Reprinted from Deadline Hollywood by David Rob on August 31, 2020.
As film and TV production slowly resumes, testing of crews for COVID-19 “varies wildly from company to company,” said Thom Davis, business manager of IATSE Grips Local 80, in his latest message to his members.
“Even within the same company the manner that members are brought back and tested will change depending on the area that the member is working.” Davis, who is also IATSE’s 2nd international vice president, is asking the local’s members to fill out a confidential survey about the testing protocols they’ve experienced, which he said “will go a long way in our tracking of what each employer is doing.”
“Some of the major studios treat the department-based employees differently than the production-based employees,” he wrote. “An example of this is that a company will not do a COVID test for those working through a department, but will insist on employees working on a rigging crew to take a test even though the two sets of employees are working on the same stage at the same time.” …
