Disney will soon be parting ways with the union nurses on its Burbank studio lot in favor of subcontracting, less than a year after negotiating a new contract with IATSE.
Deadline understands the company first notified IATSE Local 80, which represents studio nurses among others, in July that it would be invoking a provision in the union’s Basic Agreement to make the switch to hiring subcontracted nurses through a medical staffing company instead.
“Their official reason, to me, verbally, is they want to get out of the business of directly providing medical care to the crew, [because] there’s a liability, so they’re trying to avoid liability,” Local 80 business manager DeJon Ellis tells Deadline, adding that he does not believe this to be a cost-saving measure for Disney.
A studio source tells Deadline this decision will only impact the Burbank studio lot, and medical services available to employees will not change. The reasoning, they tell us, is to streamline backend processes, staffing and reporting. A rep for Disney declined to comment.
So far, there is no timeline for when Disney will make the move, though it has already created a bit of a firestorm among local crew. A petition to urge Disney to continue hiring union nurses has gained more than 700 signatures, so far.
“This, to me, is an assault on unionism and and a weaponization of the language [of the contract],” Ellis insisted. “This is just a principled attack, if you will, in my opinion, on the union workers. It’s just one less headache for that [labor relations] department.”
Ellis also says that the local is planning some coordinated action to protest Disney’s decision, including an informational picket to let the public know about its concerns, though nothing is set in stone quite yet. Much of that will likely be dependent on the timeline for the transition.
IATSE’s Basic Agreement with the Hollywood studios only prohibits subcontracting work “which has not heretofore been subcontracted in the multi-employer bargaining unit,” which opens the door for Disney to make a move like this. Studio nurses were previously subcontracted at Universal Studios in 1989.
This line in the contract was a source of great contention during last year’s bargaining cycle between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Ellis says, adding that leadership spent “hours” trying to get the provision removed altogether.
“We aggressively went after this,” he said. “We held on to it very deep into the negotiations, trying to get rid of it and then pivoting to putting extra guardrails around this…because what’s the benefit of having a contract if you’re going to just be able to subcontract our work?”
The guardrails in the current contract require the signatory studios to notify IATSE in writing of any intention to subcontract work.
Disney’s Burbank studio lot has employed union nurses for 85 years. In fact, Walt Disney himself famously tapped one of the lot’s union nurses, Hazel George, to tend to him personally after a neck injury sustained in a polo accident. She would go on to become one of Walt Disney’s most trusted confidantes and, in 1952, she is said to have helped him shore up money from studio employees as a show of support for his ambitious theme park plans that would eventually become Disneyland. She eventually became a songwriter for Disney, as well, before returning to be Walt Disney’s personal caretaker until his death in 1966.
Local 80 represents motion picture grips, crafts service, marine, first aid employees and warehouse workers based in and around Hollywood. Studio lot nurses typically provide immediate care to cast, crew, executives and other employees as well as monitor health and wellness protocols on set.
The post Disney Expected To Part Ways With Burbank Studio Lot Union Nurses In Favor Of Subcontracting; IATSE Local 80 Decries Move As A “Principled Attack” appeared first on Deadline.
