Flipped Commercials: What To Do When Your Non Union Production Goes Union

So, you’ve been shooting a commercial and just found out one of your crew members is a union member. This throws a wrench in your production for a variety of reasons— but above all, it means your entire production needs to go union.

What does this mean, exactly?

One must-know fact about working with union employees: if you hire one union member, your entire production must also get paid under the union. In other words, your commercial production will have to flip from a non-union shoot to a union shoot– otherwise known as a flipped commercial.

For advertisers and producers, you’ll quickly discover that this is not an easy fix. It’s actually the start of a long process that will quickly implicate your production budget.

In this blog, we’ll explain what it means when your production gets flipped and the necessary next steps to take to ensure a smooth transition.

What Does It Mean When Your Production Gets Flipped?

Finding out your commercial needs to be flipped is never in the game plan, but it is a very common risk among non-union productions.

Producers might unknowingly- or knowingly- decide to hire a union employee for their non-union shoot. But it’s a risky move… If IA or Teamsters representatives finds out their members are working on a non-union shoot, they will show up to production with two options:

Pull their members and shut down the shoot.
Require you to pay their members as a union... AKA job flip!

Once your shoot goes union, all employees must be paid union rates and go on a union timecard. For producers, this means accounting for added costs not originally included in your production budget such as union fringes and possibly scale wages.

Steps for Flipping Your Production

Now that you understand why your job has to be flipped, you need to know what steps you need to take to ensure your production goes union in a timely and budget friendly manner.

Here are the three steps you need to take next:

Hire a signatory or join the union
There are two options when deciding how to engage with union contracts for your crew:
- Hire a signatory. Hiring a third party union signatory allows you to hire union employees without having to become a signatory. A third party signatory is already signed to the union agreements and can make hiring and paying union employees quick and simple.
  
  Working with a third party union signatory is the quickest and easiest way to flip your shoot. Third party signatories can turnaround your shoot within just 48 hours.
- Join the union. You also have the option of becoming a direct signatory to the union. This will allow you to access all union members in the industry and access to agreements and waivers not available to third parties. But there is a catch, as now all future productions under your company must also be union. For brands and advertisers who like to produce non-union commercials, this isn’t always the most convenient option.
Both of these routes will give your production the greenlight to further contract and employ your crew under IA and Teamster agreements.
Make budget adjustments
We may be speculating here, but we’re guessing that a flipped commercial wasn’t accounted for in the original budget. Working with union members requires a variety of expenditures, including:
- Union fringes: Union fringes including benefit contributions now apply to these employees and are typically an added 40%.
- Contract agreements: Commercial projects will hire their union employees under the AICP IATSE and Teamsters Commercial Agreements. Music video productions will fall under the IA and Teamsters Music Video Production Agreements.
- Low-budget provisions: Each union agreement includes low-budget provisions that allow you to continue paying negotiated wages.
AICP Commercial Agreement low budget terms apply for commercials or promo shoots with a budget under $150 per day. The Music Video Productions Agreement applies to music video productions with budgets between $55K and $300K. These are based on budgets after excluding talent and post-production costs
If a shoot isn’t considered low-budget, then scale wages will be applied to union employees working union covered positions.
Even on low-budget shoots, union fringes are paid based on the scale rates.
Now that you need to pay these union rates, it’s time to evaluate what to cut from production to stay financially on track. Here’s where to start:
- Analyze the script: Read and analyze your script carefully and determine if particularly expensive scenes are essential to the storyline. Cutting the script will also allow producers to potentially cut production days that further helps your production budget.
- Equipment: Analyze the equipment your team needs and determine if there is more cost effective equipment that can be used. You can also choose to rent equipment rather than purchase to own.
- Talent: A-list actors are a producer's dream come true but they aren’t as necessary as you’d think.
- Location scouts: Choosing your location wisely can help reduce costs as well. If possible, aim to shoot all your scenes in one location. The most optimal cost effective measure however, would be to compare and weigh all location costs.
According to the 2023-2025 Teamsters 399 AICP MOA, if a tech scout is performed 48 or few hours before the 1st shoot day of a production, a location scout/manager must be on payroll for that production on the day of the tech scout and one each intervening day prior to the shoot day. This is important to include in your budget if you’re hiring a location scout/manager and performing a tech scout 24-48 hours prior to the shoot day.
Mitigate compliance issues
A key rule when working with union employees is ensuring your production’s in compliance with the agreement terms and regulations. Here are a few common mistakes producers tend to make when working with union covered employees.
- Delayed payments: IATSE and Teamsters typically follow the same due dates as that of the state labor board.
  Failure to pay your employee on time can lead to a union or labor board late payment claim that can include late fines or it can become more serious and result in a court case and settlement.

In California, labor board due dates are as follows:
If an employee works between the 1st and the 15th of the month, then their payment is due between the 16th and 26th of that month.
If an employee works between the16th and 30th of the month, then their payment is due between the 1st and 15th of the following month.

Misunderstanding contract terms: If you have never worked with union employees, their contract terms and regulations can quickly become overwhelming. Terms related to rates, meal penalties, overtime and staffing requirements become important terms you must be familiar with in order to effectively comply with all contract terms.

Third-party signatories have established relationships with union reps and can quickly deescalate situations regarding contract violations. They also have a strong understanding of union contract terms and regulations and can work closely with your team to ensure payments are made on time while sharing important knowledge on terms for your budget.

Conclusion: Manage Flipped Commercials with Ease

In conclusion, a flipped job is not an easy job and can quickly make a mess of your production budget if not handled quickly and properly. Producers must quickly take action to ensure their production is not shut down and also reanalyze their production budget completely.

Here at CMS Productions, we are a third-party union signatory service signed directly to the IATSE and Teamsters agreements needed to cover the employees on your shoot. With us, you’re able to sign a “one-off” deal for union signatory services on just this job as opposed to signing directly with the unions

Have a commercial production in the works and you know it will go union? We provide IATSE and Teamsters union crew signatory services. While we are signed directly to the AICP IATSE agreement and Teamsters 399 (LA) and 817 (NY) agreements, we can still provide signatory services with union crew locals that aren’t covered under those agreements.

Contact us today to see how we can service your next production with crew signatory support.