Teamsters Extend Talks With AMPTP Into Next Week; Two Sides Still “Far Apart” As Contract Expiration Nears

Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien may be wanting to make friends with Donald Trump, but Local 399 top priority is to secure a new deal for their entertainment industry members, and revealed tonight they are extending talks with the studios. The Hollywood Teamsters and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will back at the table next week in hopes of crafting a deal before the Teamsters’ current contract expires on July 31.

Alleging the AMPTP are finally taking negotiations “seriously,” and engaging “in meaningful discussions” after five weeks of bargaining, the Lindsay Dougherty-led local late Friday said it will meet with the studios on July 22 and 23 to come to a new three-year tentative agreement

“The Hollywood Basic Crafts have concluded discussions with the AMPTP for the 5th week of negotiations,” Local 399 announced in an update sent out to members late Friday after the day’s talks with the Carol Lombardini-led AMPTP ended late. “Today was originally set to be our last scheduled date for negotiations; however, there is still much work to be done to reach a tentative agreement as we remain far apart on our core bargaining priorities.”

“At this time, we will be back at the table with the AMPTP on Monday and Tuesday of next week,” the missive added. “With our agreements set to expire on July 31st, we will continue to schedule as many days necessary to make a deal that protects our members’ work, compensates them fairly and respects their skill and contributions to this industry. We will, however, not be extending our agreements past expiration.

“After 5 weeks of negotiations, this was the first week in which we saw the employers take this process seriously and engage in meaningful discussions. We look forward to continuing to educate the Companies on the important work our members do for their productions, and we will see them back at the table next week.”

Fact is, with the health and pension fund fully negotiated, this is almost all about wage increases, as Deadline reported earlier this week. A point of contention that doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for either side with their members and so-called stakeholders.

Teamsters Local 399‘s big picture decision to come back to bargaining next week comes as IATSE members ratified their own deals with studios with strong majorities yesterday.

In a big win for union boss Matt Loeb after the tight ratification vote of 2021, the final vote tally on July 18 saw the West Coast locals-based Basic Agreement receive an 85.9% thumbs up, and the nationwide locals oriented Area Standards Agreement approved by 87.2% of voting members. The new three-year contracts will kick in starting August 1. The new agreements  cover about 50,000 film and TV workers within IATSE’s 13 West Coast studio locals as well as another 20,000 in the 23 locals across the country.

The Hollywood Teamsters’ move towards taking another stab at getting a deal also comes four days after union president O’Brien spoke before the RNC in what one LA-based member told Deadline was a “total sell-out speech.”

In the  inaugural  appearance of any Teamsters boss before such a GOP gathering, O’Brien told the RNC and viewers of the convention on July 15 that the traditionally Democrats supporting union’s votes  “will not be taken for granted” and praised Trump as a “tough SOB” for his response to the July 13 assassination attempt. Not reading the room too well and drawing near silence from Republican delegates when he lashed out at corporate greed in his Monday speech in Milwaukee, O’Brien was criticized later by the likes of fellow mega-union the AFL-CIO and got clear dagger eyes from very pro-union Joe Biden’s White House.

Teamsters VP-at-Large John Palmer, who has said previously he will challenge O’Brien for the union top job in 2026, put out a statement about the RNC speech accusing the Teamster president of sucking up to Trump and “kissing the ring of a man who scabbed a union picket line.” Palmer’s dissent can really be summed up in the line in his statement: “We are better than this.”

O’Brien, who on July 14 participated in a Teamsters Motion Picture Division update with ally Dougherty on the state of talks with the AMPTP, was even attacked by the Teamsters’ own X/Twitter feed this week over his speech and dalliance with the MAGA crowd.

In a post that was taken down pretty fast, the clear message to O’Brien and his praise of Trump and Sen. Josh Hawley declared “unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right, no matter how much people like Sen. Hawley attempt to tether such bigotry to a cynical pro-labor message.” Going on to note how the likes of “Teamsters of color, Teamster women and LGBTQ Teamsters” are among those routinely attacked by the likes of Trump and Hawley, the since erased tweet went on to say, “you don’t unite a diverse working class by scoffing at its diversity.” – as you can see in this screen grab: