April 2018 Newsreel is Now Available Online and Coming to our Member’s Mailboxes Soon! 

Click here to read a digital copy of our most recent Newsreel! 

Topics in this Newsreel Include: 

  • “Hoffa: King’s Economic Dreams Remain Unfulfilled” 
  • 2018 Scholarship Opportunities for Graduating High School Seniors 
  • “Snowfall” in Los Angeles 
  • Member Spotlight: Women in Transportation
  • Support Working People, Support D.R.I.V.E. 
  • Understanding New Media 
  • Q & A with Secretary-Treasurer Steve Dayan 
  • California State Military Reserve 
  • Teamsters Local 399 & Basic Crafts 4th Annual Car & Motorcycle Show 
  • Teamsters Local 399 App: Coming Soon! 
  • Events, Announcements, Retirees, Obituaries 

Introduction By Secretary-Treasurer Steve Dayan: 

Greetings Sisters & Brothers,

We can look forward to another busy year for our Membership thanks to our tax incentive program. We are currently in the process of lobbying our elected officials in Sacramento to extend and expand the program beyond 2020. Vice-President Ed Duffy has been working hard with the Entertainment Industry Coalition (comprised of the major studios and organized labor) to make certain our tax incentives stay in place. We’ll keep you posted on our efforts and will be providing you with updates and what you can do to help get the incentives extended.

All of our major (and many white paper) contracts are expiring this year. We will shortly be bargaining the contracts for Universal Studios Tours, “Black Book”, Location Manager and Casting Director contracts this year. We have already begun meeting with our Tours, Drivers and Location Managers Steering committees in order to develop proposals for the 2018 negotiations. We will also be sending out online survey forms to get Member input as well. In addition to the usual concerns around our negotiations, the big issues in the “Black Book” and Location Manager negotiations will revolve around Pension and Health benefits and New Media. (Please see the article on New Media in this edition of the Newsreel). Our Casting negotiations will focus on “stretching” of the weeks Casting Directors work as well as increasing the wage rates for our Associates.

Local 399 has partnered with the #TimesUp movement and I’m pleased to announce that David Rubin, a Casting Director and 399 Member and I will serve as Members of the Industry Commission. The vast majority of our Members certainly need no reminder to be courteous and respectful to everyone on their crew. But the time has come for all of us to come together to stamp out sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.

At our April Meeting we’ll be encouraging our Members to participate in D.R.I.V.E. (Democrat Republican Independent Voter Education). Our focus has been to make certain our Membership is united around issues that impact working families. In this era, it’s critical for all of us to be politically engaged and we should all come together to protect our own best interests. D.R.I.V.E. is a great way to supports our entire Teamster Membership. If you can, please consider contributing to D.R.I.V.E.

I’m pleased to announce that the Leo T. Reed Scholarship fund, JC42 Scholarship Fund and the Teamsters National Black Caucus are accepting applications for 2018. The applicants for the Leo Reed Scholarship will continue to be selected by two staff-members of the LA County Federation of Labor. The fund allocates ten $2,500.00 scholarships for the children of our Members.

Please see the article in this Newsreel. Good luck to all of our scholarship applicants! The 4th annual Car Show will take place this summer. We have included our Brothers & Sisters from the Basic Crafts to bring their classic cars to the show as well. I encourage all of our Members to register for the event and come out with your families for a fun-filled day. Save the date for August 25th!

I’d like to thank all of our Members who came out to play in our annual Ralph Clare Golf Tournament this year. Special thanks to Office Manager Greg Karson, our staff, sponsors and all other Unions that came out to play this year. We’ll be back in the same location next year.

We’ll also be hosting our annual Retiree reunion in the fall. Stay tuned for more information.

I wish all of our Members a prosperous and safe summer.

Fraternally,

Steve Dayan

Teamsters Local 399

Secretary-Treasurer

Click here to read a digital copy of our most recent Newsreel!