SAG-AFTRA Hit With Over 100 Covid Vaccine Mandate Suits By Members; “Claims Are Without Merit,” Guild Says

deadline.com:

Hollywood’s vaccine mandates are gone, but as new legal actions filed today against SAG-AFTRA make clear, the battle over the Covid-19 protection is far from over.

Over 100 individual suits placed in the LA Superior Court docket Thursday claim the Guild threw members under corporate buses during the height of the pandemic, essentially linking arms with the studios to require vaccinations to work. “While Defendants are Plaintiff’s Union representatives, SAG-AFTRA members had a right to expect that its Union would protect them, negotiate with the studios, producers and other hiring officials on their behalf to prevent prejudicial treatment for exerting their philosophical, religious, medical or disability-based reason for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine,” says stuntman and Guild member Dorian Kingi in his jury trial seeking filing today (read it here).

Kingi’s action is one of 103 complaints filed by the firm of Gerald Fox Law this week. “Adding insult to injury, assuming SAG-AFTRA were a public/government and not private actor, similar to California law which requires students attending public or private school be vaccinated against certain named and identified infectious diseases, SAG-AFTRA was allowing its signatories (production companies/studios) to forcibly impose vaccination requirements and mandates in exchange for a Union Member’s ability to work, receive an audition, maintain management, maintain an agent, work with talent agencies, etc,” adds the 21-page suit for breach of fiduciary duty negligence, and four other claims. “Thus, SAG-AFTRA Members were forced to choose between their financial livelihood, breaking the law to obtain a falsified vaccination card or adhering to the acceptance of a foreign, not