Commercial Producers Ink Neutrality Agreement With IATSE Over Unionizing Workers

Crew union IATSE and the bargaining representative for commercial production and postproduction companies, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, have inked a neutrality agreement for organizing production workers on TV commercials. The grassroots group Stand With Production, which has collaborated with IATSE on the organizing campaign, announced the deal to its supporters in an email on Friday, and IATSE confirmed the news. A neutrality agreement essentially means that the employer (in this case, the AICP) agrees not to resist a union drive being spearheaded by Stand With Production and IATSE. “AICP can confirm that it has entered into a Neutrality Agreement with IATSE,” the organization said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “AICP has agreed that if it is truly the will of our trusted employees to be represented by a union for their engagement, then we will engage in negotiations to attempt to find reasonable terms of employment.” In this case, the AICP also agreed as part of the deal to voluntarily recognize the union if the group collects a majority of union cards, in a process overseen by a third-party arbitrator. Production workers on TV commercials will need to have worked two jobs in the last 12…
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