Unionized N.Y. Postproduction Coordinators Ratify First Contract (Exclusive)

Katie Kilkenny
·3 min read

After spending over a year in negotiations, unionized postproduction coordinators in the New York area have unanimously ratified their first labor contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The ratification vote took place Dec. 19, with 67 percent of the bargaining unit turning out to vote and all participating union members voting to support the agreement. Around 60 postproduction coordinators who work in scripted film and TV (members have been credited on titles including the 2024 Mean Girls and Severance) currently belong to the group, a subsidiary of the Communications Workers of America union. The contract went into effect on Dec. 31, with signatories including Apple Studios LLC, HBO Entertainment Inc., HBO Films Inc., Netflix Productions LLC, Universal Television LLC, Universal Content Productions LLC and Paramount Pictures Corporation, among others.

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“Post coordinators have a professional, career-track position and up until now we haven’t had any protections in place for our job and for our wellbeing, so this is a big win in that direction,” says union bargaining committee member Lauren Orban (Nyad). “It’s really exciting to have a first contract for a group that has never been represented [by a union before].”

In a statement, a spokesperson from the AMPTP said, “The AMPTP congratulates the CWA on the ratification of its new agreement covering post-production coordinators. We appreciate CWA’s willingness to work closely together on a first-ever contract that reflects their priorities on wage rates, improved working conditions, and meaningful health and pension benefits.”

The new pact, which will expire in September 2028, institutes weekly minimum wage rates and annual cost of living and inflation raises to those rates (3-4 percent). Under the deal, unionized postproduction coordinators in and around New York now have access to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours a week, 6th and 7th day pay and Motion Picture Industry Pension & Health Plans benefits. They additionally gained language codifying paid holidays, sick leave and grievance and arbitration procedures in the contract.

The AMPTP contract is the culmination of over two years of work. After they began organizing in the fall of 2021, the following winter, a group of more than 150 New York-based postproduction workers — including postproduction coordinators — filed for a National Labor Relations Board union elections after the AMPTP declined to voluntarily recognize the group. At the time, the organizers were seeking wage minimums, job descriptions, MPIPHP benefits, minimum credits, a reporting structure for misconduct in the workplace, overtime pay, weekend premiums and vacation pay. Three months later, postproduction coordinators unanimously voted to join the CWA in eight separate NLRB elections.

Their negotiations over a first contract began in Nov. 2022, with the CWA’s New York City area director John Dempsey heading up negotiations for the union and AMPTP president Carol Lombardini serving as chief negotiator for management. The negotiating process took 13 months, per union members.

Bargaining committee member Chris Clemente (Knock at the Cabin) says that many founding members of the union are already moving out of the postproduction coordinator role, but are excited to have reached a first contract for future workers in the job. “Most of us will not be post coordinating for much longer and we’re so happy we did this for the next generation of people coming up under us so they can have a foundation that we didn’t have,” he says. Adds bargaining committee member Jill Christiano Rodriguez (Run the World), “It’s for the people that are coming in, really.”

Jan. 17, 9:48 a.m. Updated with AMPTP statement.

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