Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 Members Ratify New Commercials Contracts

deadline.com:

Members of Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a pair of contracts with the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, thus averting a threatened strike.

Earlier this month, Lindsay Dougherty, the local’s principal officer, threatened to take “a commercial break” if the AICP didn’t offer a fair contract. “If we are provoked,” she said, “we will strike.” The new three-year contract covering drivers, wranglers, animal handlers/trainers and hyphenated drivers was approved by a margin of 94.12%, while the contract covering location scouts and managers was approved by a margin of 96.9%.

The two agreements, reached last week, cover about 500 members who work regularly in commercials, though more than 1,000 Local 399 members have worked at least one-day in the last year under the pacts. “This contract fight has set a strong tone as we prepare for bargaining with the AMPTP next year,” Dougherty said Friday. “Teamsters don’t back down and are always ready to fight.

We are proud of these two units for fighting alongside one another and for raising the Industry standards and expectations for all.” See the memorandum of agreement for the drivers here and the location managers here. “I want to take a moment to thank all of our members in commercials for standing together to achieve one of the best AICP contracts our Local has ever seen,” Joshua Staheli, Local 399’s vice president and chief negotiator for the contracts, told his members. “This is because our members stood together.