The post-production crew behind “The Amazing Race” have unionized under the Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700. Worldrace Productions, which produces the reality competition series, has voluntarily recognized the union following overwhelming support among staff.
The union vote was held Thursday. While the total number of employees affected isn’t known, according to Local 700, as many as 30 editors, assistant editors and transcribers are covered by the new agreement.
Overall, the Motion Picture Editors Guild represents approximately 9,000 people working in live-action and animated productions.
Under the new union contract, editorial crew will receive an 8% pay raise via paid vacations and holidays, with some lower-paid staff also receiving base pay raises of up to 80%. All of which are in addition to the editors guild’s standard health and pension benefits that will be retroactive to the beginning of the current season, which premiered Wednesday on CBS.
The contract, according to Local 700, is modeled on the contract “Survivor” editors achieved in 2014.
“We appreciate the speed and professionalism with which Worldrace Productions and CBS moved to negotiate a fair deal for this crew. We’re proud to now represent this award-winning editorial team. We look forward to the show’s continued success and to a healthy working partnership,” Cathy Repola, national executive director of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, said in a statement.
“This deal sprints across the finish line with not just first-rate health benefits, but also pension earnings and dramatic raises for those employees with the lowest wages. This crew’s courage helps underscore the lessons evident now in our industry and elsewhere in the economy: When working folks stick together to insist on the worth of their labor, they can change the game,” Editors Guild President Alan Heim said.
The unionization comes amid a historic wave of labor action in Hollywood. In addition to the ongoing actors’ strike and the just-resolved strike by the Writers Guild of America, in the last month Disney animators, Marvel VFX workers and the writers for MTV’s “Ridiculousness” have all voted to join unions.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported the story.
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