IATSE and studios reach deal: no more Hollywood strikes

The Hollywood sign
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The IATSE union has arrived at a tentative deal with the alliance of Hollywood studios, raising hopes that work will pick back up again.


Looking back at last yearā€™s Hollywood strikes, thereā€™s no doubt that months of inaction hurt the industry. The struggles facing cinemas this summer are largely rooted in last yearā€™s action, and even from this vantage point a year on, itā€™s difficult to determine whether the protracted strikes were worth the damage it has caused.

Over the past couple of months, another union has been renegotiating its own agreement with the studios and, as such, lots of eyeballs have been monitoring the situation, hoping that things wouldnā€™t end up heading in the same direction as last yearā€™s strikes thrown by writers, then actors.

This time itā€™s The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union that have been negotiating and while theyā€™ve talked the necessary amounts of hardball that youā€™d expect from these kinds of showdowns, itā€™s pleasing to hear that a deal has been reached. As with the writers and actors, better pay and conditions were staples of the new deal, according to Variety, along with certain guarantees limiting the use of AI.

While the general consensus was that neither side harboured the appetite for industrial action, the successful conclusion of this saga will lead to many industry workers breathing a sigh of relief. Production levels in the industry still havenā€™t returned to normal in Hollywood since the strikes ā€“ instead topping out at around 85 percent of pre-strike levels ā€“ and there is hope that uncertainty around the deal was the reason for that.

Whether a ratified deal between IATSE and the AMPTP (the alliance of studios) will lead to a boost in production weā€™ll have to wait and see. Some have speculated that reduced production levels are simply a reflection of the new economic reality the industry seems to be facing, coupled with studios finding other ways to tighten belts now theyā€™re paying workers more.

Time will tell on that front, but at least we donā€™t have to talk about Hollywood strikes for a while.

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