Teamsters approve new commercials contract

Members of Teamsters Local 399 have approved a new contract, avoiding a strike that would have shut down commercial production in Los Angeles.

Location scouts, animal wranglers and drivers on Saturday ratified a revised contract negotiated Tuesday between the union and the Assn. of Independent Commercial Producers.

Last week, Teamsters members overwhelmingly rejected an earlier contract proposed by the commercial producers association and authorized their leaders to stage a walkout should they fail to reach an agreement by the end of the month. The main bone of contention involved a provision to expand an agreement covering low-budget commercials.

Terms of the contract were not disclosed. But the revised contract, modeled on a similar pact negotiated by the Directors Guild of America, was said to have addressed those concerns. Approval by members was widely expected because the agreement had been unanimously supported by the negotiating teams for drivers and location managers.

“It’s a very positive development,” Steve Dayan, secretary-treasurer for Teamsters Local 399, told The Times earlier this week. “This contract will keep the town humming.”

Teamsters Local 399 has 4,500 members, about 800 of whom work under the commercials contract. A strike over a commercials contract would be a first for the union, which last went on strike in 1988 in a dispute over the main film and TV contract.

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