'Rust' tragedy, labor climate frame Hollywood contract vote

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In weighing his vote on a proposed union contract with Hollywood producers, veteran stagehand Matthew “Doc” Brashear looked closely at the agreement and beyond, to the now-closed New Mexico film set where a cinematographer died.

For crew member Brandy Tannahill, the fatal “Rust” shooting of Halyna Hutchins and the resurgence of labor actions, such as the strikes at John Deere and Kellogg, are bolstering her decision.

When voting starts Friday on a tentative three-year agreement reached by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and a trade group representing producers, Brashear and Tannahill say they will vote no.

With forces from the pandemic to the economy also framing union members' views, bread-and-butter issues of wages and pensions remain important. But long-entrenched concerns about danger on the job have taken on increased urgency.

“I think the elected (union) leaders gave their all,” Brashear said of the proposed deal that averted the union’s first-ever national strike. While it's generally “a win of a contract," it falls short on a majority of safety-related issues, he said.

“Most of what we are fighting for is to just be able to spend time with our family and, if we work a 16-hour day, to make it home safe to our families," said Brashear, a lighting programmer in Southern California.

While some point to the “Rust” shooting that injured director Joel Souza and killed cinematographer Hutchins as an outlier -- Alec Baldwin, the film’s star-producer who fired the gun, called it a “one-in-a-trillion event” — Tannahill said it’s emblematic of the industry's critical flaws.

“There has been an understandable emotional response to what occurred,” she said. “But the underlying issue that screams to me, as someone in this business,...