IATSE 3rd 2019_web

Director of American Guild of Musical
Artists). Finally, the Local extended deep
gratitude to President Loeb who stood
with and guided Local 798 as they fought
for conditions and pay equity that had
been pernicious and problematic.
President Loeb remarked that the negotiations
were unnecessarily protracted
but had resulted in a successful conclusion
with all of the Local’s issues being addressed
in some way. He commended the
workers for their courage. He especially
expressed his appreciation to the stagehands,
box office, and wardrobe workers
whose support buoyed the makeup artists
and hairstylists. President Loeb noted
that while five hairstylists were impacted
personally this fight was about and for all
workers.
APPEARANCE:
LOCAL NO. USA829,
NEW YORK, NY
Re: Broadway Agreement
Local USA829 National Business
Agent Cecilia A. Friederichs, Local
USA829 President Beverly Miller, Business
Representative for Live Performance
Carl Mulert, and Financial Secretary Michael
Smith appeared before the Board to
report on landmark contract negotiations
between Local USA829 and The Broadway
League.
As negotiations for the Broadway
League agreement approached, the Local
identified several significant issues that
threatened to disrupt the process. First,
assistant designers, who were employed
at single payrates rather than a tiered pay
scale yielded a constant string of various
grievances. Second, due to the passage
of time and growth of available technology
in scenery and lighting design, the
contract included a pay scale defined
by terms which no longer had mutually
agreed meaning (disputes arose over
whether productions were actually single
set or multiset).
The Local attempted to avoid acrimonious
debate on these important issues
and, with the consent of its member committee,
sought to address them with two
representatives of the Broadway League
before formal negotiations were underway.
The parties thus began discussions
about how to make the contract more relevant
to how business is conducted today.
Ultimately, it became clear that significant
changes were necessary, which
would lead to an overall restructuring of
the entire Agreement, including not only
scenery and lighting pay, but also the costume
design pay scale; the concert pay
scale; the royalties pay scale and rules for
payments; a stepped pay scale for different
types of tours; the geographic scope
of the agreement for subsequent productions;
merging the separate sound design
agreement into the contract; making projection
designers full participants; payment
schedules; effective dates of work
for designers. The Local also identified
other areas for improvement, including
developmental productions that transfer
into Broadway and some fringe benefit
changes and reallocations.
Representatives of the League were
committed to addressing these matters,
so the discussions carried on. Due to the
magnitude of required changes, talks continued
periodically for nearly a year. Each
side corresponded with their respective
committees to get feedback and approvals.
The parties extended their contract
for 90 days to the end of March 2019.
The fully completed, rewritten Agree-
Reporting from Local USA829 were Financial Secretary Michael Smith, President Beverly Miller, National Business Agent Cecilia A. Friederichs,
and Business Representative for Live Performance Carl Mulert.
54 OFFICIAL BULLETIN