John Campbell, 60, has been working in the film industry for 29 years as a grip and as a driver. In July, he was dropped from the industry health plan for the first time in his career, falling 7.5 hours short of the threshold needed to maintain eligibility.
Crew members must work 400 hours in a six-month period in order to keep health insurance under the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans. A few are already starting to be dropped, but more could lose coverage if the strike lasts into the fall. The Entertainment Community Fund has been giving out emergency grants to workers. Through July 14, it distributed 1,000 grants totaling $1.7 million.
“They are getting clobbered by this,” Beitcher said. “They are losing their homes. They are getting their cars repossessed. They are losing their health insurance. All the government backstops that were there during the pandemic are gone.”held a food drive for entertainment workers at its Burbank office. Cars snaked down the street and around the block, as drivers waited for more than an hour to collect a few boxes of vegetables, rice, beans and canned goods.
Bridges said many of the jobs available now are in commercials, but that the key grips who specialize in that area are getting flooded with messages from guys who are out of work. He said his phone has stopped ringing and he has not worked more than 30 days this year. “It’s been a while already,” he said. “I don’t know if this strike is going to end next month or next year.”Chephren Rasika, a grip for the last 29 years, said that business has been dead since January. Like a lot of older grips, he has back issues, and has gone on disability. He said his income has dropped from $15,000 to $20,000 per month down to $6,000.