labor pains

GUEST BLOGGER - Mark Androw shares his experience in AICP labor negotiations. He uses it not only as an example of the associations effectiveness and commitment but also as a way to define the role of a trade organization. 

There are points I agree with whole heartedly and others that I don't. Regardless, I relish posting dissenting opinions from my own. Creates much needed debate. I'm even more thankful for the day off from writing.

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At 2:00 am on a drizzly morning 2 weeks ago, I stood on West 57^th Street in New York with eight other EP’s, Matt Miller, Jane Nuñez, and AICP attorney Bob Sacks. We weren’t leaving a club or parting after a late-night dinner.  Instead, we had just concluded a marathon 17-hour negotiating session at the DGA offices. It was the third such meeting in 90 days; a total of 75 hours spent bargaining in New York and probably another 10 hours spent strategizing on conference calls. The result was a new commercial contract to service the production community and designed specifically for the bumpy terrain of today’s advertising production landscape. 

Many people quickly rearranged schedules and put their lives on hold to make this last ditch effort to make a deal prior to the contract expiring on October 31rst.   Jane, AICP’s VP, Labor Relations, had returned five days early from a vacation in Italy to attend the sessions. Matt and Bob had taken the red-eye from L.A. the day before, returning from an AICP Executive Committee meeting to be there.  Maddi Carlton from HSI had a flight back to Vancouver in less than five hours. I was hosting a large party in Chicago that night for the premiere of a documentary film directed by one of my directors. Frank Scherma from @radical.media, Marjie Abrahams from RSA, Peter Steinzeig from Backyard, and Alex Blum from FrankMedia had left their families and their businesses in L.A. on three separate previous occasions (and now this one) to negotiate this contract in New York. Robby Fernandez from Moxie, Gregg Carlesimo from @radical.media, and Bob Fisher from Celsius each had an hour (+) commute ahead of them on slick and deserted roads.

But those efforts paid off as the mission was to get the best deal possible for our members – and the deal was done. Negotiating a labor contract in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression was neither easy nor enjoyable.  Both sides had compelling stories of financial hardship – union members teetering on the brink of losing their homes, and not qualifying for healthcare and company owners struggling to meet payroll and making painful staff cutbacks—not to mention that daily feat of making the dollars work within ever-tightening budgets.  Even the most enlightened and dynamic contract would not solve these problems, but we had to try to reach an agreement to give relief to our members.

The DGA contract already has a very unique feature not found in any other labor agreement I have seen.   Pension and health contributions for directors are based on a “presumed salary,” not the actual and usually considerably higher fees that directors receive.  This clause is contained in a sideletter offered exclusively to AICP companies.  The cost savings to AICP companies (and their clients) on just this item alone is enormous.  This was negotiated by many of the same people around this table about a decade ago to try and meet specific financial issues of that time.

       In the end, we negotiated a 0% increase in wages for the first year, new permissive rules on travel, and special breaks for low budget jobs for traditional and non-traditional productions. No increase in wages is practically unheard of in a labor contract—even in these economic times.   But no one on either side of the table was feeling that good about the deal.  But we did what we had to do.

Such disheartening, persistent, and selfless work on behalf of executive producers is not an isolated undertaking. This same group, in conjunction with other company owners and EPs nationwide, has spent considerable time in windowless offices negotiating labor contracts with IA nationals and locals, teamsters, and other relevant unions.  And for each labor contract negotiated this process is repeated every three or four years when the contract expires.

Many of these same individuals also spent hundreds of hours in the past ten years creating a health plan for non-union crew. It was the first of its kind in any industry, charting new territory in multi-employer health insurance, and provided benefits for those of our employees not affiliated with a union.

It required petitioning and negotiating with the IRS, Department of Labor and convincing insurance carriers to insure a pool of freelance workers that it had no quantifiable insurance history to rely on.  It is a health plan that is the envy of other industry reliant on freelance labor—not to mention similar, in many ways, to the plan that the current Administration is fervently perusing for all Americans.  This was done with the tenacity and creative legal approaches of long time AICP Counsel Bob Sacks, the drive of Matt Miller and the full support and countless meetings of the AICP elected volunteer leadership, the AICP Board.

Yet despite these impressive efforts and the benefits that arose from them, I have read many comments on this blog that are very critical of the AICP, its effectiveness and its abilities to represent this industry, going so far as to blame the AICP for (amongst other things) some of the practices that large multinational holding companies and corporations have tried to impose on AICP member companies, the effect of the economy on the business and growing pains of a maturing business. 

There are many problems in our industry that are beyond the reach of what a trade organization can do—ones that rely more on the common sense and the business sensibilities of company owners rather than monopolistic dictates from the trade organization.  A trade organization can advise and recommend but they can’t control decisions made by company owners.  When, however, the AICP can intervene and speak on behalf of the production community, it does so. Unfailingly, methodically, and effectively and is recognized as a strong and force by all who encounter its well-articulated positions and arguments.  The new DGA contract is an excellent example.

I, for one, am grateful to the eight EP’s and the AICP leadership, staff, and counsel for the generosity of their commitment and the tenacity of their resolve.  Without such people working aggressively on our behalf we would be working under decidedly different and less favorable labor agreements—and be out there fending for ourselves.        

 Mark Androw is an Executive Producer and partner in the production company, STORY, former National Chairman of the AICP and an attorney at law. EMAIL -  mark@storyco.tv