Ratification

I spent a chunk of the day back at SPA (Sony Pictures Animation) where the Editors Guild's Karen Greene and I oversaw the ratification vote of the latest iteration of the SPA-IATSE collective bargaining agreement. ....

The agreement has been around for a decade, and for this round of talks, negotiations between the IA and Sony went relatively smoothly. The Sony CBA has a lot of similarities to the Animation Guild's major contract, also to Disney's fourteen-year-old agreement that is known at "The TSL Contract*."

We spent a couple of days walking around the facility, familiarizing the crew with changes to the new contract. They are:

A 2% hike in minimum rates for the first year of the agreement, 2% for the second year, and 2% for the third year.

A 20% increase in contributions to the Motion Picture Industry Health and Pension Plan (the same hike enjoyed by the 2012 IA-AMPTP Basic Agreement.)

We explained to Sony staffers that these were the same wage increases that the DGA, IA, SAG and the WGA achieved in their last round of negotiations with movie producers. People must have thought it was an okay deal. Of the crew members who voted, 100% supported the new pact.

* TSL stands for "The Secret Lab" ... which was the name of Diz Co's visual effects division when it was housed inside Disney Feature Animation (today known as Walt Disney Animation Studios). Sadly, TSL survived only a few short years before the Mouse's management saw fit to close it down. But the name lives on, courtesy of the contract.