Rehearsals resuming? — Page 2

HogansHero said: "@Fosse76Sorry but no.
1. Exemptions-no reason to ask why. If you are not vaccinated you cannot work. End of discussion. Again, the exemption is for mandates, not conditions of private employment. The question for you to ponder is: exempt from what? When you answer that accurately, you'll understand.

2. Lawsuits-sure. There are lawsuits about anything and everything but not meritorious ones. The law is clear. And you expect a conservative court to do something nice for employees? LOL. Consult a lawyer? Sure. There won't be a lot of billable time on that one.

3. Irrelevance-it's covered by insurance.

4. "Mandate" - wrong term in this context.

5. AEA-did you forget you said something about employers imposing the requirement unilaterally? AEA is requiring that employers condition employment on it.

6. "AEA isn't the only union on Broadway." Very true but how does that matter? First, do you seriously think any union will not require vaccinations? Second, even if they did not, there will be no show without actors. Except Blindness. Everyone in the building will be vaccinated or they won't be there.


"

I agree with almost all of this with just one clarification-

AEA isn't requiring vaccinations. Currently there are 2 sets of guidelines for Producers wishing to restart work. One is for a fully vaccinated company and the other is without a fully vaccinated company. The employer can choose which protocols to plan for. If you read both set of guidelines, obviously a fully vaccinated company provides a safer and easier pathway to getting back on stage, but make no mistake-AEA is not requiring it.

Also, I just want to state again (since people consistently misunderstand this) According to the updated federal guidance provided by the EEOC, Employers in the United States have the absolute right to require vaccination as a condition of employment based on an employers responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Exemptions exist, and the EEOC does encourage a nuanced approach, but don't believe some of the info that gets generated out of the ant-vaxx movement that erroneously states things about "emergency use authorizations" etc. etc. As has been stated on this thread, of course lawsuits can be threatened, but the federal government's stance on this was well defined back in December so there is little chance that any of those suits would move past the filing stage based on merits.

felixleiter said: "HogansHero said: "@Fosse76Sorry but no.
1. Exemptions-no reason to ask why. If you are not vaccinated you cannot work. End of discussion. Again, the exemption is for mandates, not conditions of private employment. The question for you to ponder is: exempt from what? When you answer that accurately, you'll understand.

2. Lawsuits-sure. There are lawsuits about anything and everything but not meritorious ones. The law is clear. And you expect a conservative court to do something nice for employees? LOL. Consult a lawyer? Sure. There won't be a lot of billable time on that one.

3. Irrelevance-it's covered by insurance.

4. "Mandate" - wrong term in this context.

5. AEA-did you forget you said something about employers imposing the requirement unilaterally? AEA is requiring that employers condition employment on it.

6. "AEA isn't the only union on Broadway." Very true but how does that matter? First, do you seriously think any union will not require vaccinations? Second, even if they did not, there will be no show without actors. Except Blindness. Everyone in the building will be vaccinated or they won't be there.


"

I agree with almost all of this with just one clarification-

AEA isn't requiring vaccinations. Currently there are 2 sets of guidelines for Producers wishing to restart work. One is for a fully vaccinated company and the other is without a fully vaccinated company. The employer can choose which protocols to plan for. If you read both set of guidelines, obviously a fully vaccinated company provides a safer and easier pathway to getting back on stage, but make no mistake-AEA is not requiring it.

Also, I just want to state again (since people consistently misunderstand this) According to the updated federal guidance provided by the EEOC, Employers in the United States have the absolute right to require vaccination as a condition of employment based on an employers responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Exemptions exist, and the EEOC does encourage a nuanced approach, but don't believe some of the info that gets generated out of the ant-vaxx movement that erroneously states things about "emergency use authorizations" etc. etc. As has been stated on this thread, of course lawsuits can be threatened, but the federal government's stance on this was well defined back in December so there is little chance that any of those suits would move past the filing stage based on merits."

Nothing he said was in context. His response is predicated on the false notion that I said employers cannot require vaccinations. I said it's complicated, and outlined several reasons why (ask yourself why the EEOC would suggest a "nuanced approach" otherwise). While I never outright stated that they could require them, it was implied in my response, and he's just being argumentative.

I don't think the anti-vaxxers as we know them will get much leverage this time; the anti-covid vaxxers are using personal freedom for their stance, as opposed to some false medical reasons.

And a government's stance is pretty irrelevant as to how far a lawsuit will go. I imagine most will be tossed, but don't forget that this all comes under state law (absent a national mandate to vaccinate, which under caselaw is constitutional), and questions of law aren't heard by juries, but decided by judges after a series of hearings.

https://www.actorsequity.org/resources/Producers/covid19-info/



So here is the link to the AEA information a producer would look at to begin to plan a production. I'm not sure if this is reaadble by a non-member or not.

Keep in mind that this isn't specific to one particular agreement or contract (i.e. Broadway's Production contract) but more of an overview of what AEA sees as the main safety protocols needed in place to safely get back to work nationwide.

I don't want to get into a discussion of the merits of these protocols in this thread(lord knows there's a LOT of discussion on that topic already) but if you click on any of the links on the page, ("indoor with an audience", "outdoor with an audience" etc) you will see that the protocols change with a fully vaccinated company vs a non-fully vaccinated company. According to AEA there is a safe way to do this in both scenarios. And clearly, AEA is NOT saying that the only work that can be approved is work done with a fully vaccinated company-THERE ARE OPTIONS. A calculation based on many factors will be made by each individual producer as to what they will plan, and of course all of this is subject to negotiation and/or collective bargaining. But make no mistake- In person union work has already taken place at theatres all over the country (including today) with casts that are not vaccinated.

As for me-I'm expecting my producer to be expecting me to be vaccinated before I return to my job in the fall.

Yes you are correct. All Union work that has happened using the non-Vax protocols has been outside NYC. I wouldn't say though that the non-vax rules are a non-starter for Broadway-that has a lot more to do with capactiy limitations and the ability for a producer to make any money to pay a company (a point that you have also made). And to be honest, and to your previous point as well, the September timeframe that the League and the City presented would be outside the Vacinated company timeline anyway since that protocol ends in June.

And to the original point of this thread-I don't believe that there are ANY Broadway shows rehearsing right now. Stuff like that NEVER is a secret. The positive vibe of it would be too good of a PR piece for the mulitude of interests involved for someone to not release the info even as a blind item, or rumor, and, at the risk of offending all of us who post here, BWW is NOT where you will hear about it first.

I have a friend who would be working on one of the newer shows, and the person is currently not in New York. So I doubt shows are starting rehearsals right now.