Dozens of performers sued the union over the return-to-work agreement, which required them to get vaccinated for the virus.
SAG-AFTRA has defeated a series of lawsuits over its COVID safety guidelines outlining terms to return to work, which for a time mandated vaccination against the virus.
Dorian Kingi, a stuntman with credits on dozens of films who declined to get vaccinated due to his faith and other “science, political and philosophical reasoning,” brought in Los Angeles Superior Court in December one of 40 lawsuits against SAG-AFTRA challenging the agreement, implemented in September 2020. For nearly three years, it allowed studios to require union members to be vaccinated and get tested for the virus, as well as mask and quarantine in certain circumstances. He and others alleged that they faced difficulties getting work because they were discriminated against for not being vaccinated.
The thrust of the lawsuits was that the negotiation and implementation of the return-to-work agreement violated the SAG-AFTRA’s constitution, as well as its collective bargaining and membership agreements. Among the complaints was that the union failed to adequately represent the interests of every member despite its duty to represent them fairly and equally.
But U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton, in an order issued on Thursday evening, dismissed the lawsuits. She found that the breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and negligence claims, among others, are blocked by a federal law protecting unions from alleged violations of state law based on labor contracts.
And while the other claims don’t explicitly invoke SAG-AFTRA’s duty to fairly represent members, the court concluded that the allegations are “also inextricably linked with that duty” and “derives from the exact same contracts that support the alleged breach of contract.” The performers, Staton said, failed to point to conduct from the union that was “independently wrongful.”
In a statement, SAG-AFTRA National executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said, “We look forward to continuing to expand our members’ work opportunities and acknowledge the hard work and dedication of those who helped make sets safe enough to return the industry to work during the unprecedented challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
After months of negotiation, Hollywood’s top studios and unions in September 2020 reached a deal to resume production, which required virus testing, safety training and paid sick leave, among other things. They were later updated to require vaccination, which was met by opposition by some members who opposed the blanket mandate. Some actors, including General Hospital‘s Ingo Rademacher and 911‘s Rockmond Dunbar, sued studios after they were denied exemptions and subsequently terminated.
The return-to-work agreement expired in May 2023, ending vaccine mandates on new productions.
