Dear Sisters and Brothers,
As many of you have heard, Governor Newsome and Mayor Garcetti have ordered “safer at home emergency order” to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. My office had already been planning and in contact with our tech-support and communication vendors working on secure remote access methods for all Local 44 staff to continue supporting member needs.
Anticipating a complete Nation and Statewide facility shut down of “non-essential businesses,” our Business Agent, Tobey Bays, and I, with a skeleton crew, are continuing preparations for offsite access so our respective staffs can work safely and remotely while continuing to assist our membership the best we can.
Going forward, the best way to contact your Union will be via email. You can reach the following departments at:
businessagents@local44.org – Business Agent Department
businessoffice@local44.org – Business Office and Social Services Departments
callboard@local44.org – Callboard Department
socialservices@local44.org – Social Services and Business Office Departments
webmaster@local44.org – Web and IT Department
PLEASE be patient with response times. There has been an enormous increase of inbound member inquires since this (truly) began last week and your Local 44 staff have done an AMAZING job helping our membership. Please continue to monitor your emails, text messages and our website at local44.org During this unprecedented time, your Officers and Staff will do everything in our power with the tools available to represent and help our membership during this national crisis.
It is time to hunker down and do your best to protect yourselves, family and friends. As part of working in our industry, we are used to achieving the impossible by working together. This obstacle will be no different, we WILL succeed and we WILL get through this together.
On behalf of our Executive Board, Officers, Staff and Stewards, stay safe and healthy.
Best,
Anthony Pawluc
Secretary-Treasurer
IATSE Local 44
As a safety organization, Contract Services has a responsibility to the overall health and safety of our industry. To help guard against the spread of COVID-19, we have temporarily suspended all in-persontraining and lobby visitation to our facility. This effectively means Contract Services is closed to the public, although many of our staff are still working remotely to keep critical services operating for our partnersduring this period of uncertainty.
Electronic document submission instructions:
- Because our lobby is closed, applicants submitting roster documentation, letters, paystubs, resumes,etc. should email them to reception@csatf.org.
- Employment Verification Letters should be emailed to evl_processing@csatf.org.
- Classifications with Licenses or Certifications or Credentials requirements to maintain roster statusshould email them to roster@csatf.org.
Please note that we will be issuing training deadline extensions for in-person courses only. For individuals with online training requirements, those training deadlines still apply. In addition, to reduce the amountof paperwork passed between individuals submitting Form I-9 documents and Contract Services’ staff,Contract Services will suspend its processing of Forms I-9, effective close of business March 31, 2020.
See our website at www.csatf.org or your portal account for the latest updates.
March 17, 2020
Dear California Congressional Delegation:
We are writing to you on behalf of the over 45,000 members of the California IATSE Council (CIC) who live and work in the entertainment industry in our State. We realize that this is a time of great economic upheaval that is impacting every industry and business—and thus their workers—in California.
We hope the needs of all of us can be met. However, we want to make you aware of the unique situation entertainment industry workers face because of the way work is obtained in our business. Our members often work for many different employers on many different productions over the course of a year.
Since we do not fit into traditional work definitions, rules designed specifically for the single employer, or even multi-employer, work in the construction industry, are very likely to exclude our members. We ask you to ensure our members are included, and do not “fall through the cracks”, when the third coronavirus emergency package comes before you shortly. Our industry is critical to the economy of the State of California as well as to this great Nation, supporting 892,000 direct jobs and $16.3 billion in exports in 2019 alone.
Specifically, the unique, mostly freelance nature of the film and television industry means that many of the women and men who make it run work only sporadically. Our members may work on only one episode of a series or prepare for a film for a year or more. They may not work every day or even every month. There may be an extended period between paying jobs. Our members count on the income from each production they work on to ensure that they can take care of their families and qualify to participate in our health and pension plans. When that film, episode, live performance, or other broadcast is canceled due to the coronavirus, our members need interim financial support just like every other hard-working American.
That is why we propose a special Emergency Coronavirus Economic Support Benefit geared to include our members who have a completed contract or a bona fide, good faith offer to work, and the production has been postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus. This would be a benefit similar to the Emergency Paid Leave benefit in Division D of HR 6201, but available to those who cannot work due to a production shut down, rather than due to illness, quarantine, or family caregiving needs. At this point, virtually all productions in the United States has shut down or will do so by the end of the week. An emergency benefit for our members will help keep them afloat when they cannot work due to no fault of their own—and when they do not otherwise qualify for any other form of emergency assistance.
Film and Television production has been is synonymous with California—known to billions around the world as the home of the motion picture industry—since it settled here over 100 years ago. We employ hundreds of thousands of people and support a vast network that also includes thousands of large and small businesses across the state who depend on our industry as well. In 2018, key film and TV companies paid over $11 billion to more than 52,000 businesses.
We are one of the few industries in the U.S. that can boast a trade surplus. But right now, we are completely shuttered and our workers are unprotected. When the coronavirus emergency ends, we want our members to be on the front lines of restoring California’s economic strength. We look to you to help us do that.
Sincerely,
Thom Davis
President, California IATSE Council
Business Manager
Motion Picture Studio Grips, Crafts Service & First Aid, IATSE Local 80
Anthony Pawluc
Sec-Treasurer
Affiliated Property Craftspersons, IATSE Local 44
Carlos Cota
International Trustee & International Representative
Stage Hands, IATSE Local 122 San Diego
Chuck Parker
National Executive Director
Art Directors Guild, IATSE Local 800
David Swope
Business Representative
Motion Picture Costumers, IATSE Local 705
dooner
Associate National Exec. Director, IATSE Local 800
Art Directors Guild
Doug Boney
Business Representative, IATSE Local 884
Motion Picture Studio Teachers & Welfare Workers, IATSE Local 884
Jason Elias
Business Representative
Script Supervisors/Continuity, Coordinators, Accountants & Allied Production Specialists Guild, IATSE Local 871
Jim Beaumonte
President
IATSE Local 16 San Francisco
Joanne Desmond
Assistant Business Agent
IATSE Local 16 San Francisco
Michael F. Miller, Jr.
International Vice President, IATSE
Director of the Motion Picture & Television Dept., IATSE
Patric Abaravich
Business Representative-Sec
Studio Electrical Lighting Technicians, IATSE Local 728
Rachael Stanley
Business Representative
Costume Designers Guild, IATSE Local 892
Randy Sayer
Business Representative
Hair & Make-Up Artists, IATSE Local 706
Rebecca Rhine
National Executive Director
International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600
Richard Disbrow
Business Representative
Stage Hands, IATSE Local 122 San Diego
Robert Denne
Business Representative
Motion Picture Set Painters & Sign Writers , IATSE Local 729
Ron Garcia
International Representative
IATSE
Sam Bowers
Business Representative
IATSE Local 504 Orange County
Scott Bernard
Business Representative
Production Sound/Video & Projection Engineers, IATSE Local 695
Sergio Medina
Business Representative
Treasurers & Ticket Sellers, IATSE Local 857
Steve Kaplan
Business Representative
The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839
Steve Lutge
Business Representative
Stage Hands, IATSE Local 16 San Diego
Tobey Bays
Business Representative
Affiliated Property Craftsperson, IATSE Local 44
CC: California Congressional Delegation
On Monday, March 16, U.S. House Representative Adam Schiff sent the below letter to House leadership requesting considerations for workers in the Entertainment Industry.
Dear Sisters, Brothers and Kin,
We are providing the helpful link below to multiple Los Angeles County resources that we hope can be beneficial to you and/or someone you may know. This is a crowd-sourced guide of information regarding government benefits, worker/housing/low-income resources, entertainment, best practices, food, education etc. Stay healthy and safe everyone.
Link here: https://about.1degree.org/covid-19-la-en
Friday, March 13, 2020
NEW YORK, NY – Matthew D. Loeb, International President of the IATSE, released the following statement with regards to the coronavirus virus:
“As social distancing measures are enacted and events and projects across all sectors of the entertainment industry are cancelled, it’s become clear that the COVID-19 crisis requires decisive action from our Federal Government to support displaced entertainment workers.”
“Right now, thousands of our members across all sectors of the entertainment industry are suffering financial hardship because of government mandated cancellations. Entertainment workers shouldn’t be collateral damage in the fight against the COVID-19 virus.”
“But this isn’t just about us. Economic studies demonstrate that entertainment spending reverberates throughout our communities nationwide. Film and Television Production alone injects $49 Billion into local businesses per year, and the overall entertainment industry supports 2.1 Million jobs in municipal and state economies.”
“Along with the other entertainment unions and the labor movement at large, we call on the Federal government to pass a relief package that prioritizes workers whose incomes have been lost as a result of this crisis. Strong measures like ensuring continuity of health benefits, providing enhanced and extended unemployment, disability, and workers compensation insurance are necessary for ensuring the financial stability of entertainment workers and their families. Additionally, the government should enact a special emergency paid leave benefit geared to include our members.”
“It is vital that these measures are enacted as soon as possible to provide effective emergency relief for workers who have felt the economic consequences of the Coronavirus the hardest.”
Studio Name Safety Hotline Number
20th Century Fox 310-369-3000
ABC/Walt Disney 800-832-3389
CBS 818-655-6078
DreamWorks 818-733-6500
HBO 877-742-3044
IASTE Safety Hotline 844-422-9273
MGM/UA 800-631-5975
NBC/Universal 818-777-2153
Netflix 844-222-1739
Paramount 323-956-8955
Sony 888-883-7233
Turner Broadcasting 404-878-8774
Warner Brother 818-954-2800