Just three months after members of the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) ratified their national contract in December 2023 following a hard-fought 116-day strike, Hollywood’s workers are again at the negotiating table with the Association of Motion Picture Producers (AMPTP). The double strike by the entertainment industry’s actors and writers — the latter ratified their own contract in October after a 148-day work stoppage — may have just wrapped up, but the contracts for the industry’s below-the-line workers, those who work off-camera, are nearing expiration. Before the industry can even catch its breath after last year’s strikes, Hollywood is once again facing an uncertain future.

Negotiations began on March 4 and encompass a host of unionized workers whose contracts expire on July 31. The thirteen West Coast Studio Locals of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) — which include workers ranging from camera operators to makeup artists and costumers — need agreements, as does IATSE Local 52, IATSE Local 161, and the Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839). Then there are the Hollywood Basic Crafts, which represents laborers like drivers, electrical workers, cement masons, and plumbers employed on film and television sets and includes the 6,500-member Teamsters Local 399 as well as International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 40, Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA!) Local 724, United Association Plumbers (UA) Local 78, and Operating Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association (OPCMIA) Local 755. They, too, need contracts.

For the first time since 1988, IATSE and the Basic Crafts are jointly negotiating their shared Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans, which serve some seventy-five thousand current and retired workers. The coordination follows the shared experience of last year’s strike, in which below-the-line workers stood with actors and performers, declining to cross their picket lines and thus shutting down the industry. In January, IATSE vice president Michelle Miller said joint negotiations on the shared plans are important “not only because sustainable benefits is a shared priority of our memberships, but also because recent hardships have brought behind-the-scenes crews together in historic fashion.”