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#62 | Posted by Danforth at 2024-03-08 01:50 AM
Legwork, please. The crew walked off the set because their safety concerns weren't being addressed.
When the camera crew walked off, they were not complaining about or justifying it as "safety"... at least not then, that came later. They walked off as they explained: "after filming began, the crews were told they instead would be required to make the 50-mile drive from Albuquerque each day, rather than stay overnight in nearby Santa Fe. That rankled crew members who worried that they might have an accident after spending 12 to 13 hours on the set."
www.motherjones.com - Stories of Terrible Conditions on "Rust" Set Were Emerging Even Before Fatal Shooting - Oct 22, 2021
|------- The events that prompted workers to walk off the set in New Mexico appear to have been detailed in a series of Facebook replies written before the shooting. A person who identified themselves as a member of the camera crew on Rust ... wrote a series of posts about how the crew was being treated like "Absolute dog s**t."
The posts were written in response to a video of Baldwin expressing his solidarity with Hollywood's blue-collar workforce, which is now deciding whether to ratify a labor agreement reached on Saturday between producers and the leaders of their union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. "I want to say to the people in IATSE, do what you need to do," Baldwin said about the upcoming vote. "You don't like that contract? You think the contract could be better? You want to go on strike? Go on strike."
Under the video, the crew member, whose Facebook page identifies them as a member of IATSE Local 600, highlights conditions...:
|--- At the moment I'm fighting to get my crew, on this movie, hotel rooms when we go long or are too tired to drive the hour back from location to Albuquerque. They either say no or offer a garbage roadside motel that's used as a homeless shelter. In fact the line producer on the flick complained the motel she booked charges her 10 bucks more per night than the homeless. They haven't even paid the crew a proper check. ---|
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www.democracynow.org - IATSE Film Crew on "Rust" Walked Off to Protest Conditions - Oct 26, 2021
|------- All this happened after some of the unionized IATSE below-the-line crew members had walked off the set of "Rust" earlier on the day of the shooting to protest their housing, payment and working conditions. ...
DUTCH MERRICK (past President of I.A.T.S.E. Local 44, director, gun safety instructor): ... From what I've heard, the armorer was not present during this sequence. My guess is, I understand - from what I understand, they were coming back from lunch. There may have been a rush for them to get back to rehearsing. I imagine it was a pretty jarring day, having much of the crew walk off and other people come in to replace them, so there was likely a bit of mayhem. ... -------|
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Like I said in my previous post, other than "creating quite a bit of chaos, anxiety and rush on the set" (or as Dutch Merrick said, "a bit of mayhem" which may have been a contributory factor?), the union camera crew walkout (and their non-union replacements) had no other affect on set's safety conditions - which continued to be [very poorly] served by the same inexperienced, incompetent, unqualified IATSE-approved union personnel.
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