Teamsters, Producers Invited Back to the Table

A federal mediator Thursday asked striking Teamsters and Hollywood producers to return to the bargaining table today in an attempt to end a 12-day strike.

Both sides said they will attend the 9 a.m. meeting called by federal mediator Barbara Pickett-Conner although striking workers will continue to picket the major studios.

“How long we’re going to talk, I don’t know,” said Earl Bush, chief negotiator and secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 399, which represents 2,100 striking studio drivers. “What we’re exactly going to discuss, I don’t know. . . . I want to keep an open mind.”

Herb Steinberg, a spokesman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, also refused to speculate on any outcome.

“We’re going in with no preconceived notions, and we’ll do everything we can to bring an end to this strike,” Steinberg said. “From there, I can’t tell you what direction it will take.”

Steinberg emphasized that the studios have experienced no major production delays and that non-union replacement drivers are doing an adequate job.

The Teamsters, who are joined by 1,100 electricians and laborers represented by sister craft unions, went on strike Oct. 3 after failing to reach agreement with the producers’ alliance on a number of wage and working issues.

The final offer by the producer’s alliance called for a $2.61 cut in the $16.61 hourly wage earned by a class of limousine, van and station wagon drivers.

Negotiators for the producers’ alliance said they backed off the $2.61 hourly cut during the final hours of mediation Oct. 2. Instead, they proposed a three-year freeze for most drivers and small increases for the others.

But union representatives say the freeze offer was never formally presented. They are also troubled by a proposal to alter the workweek so that drivers who have worked only two or three days during the week could be called in on a Saturday or Sunday without being paid overtime.