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AICP names David Michael González as director of labor relations
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Former Director of External Relations will continue in that role as he takes on leadership of labor negotiations and employment issues.
President and CEO of AICP, Matt Miller has announced the appointment of David Michael González as AICP’s new Director of Labor Relations.
A familiar face for AICP members thanks to his many Town Hall reports on government regulations and directives in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, González now assumes responsibility for leading AICP’s labor relations. He will provide guidance on labor and employment issues to AICP members; manage negotiations with unions for collective bargaining agreements; and represent AICP in coalitions and before government officials and the industry at large.
González was previously the Director of External Relations at AICP, serving as AICP’s liaison to elected and appointed officials as well as film commissions across the country and abroad. He will continue with many of these duties in addition to his labor responsibilities.
“David has been an outstanding liaison for the organization to legislative, governmental and municipal agencies for several years,” said Miller. “In all of these areas he has helped represent our industry’s best interests, and interpret and communicate regulations to our members. Through various coalitions he has also worked with many of our union counterparts; he’s a natural to expand his role into heading our day to day labor integrations.”
González sees an obvious connection between his work in government relations and his new brief in labor affairs. “The skill set is certainly very similar,” he remarked. “I’m deeply involved with analysing bills, regulations or union contracts, and then making that information more accessible and comprehensible to AICP members. I also advise them on how it impacts their productions or business operations, and educating and collaborating with external partners, including policymakers and labor representatives, to ensure our industry can continue to flourish.”
González added, “In my previous role, I spent a lot of time tracking labor-related bills to ensure new laws were respectful of our collectively bargained agreements and the freelance nature of our work. The pandemic, which brought about new workplace regulations and our multi-union safety agreement, was especially instructive in preparing me to take on this role, as it familiarized me to the nuances and intersections of collectively bargained agreements and labor and workplace laws.”
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Among the larger labor concerns facing AICP members, González pointed out, is compliance, “not only with our labor contracts, some of which have been recently renegotiated and some of which will be renegotiated soon, but also with an increasingly complex employment regulatory environment in some of our major production centers. At the top of my to-do list is learning our contracts inside and out, touching base with our labor partners, and continuing to assist producers with their labor-related questions and concerns.”
González joined AICP in 2018 from VICA, the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a regional chamber of commerce in Los Angeles, where AICP is a member. It was there that he got his introduction to the association, as well as with the larger production and post production community. “I understood its importance as an economic and creative engine for Southern California with a truly global reach,” he explained. He also has personal experience with the industry, as his older brother works in commercial production and one of his earliest paid jobs was working as a PA.
While production wasn’t his eventual calling, González added, “I’m delighted that I get to work in this critical sector which is the bread and butter of the film economy in many regions across the country.”
