in 2005, with the signing of the four-year Music Videos
Production Agreement (MPVA). The contract increased wages
and benefit contributions, and made other improvements protecting
the safety and quality of life of members servicing these
productions.
CANADIAN ORGANIZING
For the past two decades, there has been an explosive growth
in motion picture production in Canada — both domesticallymade
films and Hollywood productions choosing to film in many
cities throughout Canada. Throughout this period, the Canadian
Affairs and IATSE’s Canadian local unions worked tenaciously to
ensure that every motion picture production used Alliance crews.
In Quebec, IATSE Locals 514 and 667 worked closely with La
Fédération des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) to
ensure that all productions were IATSE productions. As FTQ President
Henri Massé said in 2007, “The IATSE has a long and proud
history of representing employees working in the entertainment
industry in Québec since 1898. There needs to be one union to
represent the interests of motion picture workers in Québec and
that union is the IATSE. These Locals are committed, and we owe
it in good part to their determination that Montreal once again
has the favorable conditions to attract important American productions
that threatened to go and shoot elsewhere.”
On Canada’s West Coast, IATSE established a Vancouver office
in 2007 to support continued membership growth. President
Short said, “It is our intention to use the IATSE’s enhanced
presence in western Canada to take advantage of organizing
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