I am pleased to report that agreement was reached with representatives from the Television and Motion Picture Industries late Friday evening, January 9, 2015 in Los Angeles, for successor Motion Picture and Television Film Labor Agreements and Secondary Markets Fund Agreements. The agreements cover the employment of professional musicians, arrangers, copyists, leaders, conductors and sideline musicians engaged by signatory producers to perform services in theatrical and television film production in the United States and Canada.

The new agreement will extend three years from the date of ratification to April, 2018, approximately. Progressive economic features include across the board wage increases of 2% per year for all classifications of employment. In addition, Wage and benefit payments for sideline musicians engaged in High Budget Video On Demand Productions will rise to existing standards found in the Agreements. Also, up to four minutes of clip use is now permitted under the new agreements for use in films produced abroad.  Payments were increased by 33% for 30 second clip use increments in excess of two minutes.

I’d like to thank our outstanding team of Federation and Local Officers, rank and file representatives and legal counsel  who persevered through numerous difficult rounds of negotiations spanning two years from the outset of bargaining, which began in November, 2012.

I will have further details about this development in my column in the February edition of the International Musician.