ANA/AAAA’S Joint Policy Committee Reach Agreement With SAG/AFTRA.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA)/American Association of Advertising Agencies’ (AAAA) Joint Policy Committee on Broadcast Talent Union Relations, the advertising industry’s bargaining arm with the talent unions, for the first time in the 50-year history of labor relations with the Screen Actors Guild, was able to reach agreement before contract expiration.

The industry will release details of the agreement after the unions’ joint Board of Directors meet to receive and consider the tentative agreement on September 29, 2003.

The collective bargaining relationship started in 1952, when the Screen Actors Guild, under the leadership of Walter Pigeon engaged in a three-month walkout against the advertising industry.

“We are very pleased that both sides approached these negotiations in a fair and businesslike manner and were able to avoid the type of conflict that led to the six-month labor dispute we faced in 2000,” said Bob Liodice, the President and CEO of ANA. “Our nation’s marketers and agencies have now come to a landmark agreement in record time in the interest of stability and growth for both sides of the table.”

O. Burtch Drake, President and CEO of AAAA’s pointed out that the new labor contract “Creates a stable platform for growth, allowing the industry and labor to capture the benefits of a fragile economy and contribute to our nation’s recovery. We did this without the dislocation and uncertainty of taking negotiations to the brink with the possibility of a labor dispute and work stoppage.”

Liodice announced that the agreement was reached with the help of the industry’s Chief Negotiator, Washington, D.C. lawyer Ira Shepard and the internal guidance of ANA’s Executive Vice President, Dan Jaffe.

Drake also commended JoAnne Kessler, Vice President, Grey Global Group Inc. and Co-chair of the ANA/AAAA JPC, as instrumental in bringing these negotiations to a successful conclusion.