Local News in Brief : Teamsters Reject Offer by Producers

Teamsters who have been working for more than a month without a contract voted overwhelmingly to reject the latest package offered by Hollywood producers, a union official said Thursday.

A walkout by Teamsters Local 399, representing 2,200 film and television drivers, could hobble Hollywood production, which returned to work only recently following a five-month writers’ strike.

The Teamsters contract with the producers expired July 30, but the powerful union has continued to work by day-to-day extensions.

Teamsters voted 1,409 to 67 against the proposed contract, according to Earl Bush, secretary-treasurer for the local. Bush said the contract proposal would require about half the drivers to take $2.61-per-hour pay cuts to $14 per hour.

The producers have said that union concessions are necessary to keep costs down and prevent so-called “runaway” productions, where filming move to non-union states and countries.

Negotiators for the two sides met Thursday with a federal mediator at the headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers headquarters in Sherman Oaks, but did not resolve their differences, Bush said.

“There is some progress, but it’s small progress,” he said.