EXCLUSIVE:Dozens Vice post-production staff members and employees will soon receive a raise in their wages and a more stable workweek.
Editors and other members of the Brooklyn-based, unconventional outfit voted yesterday via videoconference for a new, three-year agreement. This was overwhelmingly voted by 97%.
“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 40-hour week,”A member of the union’s negotiating committee. Vice News Tonight editor Ilaria Polsonetti. “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,”Polsonetti noted that staff have been working less than 50 hours per week and are now working 40 hours.
Nearly nine-thousand members are represented by the Editors Guild. The Guild employs approximately 100 people and provides free post-production support to Vice. Vice and IATSE have agreed to a reduction of weekly hours but no decreases in weekly pay. Most employees also receive a significant structural increase of two-digit pay. Staffers and employees will also receive a $750 bonus for ratification.
“We are pleased that, in Vice, we had a bargaining partner who recognized that time off the clock is critical to workers’ well-being,” said Cathy Repola, National Executive Director of the Editors Guild and the union’s chief negotiator in the talks. “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.”
This union agreement comes three years after IATSE and Hollywood streamers, producers and studios signed a mega-pact that stopped a devastating strike in the tinsel town.