As a vote to ratify the IATSE contract begins today, union members urged leaders during a virtual town hall Saturday to honor the deals reached over the past four months with major Hollywood studios and streamers. Get details about the AI provisions of
IATSE held a nearly three-hour session with IATSE International President Matthew Loeb and other leaders for the approximately 50,000 members of the 13 locales that work under primary contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Variety have learned. IATSE members began voting today to ratify the three-year tentative agreement reached on June 26. IATSE leaders pledged earlier this year to ratify the new agreement before the current agreement expires on July 31.
Guild members have until July 17 to vote on whether to approve the contract. The results will be declared on July 18.
Sources spoke to. Variety The agreement is expected to be ratified this week. The fast move is expected to speed up work as production is slow and many in the industry have been out of work for a long time. This year's IATSE contract negotiations were closely watched during last year's lengthy strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA.
On the thorny topic of AI, the biggest focus is how the technology will affect job retention. Loeb and members of the union's contract negotiating committee effectively informed members during the town hall that the agreement is the starting point for how the union will address rapidly evolving technology that promises to transform business. she does. According to the language of the Memorandum of Agreements, “the Parties agree to meet at least semi-annually during the term of the Agreements at the request of the International Union to discuss and review information on the use of producers and intended use of AI systems.” may be taken. “And” each Producer agrees to meet quarterly with the International Union, on a company-by-company basis, during the term of the respective Agreements. At such meeting, Producer AI Systems shall identify any significant emerging technology that the producer is using or intends to use in motion picture production that may affect persons covered by these agreements.” Topics include “How jobs have been affected as a result of the use of AI systems.”
During the meeting, Variety learned, union leaders urged members to report their experiences to their locals, to identify what needs attention. It was also hinted that this may be intended to shift the AI portion of future negotiations to be handled by each local- and local- and discipline-specific part of the bargain. This time, the AI component was negotiated at the end of a long process of local and national agreements. As members of the 13 natives working under the basic contract, who range from cinematographers and editors to art directors and set medics, AI is expected to affect different natives in different ways and at different points in time. will be affected.
Powerful technology was certainly a hot topic even before the tentative agreement was officially released on July 10. And Mixers received an email from its leadership providing “more context” in light of “some of the questions and concerns” that had been raised about the AI portion of the tentative agreement.
“Many of you have used your timelines, project files, concept art, or your creative work to train AI models,” Cathy Repolla, National Executive Director of Local 700, wrote in a July 8 email. Concerned about the possibility of producers using other expressions of.” by the Variety. “While we were able to get protections to prevent studios from taking advantage of the signals you can provide to AI models … I understand how important this is, and how important it is to you and your union. is, that your creative essence is not used to train AI models.” He continued that during the negotiations “the studios repeatedly expressed that they were focused and most concerned about possible legal action and litigation related to copyright infringements. They wanted to build stronger protections.” are involved in legislative lobbying and these are their priorities. We reiterated over and over that we had no intention of letting IATSE members use AI to end their work. Recognized its importance to us.
Repolla added that according to the tentative agreement, “Your work is subject to union jurisdiction, regardless of whether an AI tool is used. Our members who perform and/or supervise that work, Collective Bargaining Agreements confirm jurisdiction. Although the wording may differ from the WGA and the SAG, the intent is the same Will and intent can be relied upon.”
In the email, Repolla emphasized that the tentative agreement includes the aforementioned meetings with AMPTP and individual producers/companies, as well as the importance of members reporting on their experiences. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” he wrote. “I believe that what we achieved in these negotiations lays a necessary foundation for the future, not only until the next round of negotiations, but most importantly, that we have Make sure we don't have to wait three years. … You all play such an important role in this. We need to inform you about everything related to developing technologies so that we can effectively address ongoing concerns during these meetings “We must work together to achieve maximum success.
The Editors Guild is the second largest of the 13 locals working under the basic agreement. Because the ratification vote works like an electoral college, this means the International Cinematographers Guild (the largest local) and the Editors Guild carry the most weight.