IATSE_4th2017_web

school and has a health inspection certificate. “He said: ‘I have
to move my box to another corner for the day, and when I
come back after you’re gone, there will be ants all over and
inside my box because of all the food you’re serving!’ I said,
‘I’m so sorry, sir. Can I give you fifty dollars to rent the corner
from you for the day? He agreed and moved his box across the
street.”
With the solid sports connection, images from “Feed the
Homeless Day” have been put up on the Jumbotron at Staples
Center during a Clippers game. In fact, Cheevers says the anticipation
before the event is similar to what he and his union peers
experience before going live with a broadcast. “We want to make
sure we have a ‘clean’ event just like a clean game we put on the
air,” he reflects. “And just like we put a sports broadcast together
very quickly, this event comes together in rapid fashion, as
the people start calling a week before to get involved. Everyone
knows their assignment, and we show up every Christmas Eve
morning to put it together.”
Putting it together is what people like 2nd International Vice
President and Local 80 Business Agent Thomas Davis and his
grips have been doing to help make the “Christmas in July” event
so successful for the last four years. California State Senator Holly
Mitchell [30th District], who created the event, told Davis about
its goals – to help communities who are provided resources during
the holidays but mostly forgotten the rest of the year.
“Our first few years was mainly to provide bicycles,” Davis
recalls. “Every kid that came in -– between the ages of 8-15 – got
a brand new bicycle, and that first year we provided roughly 80
bicycles. Last year the focus was shifted to scooters, so we filled
that need as well.”
The event, held in mid-July at the University of Southern
California (USC), provides laptops, donated gift bags, helmets
and scooters to over 150 at-risk youth, and their families during
a free carnival that includes food, games, rides, athletic and outdoor
challenges, as well as arts and crafts. Although Davis and
Local 80 are the main drivers, the event also attracts multiple
L.A. area IATSE members, including Local 884 [Studio Teachers],
who in the past have set up a booth to distribute free books,
Local 839 [Animators], teaching kids the rudimentary basics of
film animation, and Local 600, which brought a “Mobile Camera
Classroom” filled with cinema equipment. “We have about
three dozen IATSE members from five different Locals come out
each summer,” Davis offers. “One of the things Senator Mitchell
Bergen CLC COPE fundraiser with NJ State Senator
Loretta Weinberg (center) with President of Local 632
Kevin O’Brien (right).
California State Senator Holly Mitchell (left) at
the Local 706 booth during “Christmas in July”.
stressed to me when we first got involved was that many of these
kids have never owned their own bike or scooter in their lives, so
the impact is really tangible.”
Davis, who has been politically active his entire career – having
Local 80 sponsor phone-banks for multiple election cycles
and lead door-to-door canvassing for pro-labor candidates –
says one of the prime benefits of social activism is the goodwill
it creates within the community. “Whenever you see a Wal-Mart
or other large corporation carrying the narrative of involvement
and awareness, the union brand is diminished in that community,”
Davis warns. “It makes all unions have to work that much
harder to get assistance from the community. And, by the way,
that assistance should not be transactional.
“If we’re in a campaign for a project labor agreement,” Davis
continues, “a new theater or stadium, and we want those jobs
for our members, we have to partner with people in that community,
or otherwise we will not have a voice in those discussions.
If those partnerships are purely transactional, they won’t
be nearly as effective, and the question arises as to if you can use
those same coalitions going forward.”
FOURTH QUARTER 2017 17