Join the Fight to Keep the Film and Music Industry in California

Assembly Bill 2926 (Kalra) would prohibit exclusivity provisions in contracts between producers of movies, television and streaming programs and their employees, radically upending nearly a century of business practices and legal principles that have benefited employers and employees alike. This bill would also destabilize California’s music business, cut opportunities for working artists, and weaken the state’s economic recovery.

The bill would upend longstanding business practices that have made California home to a vibrant film, TV, and streaming business, undermine collective bargaining, and harm the industry that has created a robust middle class of entertainment industry workers. An exclusivity clause provides an artist with generous compensation for their exclusive commitment to a production, often from creation through exhibition. With artist participation assured, the producer-employer is afforded the stability necessary to finance, insure, and arrange all of the other elements for the production to move forward.

Exclusivity clauses are extensively negotiated provisions in contracts between producers and talent (writers, directors, actors, etc.), and are addressed in certain collective bargaining agreements between producers and the guilds and unions that represent them. This is a quintessential topic for negotiations between private parties, who can craft detailed, nuanced exclusivity provisions that consider the specific needs the parties may have on the particular project—not for a one-size-fits-all “solution” like AB 2926.

Through their unions, workers in the entertainment industry negotiate collective bargaining agreements every few years. The terms of those agreements have been refined and developed through years of bargaining to balance the needs of workers and the industry. AB 2926 attempts to undermine that collective bargaining process by legislating around it.