Hollywood’s Unions In Talks To Renew Covid Protocols, Which Expire Tuesday

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood’s unions and guilds are in talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers to renew their Covid safety protocols, which expire Tuesday amid mounting pressure to end a mandate that gives employers the limited option to require vaccinations as a condition of employment.

Union proponents of the mandate point out that vaccinations have saved the lives of many industry workers and prevented severe illness and hospitalization for many others.

When the protocols were last extended in the fall of 2022, SAG-AFTRA, the DGA, IATSE, the Teamsters and the Basic Crafts unions said in a joint statement that “The agreement maintains the multi-faceted approach that has kept the industry working safely since shortly after the onset of the pandemic.” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher, however, has been leading the charge against the mandate, and got the guild to survey its members about their views on the issue.

The guild is expected to release the results of that survey at its national board meeting this weekend. One of the questions on the survey asks:“Do you approve of employers requiring Covid-19 vaccination as a condition of access to the set?” “I continue to fight on behalf of our members who feel discriminated against because of the Covid unvaccinated or un-boosted status, which is keeping them from working in major studio productions,” Drescher wrote in the latest issue of SAG-AFTRA Magazine. “For those members not being fairly considered by studios with regards to their religious or health exemptions, help is on the way!