Motion Picture Editors Guild
Coordinates: 34°05′54″N 118°21′29″W / 34.098266°N 118.357976°W The Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG) is the guild that represents freelance and staff motion picture film and television editors and other post-production professionals and story analysts throughout the United States. The Motion Picture Editors Guild (Union Local 700) is a part of the 500 affiliated local unions of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), a national labor organization with 104,000-plus members. There are more than 6,000 members of the Editors Guild.
The MPEG negotiates collective bargaining agreements (union contracts) with producers and major motion picture movie studios and enforces existing agreements with employers involved in post-production. The MPEG provides assistance for securing better working conditions, including but salary, medical benefits, safety (particularly "turnaround time") and artistic (assignment of credit) concerns.
The Society of Motion Picture Film Editors was created in 1937 by I. James Wilkinson, Ben Lewis and Philip Cahn when film editors earned a mere $100 per week. Initial membership totaled 571.
In 1938 the first contract talks garnered a 10% wage increase. In 1943 film editors and assistant editors are offered their own local by the IATSE. Many Society members sought to align themselves with this larger national organization, hoping for greater negotiating clout. The Screen Directors Guild of America (DGA) also made overtures, but offered only to admit picture editors (not assistant editors), and only to grant them diluted voting rights. The editors and assistant editors opted to join IATSE instead. In 1944, the Society of Motion Picture Film Editors underwent a name change and became the Motion Picture Editors Guild, Local 776 of the IATSE.
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