Vice Media and the Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700) announced on Sunday that postproduction workers at Vice have ratified a new labor contract that will guarantee a 40-hour workweek, a significant increase in all employees’ hourly rates and provide further raises for lower-paid employees.
The 3-year contract will impact the hours and wages of approximately 100 postproduction staffers and freelance employees at Vice and was ratified with 97% of members in favor. Under the terms of the deal, post-production employees on the lower end of the pay spectrum will receive an immediate raise of 48.4% to their straight-time hourly rates and 8% to their guaranteed net weekly pay.
The contract also provides for future increases for employees with wages above scale pay but who earn less than $200,000 annually. Moreover, covered employees will receive a $750 ratification bonus.
“I believe I speak for all of us when I say we’re incredibly pleased with the achievements we made with this contract, in particular the implementation of a forty-hour week,” Ilaria Polsonetti, an editor for “Vice News Tonight” and a member of the union’s negotiating committee said in a statement. “Behind every piece of content on a screen there are hundreds of talented workers losing sleep and time well-spent with their loved ones. Today we said enough is enough, a different way of working in film and TV is possible. I hope what we accomplished here can be a stepping stone towards reclaiming the healthier work-life balance that is so badly needed in our industry.”
“We are pleased that, in VICE, we had a bargaining partner who recognized that time off the clock is critical to workers’ well-being,” Cathy Repola, National Executive Director of the Editors Guild and the union’s chief negotiator in these talks, added. “Our first union contract at VICE just over three years ago broke new ground with unprecedented guarantees that an employer respect its employees’ gendered pronouns, and we hope this new agreement also proves precedent-setting. Other employers in our industry should aspire to offer their employees the sort of sustainable, healthy hours our members at VICE will now enjoy.”
The deal between Vice and IATSE 700 comes three months after a bargaining agreement between IATSE and Hollywood’s major studios was approved by union members by the narrowest of margins, averting a strike that would have shut down thousands of film and TV productions. The Editors Guild was one of the IATSE locals that narrowly voted in favor of the contract with 51.9% of members approving.
The deal also comes just five weeks after the Writers Guild of America East signed a new contract with Vice Media consolidating all the labor contracts for writers at Vice News, Vice Digital, Vice Editorial and Viceland under one unified agreement that increases minimum salaries to $63,000 over three years.