Strike Dodged For Film Industry, John Deere Workers Raise Picket Line

An 11th-hour deal has been reached and a strike that would have shut down film and television productions across the U.S. was averted.

The union representing most of the crew members who work on movies and TV shows reached a contract agreement Saturday with the studios who employ them.

Disagreements over working conditions prompted the members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to vote to authorize their leaders to call a strike for the first time in the union’s 128-year existence, and a Monday deadline had been set. But it never came to that.

More than 10,000 Deere employees went on strike last week at 14 Deere factories in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia after the United Auto Workers union rejected a contract offer.

The vast majority of the union rejected a contract offer earlier this week that would have delivered 5% raises to some workers and 6% raises to others.

Thirty-five years have passed since the last major Deere strike, but workers are emboldened to demand more this year after working long hours throughout the pandemic and because companies are facing worker shortages. Illinois-based Deere says it’s committed to resolving the strike with an agreement that benefits all employees.