IATSE Grips Local 80 Issues Protocols For Safe Return To Work: Production “Is Finally Getting Ready To Start Back Up”

IATSE

Film and television production “is finally getting ready to start back up,” IATSE Grips Local 80 business manager Thom Davis said in his latest update on the industry’s efforts for a safe return to work.

“The major lots have brought back people to get the departments ready for production,” he said, “and some of the Independents and Commercials have commenced with production.”

IATSE Grips Local 80IATSE Local 80

Davis, who also is IATSE’s 2nd international vice president, noted that Hollywood’s unions – IATSE, SAG-AFTRA, the DGA, the Teamsters and the Basic Crafts – still are in negotiations with management’s Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers over conditions for a return to work. “Those negotiations,” he said, “have centered on items such as the amount of pay we are to receive when we are sent out for testing; how often is a person to be tested and exactly who is to be tested; how many sick days a person will receive if they become sick or are required to stay home due to some COVID-related event, and a whole host of other matters.”

Davis also wrote: “These negotiations have taken longer than what most of us would have expected,. Till such time that negotiations are completed, we are issuing the following recommendations and strongly encourage everyone to follow them. These recommendations come from several of the working groups that have been working to build guidelines that are easy to follow, are pragmatic and most importantly, will help to keep you and everyone around you safe.”

Those guidelines note that while they’re not definitive, “they can serve as a model for a safe return to work” until the unions and the AMPTP “come to a comprehensive agreement that will cover all the crafts covered by IATSE.”

See the local’s TV production grip protocols here.

See the local’s rigging grip protocols here.

See the local’s crafts services protocols here.

In addition to grips, rigging crews and craft services, Local 80 also represents some 260 set medics. “To our Set Medic members, creating protocols have been a real challenge,” Davis wrote. “Given the very nature of the work that our Set Medics do, additional work is being done to draft the guidelines for our Set Medics. I expect that this work will be completed shortly and will be posted as well.”

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Like Grips Local 80, the Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600), the Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700), and the Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) have issued their own craft-specific reopening recommendations, which are in addition to protocols contained in a “White Paper” issued June 1 by the Industry-Wide Labor Management Safety Committee Task Force, and the “Safe Way Forward” guidelines issued jointly by the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, Teamsters Local 399 and the Basic Crafts on June 12.

Contact Information:

David Robb

Madiha Ahmed