SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher Says She Was Willing To Strike In 2021 Over Covid Vax Mandates

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: As SAG-AFTRA prepares for a possible strike next week, Fran Drescher, the guild’s president, said in a recent email chain that she was willing to go on strike in 2021 over Hollywood’s Covid vaccination mandates.

Drescher, who had been the leading voice among union leaders against the mandates, on Thursday told critics who accused her of not doing enough to end them that “If it were up to me, I would have asked to strike over it, but a union cannot strike with a handful of members when repeatedly, even today with all the controversy, the majority as seen in the LA local meeting, overwhelmingly disagree with you or have changed their thinking on this issue.”    The mandates were approved by the studios, guilds and unions as part of the industry’s Covid return-to-work protocols and allowed employers to require vaccinations as a condition of employment.

First implemented in June 2021, the mandates ended, along with all the other protocols, on May 12 of this year. Last December, writing in the SAG-AFTRA Magazine, she said that “I continue to fight on behalf of our members who feel discriminated against because of the Covid unvaccinated or un-boosted status, which is keeping them from working in major studio productions.

For those members not being fairly considered by studios with regards to their religious or health exemptions, help is on the way!” Her critics on the email chain, which was seen by Deadline, include Maya Dunbar, who is running against her for president; Peter Antico, who is running against incumbent Joely Fisher for secretary-treasurer; and actor Chuck Slavin.