A news by 4usnews:Exactly two weeks after crew members on NBC's Biggest Loser walked off the set, starting an IATSE-led strike against the producers of the veteran reality series, Reveille Prods., 3 Ball Prods. and 25/7 Prods, the union and the production companies announced they have reached a tentative agreement, putting an end to the strike that crippled production on Biggest Loser for the past 2 weeks. At stake were crew members' health benefits as the Biggest Loser producers don't offer any and, as a non-union show, working on it didn't count toward the IA days crew members need to accumulate in order to get benefits through the union. The production companies, which have deals with DGA and AFTRA, had resisted going union with IATSE because of the steep price tag involved, between a half million dollars and $2 million, depending on who you talk to, noting that they paid the crew wages substantially higher than the the union minimum to make up for the lack of benefits. But sources close to the crew had countered that much smaller cable reality series work under IA deals, so Biggest Loser should be able to afford the switch. The strike drew growing support from outside and within the show. It was endorsed by the LA County AFL-CIO on Tuesday and then by the state's California Federation of Labor on Thursday. The show's talent, trainers Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper and host Alison Sweeney, participated in an auction to raise money for the striking crew. Michaels and Harper also didn't show up for filming on Monday as they didn't want to cross the picket line despite having a "no strike" clause in their AFTRA contracts and and did cross it on Thursday after getting assurances that the producers and IATSE were negotiating a deal. Here is the two side's official announcement.
