Union’s Play for Music Videos

Hollywood’s blue-collar trade union, long a power in film and television production, is about to become a player in the music business.

Representatives of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees are nearing a contract that would provide union benefits to members who work on music video crews, according to people familiar with the proposed deal.

Talks between IATSE and the Music Video Production Assn., a Los Angeles-based trade group, could result in an agreement as early as this week. The contract would allow the union to negotiate wages and provide pension and health benefits to music video crews for the first time since MTV, now owned by Viacom Inc., turned the mini-movies into a promotional power two decades ago.

The IATSE organizing drive comes even as music video production -- hurt by weak record sales and a spate of filming in foreign locales -- has been dropping for the first time in the medium’s freewheeling history. Many record executives and video producers fear that the union campaign will jack up production costs just as they face pressure to slash expenses amid an 11% drop in album sales this year.

“It’s a struggle enough to get the money onto the screen,” said Jim Gable, co-owner of Graying & Balding Inc., which has filmed videos for such acts as John Mayer and Josh Groban. “Any additional labor costs could take away from that. You could see less special effects, equipment. It’ll be reflected in the finished product.”

IATSE officials declined to comment on the negotiations, which have been underway since October.

The union’s push to organize video crews follows its successful expansion in the last decade to cover TV commercial crews, low-budget films and trade shows. Under President Thomas C. Short, IATSE has increased its membership by about two-thirds during the last eight years, to more than 100,000 members in the U.S. and Canada. An estimated 25,000 people work on music videos, though many also work on commercials and other productions.

IATSE organizers shocked the music industry this summer when they appeared on the Los Angeles set of a video for rap star LL Cool J’s “Luv U Better” and demanded that a producer sign a union contract. When the producer refused, the organizers persuaded most crew members to walk off the set, delaying the shoot for several days.

Video producers agreed to discuss a possible deal rather than risk additional shutdowns.

“Both sides understand the economic climate of the music business right now. And both sides know the importance of working together to keep work in L.A.,” said Sam Aslanian, a negotiator for the Music Video Production Assn. and vice president of video production powerhouse DNA Inc., which has handled videos for Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez. “We are hoping to come up with a contract that works for the peculiar nature of music video production.”

The making of music videos has been heavily concentrated in Southern California. But the total number of days spent shooting music videos on the streets of Los Angeles has plummeted 18% this year to 1,258. That follows a 22% drop last year -- the first since at least 1993, the earliest year for which statistics are posted by the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., a film permitting agency.

The drop-off occurred at least in part because labels started sending productions to Australia and other nations to lower costs. Record executives said they expect to export more work even if a union deal leaves production expenses at current levels.

“When I first heard about this, I thought I was going to have to get an apartment in Sydney,” one record label video supervisor said of the union campaign. “They’re not out for blood. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stay in America.”

Some label executives say that, in many ways, IATSE’s organizing effort comes too late.

MTV has steadily trimmed its video playlist in favor of other programming, while many labels this year have cut video budgets and commissioned fewer shoots. For example, Universal’s Interscope Geffen A&M; label, home to Sheryl Crow and U2, has released 53 videos this year, down from 70 a year earlier, according to the CVC Report, an industry magazine. One record executive said his label had slashed the average video budget this year by 50%, to $150,000.

Labor experts said IATSE held off on claiming the music video business until now largely because officials believed the nature of the work made it impossible to organize workers. Crews flit from one production house to the next, and video shoots typically run a day or two.

Increasingly, however, Hollywood unions have been scrambling to shore up their pension and health funds with new sources of money to make up for film and TV work that has been lost to Canada, Mexico and other countries. Currently, music video crew members have no uniform pension and health coverage, even though they may be receiving benefits from work on other unionized productions such as commercials.

“Had they done this four years ago, it would have been a lot more successful,” one label executive said of the contract talks. “We were making million-dollar videos and they would’ve made a lot of money. Now, I don’t see the day when we make million-dollar videos coming back.”