Teamsters, IATSE, the WGA West and SAG-AFTRA joined forces today to distribute boxes of food and other necessities to industry workers whose lives have been upended by the strikes that have shut down most production.
Volunteers 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.
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Organizers noted that the ongoing SAG-AFTRA 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.”
Teamsters Local 399 boss Lindsay Dougherty 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.”
It’s the latest recent example of the labor organizations coming together to help those in need. Earlier this week, The Union Solidarity Coalition, WGA West, SAG-AFTRA, the DGA and IATSE announced they raised over $500,000 to support Teamsters and other crewmembers hit by the work stoppages.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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