Lindsay Dougherty: Last News

Casting assistants officially have union representation, after the group unanimously voted to organize under the Teamsters in a National Labor Relations Board election, the union said Monday.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Teamsters and other Hollywood Basic Crafts unions announced Thursday that they have ratified their new contracts, which provide 7% wage increases across the board. The five unions — which collectively represent about 8,000 workers — reached a tentative deal on Saturday night with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

UPDATED with AMPTP statement: The Hollywood Basic Crafts have sealed the deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, ratifying their new three-year contracts with the studios byoverwhelming margins.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Teamsters are breathing a sigh of relief this week, after the union concluded six weeks of contentious studio negotiations with a tentative agreement on Saturday night. The deal provides the same wage increases — 7%, 4%, and 3.5% — negotiated by IATSE and SAG-AFTRA. Aside from that, the main thing it provides is assurance that the industry won’t shut down again, so soon after the writers and actors strikes last year.

It was getting a little too close to the deadline for comfort, but the Teamsters and the studios have a deal.

No deal yet between the Hollywood Basic Crafts and the studios.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer With four days to go before their contract expires, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has given a “last, best and final” offer to the union representing 6,500 drivers, location managers and animal wranglers. The Teamsters and other Hollywood Basic Crafts unions have been in talks for six weeks. The unions are seeking sizable wage increases, limits on subcontracting, and protection from driverless trucks.

Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien may be wanting to make friends with Donald Trump, but Local 399 want to secure a new deal for their entertainment industry members, and are extending talks with the studios into next week. The Hollywood Teamsters and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will back at the table next week in hopes of crafting a deal before the Teamsters’ current contract expires on July 31.

The Teamsters say they are willing to extend bargaining with the studios deeper into the month, but the AMPTP needs to step it up if they really want a deal.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Teamsters are sending a shot across the bow, warning that they remain “far apart” in talks with the studios with less than three weeks to go before their contract expires. Teamsters Local 399 and the other Basic Crafts unions have spent four weeks in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and have further discussions set through July 19. In an update on Friday night, the union said “we still remain far apart on our core priorities,” and warned that the contract would not be extended beyond the July 31 expiration.

The Hollywood Basic Crafts are putting the ball firmly in the studios’ court to strike new three-year deals with the below-the-line unions before the clock strikes midnight on July 31.

The Hollywood Basic Crafts have officially wrapped the first week of negotiations on a new three-year agreement with the studios.

With IATSE’s deal still up in the air, Teamsters Local 399 is taking up the mantle Monday to negotiate on a new three-year contract with the studios.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Teamsters Local 399 played a pivotal role in last year’s strikes, as truck drivers honored writers’ picket lines and helped shut down production. At the same time, the union’s new leader, Lindsay Dougherty, became a star, brandishing her tattoos and launching obscenities at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. On Monday, it will Dougherty’s turn to sit across the table from the AMPTP.

After taking the temperature on how labor talks were going with Teamsters’ Lindsay Dougherty, Deadline Strike Talk podcast co-hosts Billy Ray and Todd Garner get into things this week with Mike Miller, the VP and Director of Motion Pictures for IATSE.

The writers strike ended seven months ago, but memories of the picket lines were fresh at the WGA Awards tonight.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large The Writers Guild of America is honoring the best of 2023’s television and film via its annual WGA Awards, held this year at the Hollywood Palladium for the West Coast edition and at New York’s Edison Ballroom for the East Coast ceremony. In Los Angeles, Niecy Nash-Betts, who recently won an Emmy for her role on Netflix’s “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” hosted this year’s event. L.A.

They’re baaack. We retired Strike Talk, the Deadline podcast by Billy Ray and Todd Garner Deadline hatched to lend perspective and serve as a beacon of hope to the industry during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. We’ve put the band back together because a potential standoff between the signatories and the negotiators for the Teamster and IATSE guilds looms just up the road when their contracts expire July 31. Are the signatories going to repeat last year’s failed strategy of keeping the CEOs out of the room until too late to stop another disastrous Hollywood shut down? Ray and Garner pose that question to Lindsay Dougherty, who’s leading the negotiation for the Teamsters, and who here reveals she has not had even a passing chat with any of the CEOs that finally solved the last round of labor strife. Dougherty figured into the last strike when she pledged the commitment of Teamsters to stand in solidarity with the striking guilds, which put pressure on the AMPTP to get serious. Here, she discusses the production downturn that followed the return to production, the resolve that these guilds have to get a proper deal and her hope that the signatories don’t once again “trip over dollars to save pennies.” Buckle up.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large Niecy Nash-Betts, who recently won an Emmy for her role on Netflix’s “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” has signed on to host the Los Angeles portion of next month’s Writers Guild Awards. The 2024 event, which was pushed back in the wake of the Hollywood strikes, will take place on Saturday, April 14 at the Hollywood Palladium.

Editor’s note: This is the second installment in the Deadline series Hollywood Contraction, which examines the job losses caused by the ongoing, industrywide cost-cutting.

Using fiery language like “solidarity is the solution to corporate greed” and “if we don’t get what we want, we will shut it f–king down day one,” union leaders on Sunday held what was dubbed a “unity rally” to rev up workers before joint negotiations begin Monday between IATSE and Teamsters Local 399 with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.