Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. Yes, indeed, you are listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week on this Tuesday. And Jason, our
Speaker 1: next guest understands the acting world and really the challenge
Speaker 1: is facing getting back to normal in a COVID and
Speaker 1: post COVID world better than most. She is familiar to
Speaker 1: fans of the very popular series in the we're talking
Speaker 1: about nine O two one oh. She is today though,
Speaker 1: president of the trade union representing roughly a hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty thousand actors, announcers, journalists, news writers and editors, singers
Speaker 1: and more. It's a big union. Joining us is Gabrielle Carteris.
Speaker 1: She is president of we said as I said of
Speaker 1: the Actor's guild SAG after she joins us on the
Speaker 1: phone in Los Angeles. Gabrielle, it's nice to have you
Speaker 1: here with Jason and myself. First of all, how are you?
Speaker 1: How is your world? Oh? First of all, thank you
Speaker 1: for having me. I really I love your work, So
Speaker 1: thank you guys for inviting me. Um. Yeah, I h
Speaker 1: how is my world? The world has been really crazy?
Speaker 1: You know, it's uh my world is all of our world,
Speaker 1: and we are definitely feeling the pandemic COVID nineteen and
Speaker 1: its effects on our industry. So it's been a it's
Speaker 1: been a challenging time, a real challenging time, but A
Speaker 1: I do believe we'll get through it. So that's that's
Speaker 1: my hope. And so, you know, Gabrielle in in your world,
Speaker 1: in your business, I mean, our understanding is that everything
Speaker 1: just ground to a halt, you know, during most of
Speaker 1: this pandemic. Like where are we now in terms of
Speaker 1: any sort of restart? You know, we've talked to some
Speaker 1: of your sort of colleagues in the acting and directing
Speaker 1: profession here in New York City as they've been sort
Speaker 1: of getting back to work. What is it like more
Speaker 1: broadly and maybe even more specifically there at the heart
Speaker 1: of it all in Los Angeles, Well, I would say
Speaker 1: the heart of it is not just l a actually
Speaker 1: the heart of his probably now being such a I
Speaker 1: always call it the movable beast. Our industries everywhere now,
Speaker 1: but um, you know, uh, the first we were the
Speaker 1: first really industry to shut down when the pandemic hit,
Speaker 1: you know, March fifteenth. Everything shut down and our business
Speaker 1: was the first one to shut down, and our business
Speaker 1: was the one where you know, from Washington dawn. People
Speaker 1: were saying, you know, now that you're at home and
Speaker 1: you're you know, being sequestered at home, please you know,
Speaker 1: watch all those Netflix shows that you haven't seen, watched,
Speaker 1: you know, stream the news shows. Everybody was depending on
Speaker 1: our Our workers are members, you know, the broadcasters, journalists
Speaker 1: are the ones who are giving news day in and
Speaker 1: day out to inform not just you know, America, but
Speaker 1: on a global level. So it's you know, they said
Speaker 1: to everybody, you know, watch and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: But most of our work, other than a few of
Speaker 1: our members actually ground to a halt and um and
Speaker 1: that was devastating. It was really just like for everybody else,
Speaker 1: it was just like the ground was removed from underneath us.
Speaker 1: That being said, the minute it happened, we started working
Speaker 1: really closely with you know, the other unions, d G A, IoT,
Speaker 1: the teamsters, as well as you know the ant t
Speaker 1: P which are employers, and we started putting together, um,
Speaker 1: working with scientists and epidemiologists and doctors. You know, what
Speaker 1: is it that we can do to put together some
Speaker 1: kind of protocol or guidelines so we can get people
Speaker 1: back to work in the safest way possible. We've literally
Speaker 1: had been working every day including weekends, for the last
Speaker 1: like five six months, and came together finally with protocols
Speaker 1: that we officially released. UM. I think it was like
Speaker 1: the September twenty one and um, and now people are
Speaker 1: starting to go back to work. UM. So I'm hoping that,
Speaker 1: you know, as we're ebbing and flowing back in because
Speaker 1: you know that we're seeing you know, numbers spike in
Speaker 1: certain places, but the protections that we've put in place
Speaker 1: to make it a safer way back to work, I'm
Speaker 1: hoping it keeps the industry open and were able to
Speaker 1: move forward. But it's been, um, it's really just been
Speaker 1: an interesting and painful experience to see so many people struggling.
Speaker 1: I mean people in food lines, you know, actors. People
Speaker 1: think that, you know, it's all high pros, but a
Speaker 1: lot of our our members are really the day in
Speaker 1: and day out journeyman of this industry and they depend
Speaker 1: on those jobs. And it's been really it's been really
Speaker 1: a hard road. And so Gabrielle, I know that there
Speaker 1: were many probably sticking points, and and and tricky things
Speaker 1: along the way, But what really sticks out to you?
Speaker 1: I mean, what was the thing that once you solved it,
Speaker 1: you felt like, all right, we're going to get this done.
Speaker 1: We've got a broad agreement on on sort of everybody
Speaker 1: being safe and healthy. Well, first of all, everybody agreed
Speaker 1: when we started we wanted to base everything on facts, right,
Speaker 1: it had to be on the science, not just on
Speaker 1: how you felt. So we're working with the epidemiologists, the doctors.
Speaker 1: What we really recognize the three vital things that we
Speaker 1: had to make sure it happened. We got testing on
Speaker 1: a regular basis. We have tracing because we want to
Speaker 1: know it's something you know where to occur, where it's
Speaker 1: coming from. And then of course we have social distancing.
Speaker 1: We created zones where actors who unlike you know, or
Speaker 1: dancers or thing or any of our members, they don't
Speaker 1: get to wear ppe when they work unless they're doing
Speaker 1: a hospital scene, right, they can't be like some of
Speaker 1: the crew could wear masks all the time. So we
Speaker 1: we actually went and created zones and so we're actors
Speaker 1: are in the zone a area where nobody can come
Speaker 1: in and out of that area unless they are also
Speaker 1: a part of that zone and that's you know that
Speaker 1: testing takes place three times a week, so we really
Speaker 1: have found and what's helped us with that. It's been
Speaker 1: really interesting. I just got off a call. There actually
Speaker 1: have been a couple of shows where there was one
Speaker 1: in particular that um I had been talking to somebody
Speaker 1: where they literally had been tested. It was one of
Speaker 1: the leads just before they came on set. If they
Speaker 1: found out that that person had covid N, team stop
Speaker 1: that person from going on set and therefore protected the
Speaker 1: rest of the crew and the other UH performers so
Speaker 1: that they can continue performing and working, so they didn't
Speaker 1: have to shut the set down. So that was for us.
Speaker 1: We had to we had to find an agreement. And
Speaker 1: again it was really important that we didn't just do
Speaker 1: it as bag after it, but that we did it
Speaker 1: with everybody, because if people don't all buy into it,
Speaker 1: then you can't you and I can say a million times,
Speaker 1: look you have to test, and they're gonna say no,
Speaker 1: I don't you know. But if we we all come
Speaker 1: to this agreement together, it actually makes it a standard
Speaker 1: that we all follow. And it's been really thus far.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm hopeful that we have been able to
Speaker 1: stop some of the spreading that could have occurred, and
Speaker 1: that's closed down. Gabrielle carteris president of SAG after she
Speaker 1: joined this on the phone from Los Angeles, and there
Speaker 1: is a return to work agreement, uh that the union
Speaker 1: has negotiated and Gabrielle and you know this better than
Speaker 1: we do, negotiate something and not everyone is always happy
Speaker 1: with it. And so as we've talked to folks, one
Speaker 1: of the things that has come up is that, um,
Speaker 1: the premiums are going to have to go up in
Speaker 1: the health plan and that working spouses are no longer covered.
Speaker 1: What sort of feedback have you gotten and what are
Speaker 1: you saying back to your members as they do weigh
Speaker 1: in on this deal. Well, working spouses are actually still covered,
Speaker 1: it depends on it unless they are covered by their
Speaker 1: uh at their work. You know, for instance, my husband
Speaker 1: has a job. If he's covered there, then uh, he
Speaker 1: would take that as his primary But um, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what, unlike not unlike what's going on in our country,
Speaker 1: we're seeing it everywhere. The pandemic has actually, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: has really been devastating in terms of you know, healthcare.
Speaker 1: Not only that you know, outside of the pandemic, we've
Speaker 1: seen an incredible I mean that the cost for healthcare
Speaker 1: in this country and the lack of people being able
Speaker 1: to afford healthcare has been you know, it's been shocking.
Speaker 1: For these last couple of years, we've seen it going
Speaker 1: up and up and up and up. So with that
Speaker 1: pressure and with the pandemic, it has been really his
Speaker 1: weight a lot. I'm hoping now that with work going back,
Speaker 1: people are going to start again with their working, we'll
Speaker 1: be able to go and um uh be able to
Speaker 1: be eligible for their health care again. It's really uh,
Speaker 1: it's something that's very important. I believe people have a
Speaker 1: right to health care in this country. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that people can go and take care of themselves.
Speaker 1: So as we re enter work with the protocols that
Speaker 1: we put forward, I think already I'm getting calls from
Speaker 1: people saying, yeah, I made my healthcare this year. Um.
Speaker 1: And so that's really what I hope for everybody. But
Speaker 1: you know, it's a bigger problem than just what's going
Speaker 1: on with in our union or in other unions or businesses.
Speaker 1: We really have to look at what's going on in
Speaker 1: our country. We work very hard on legislation UM to
Speaker 1: make sure or that people have protections, and I think
Speaker 1: that we're going to have to make sure to really
Speaker 1: address it on a federal level as well as what
Speaker 1: we do within our organization than Gabriel. My understanding is
Speaker 1: that new agreement that you guys signed it, you said,
Speaker 1: UM September twenty one. I think it goes until April
Speaker 1: of next year. UM. Is that when you anticipate that
Speaker 1: things will be more normal, No, when you have no idea,
Speaker 1: I would never I could, I could never tell you.
Speaker 1: I think that it was very important though, you know,
Speaker 1: it's uh for us to be able to have a
Speaker 1: look back period. So you know, we're periodically, we're going
Speaker 1: in every month actually looking at what's working and what's
Speaker 1: not working in the agreement that we've done. But April,
Speaker 1: in April, when we get to that point, will reevaluate
Speaker 1: and we'll see if we have to go and implement
Speaker 1: it longer or do we want to shift it to
Speaker 1: be something else. But it's very fluid because this is
Speaker 1: an unknown universe for everybody, right, I mean, none of
Speaker 1: us have experienced what a pandemic is. People out in
Speaker 1: the beginning, when it first came out you know, it'll
Speaker 1: just be a couple of months. Don't worry, It'll be
Speaker 1: you know by June, we'll be back, and we'll be
Speaker 1: back by August. Well, the truth is, we just don't know,
Speaker 1: and we're seeing numbers rise. I'm listening to you, you know,
Speaker 1: your broadcast right now, and we're hearing you know, New York.
Speaker 1: The numbers are rising around the country. It's rising around
Speaker 1: the world. It's rising. So I can't tell you I
Speaker 1: don't have that crystal ball, but we do have. That's
Speaker 1: just a place for us to stop for a moment,
Speaker 1: to say, where are we now? Is this is this working?
Speaker 1: And what can we do better? Or do we need
Speaker 1: to continue this? And that's what that is. Do you
Speaker 1: do you have any eat protocols? Do you have any visibility?
Speaker 1: Do you think, like I know we were Jason and
Speaker 1: I have guests on and we think it might be
Speaker 1: a year from now before things feel a lot more normal.
Speaker 1: Do you have any visibility from either the studios that
Speaker 1: you guys are talking to and your members, any idea
Speaker 1: in terms when it when it gets more normal where
Speaker 1: we don't have to be so worried about all these
Speaker 1: safety precautions, having zones. And you know, look, we're the
Speaker 1: student dios don't know anything more than we know. We're
Speaker 1: all working with the epidemiologists and the doctors. We're all
Speaker 1: hearing the information from the CDC. We're looking to see.
Speaker 1: There's no answer, right but you know clearly where everybody's
Speaker 1: talking about. Is there gonna be a second wave? What
Speaker 1: does that look like? We want to be prepared if
Speaker 1: there's going to be again that Evan flow. We want
Speaker 1: to make sure that people stay at work once they
Speaker 1: enter into work. So how do we create those safeties?
Speaker 1: But I just I don't I'm like you, I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, they've come out with a vaccine, Well will
Speaker 1: it be effective when they come out with it? Who's
Speaker 1: going to take it? Will? You know? There's too many
Speaker 1: variables right now. But um, we are doing everything we
Speaker 1: can to make sure that we can go and keep
Speaker 1: the industry open and keep people in the safest that's
Speaker 1: what we call it, a safer way back to work.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that they have protections. All right,
Speaker 1: We've only got about a minute left, and Gabrielle, I
Speaker 1: would not be happy with myself if I didn't ask
Speaker 1: you at least one question, I mean, and a question
Speaker 1: is really, you know, there are certain shows that just
Speaker 1: like Resonate and maybe I'm just of a certain age,
Speaker 1: but what was it if you can distill it down
Speaker 1: in in forty seconds about that show that has made
Speaker 1: it so memorable for so long. I you know, I
Speaker 1: think that it was true then, and my kids watched it.
Speaker 1: I have older kids now who watched it recently, and
Speaker 1: they couldn't believe how they thought it was great. I
Speaker 1: think it just touches on the real issues that affect
Speaker 1: young people, and it created an environment where they felt
Speaker 1: seen and heard, and it allowed parents to have conversations
Speaker 1: they would not have otherwise had. And I think that
Speaker 1: people didn't want to just go and be painted with
Speaker 1: milk and cookies. They wanted to be real life, you know, scenarios.
Speaker 1: So I think people I know from my character people
Speaker 1: would say to me, you remind you know, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: in Andrea right there. For them, it was that, you know,
Speaker 1: we all feel a little bit like everybody thinks they
Speaker 1: know us, that we feel sometimes a little uncomfortable and
Speaker 1: as understood. So anyway, alright, well, thank you, thank you
Speaker 1: for indulging me on that and Thank you for your
Speaker 1: time today, you're doing incredibly important work on behalf of
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty thousand plus members there at SAGA after
Speaker 1: Gabrielle Carterist, Thank you,