A coalition of Hollywood labor unions joined forces Friday to distribute boxes of food and other necessities to entertainment industry workers whose lives have been upended by the labor strife that has shut down most production.
Volunteers with unions including the Teamsters, IATSE, the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA held the drive-thru distribution event at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Santa Clarita, handing out boxes with food, dry goods, produce, baby food, diapers and other supplies.
Organizers noted that the continuing SAG-AFTRA actors strike and the previous WGA strike affected people far beyond union members — impacting workers in related entertainment-industry jobs who have lost their livelihoods while the production shutdown continues.
“People are starting to get that this is solidarity, it’s not charity,” Armando Olivas of Labor Community Services, the charitable arm of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, told ABC7. “They’ve been in the unions for years, they’ve been paying dues. … So it’s like, we want to help you out.”
Lindsay Dougherty of the Teamsters told the station the event is a “prime example” that “there are good things that have happened from the strike, and that’s the solidarity among the unions. … I think moving forward everybody realizes that we have to take care of one another and help each other.”