HIV/AIDS Incident Has All Thinking

Sirs:

I live on the East coast and I love the industry. I have always wanted to work in it but no luck. But my comment is not directed at that. I read about the terrible AIDS scare and I feel very bad for the talent. You are going to have to think about safety and health issues. I think the only solution, which I am sure the management will oppose is the formation of a strong union perhaps (if possible connected with the Screen Actors Guild) with rights and obligations from owners and the talent.

All the talent would have to be certified in terms of health, safety and wages and companies the same. There should be pension, move gratuities and set minimum wages for the talent.

I would also think that talent would have some type of safety practices such as limiting one’s sex life to the set. That is, the male talent would have to sign an agreement to limit themselves to sex with spouses and significant others and to the opposite talent within the company they work for. This would limit exposure to unknown partners and thus reduce the threat of STDs and AIDS.

I would like to see the movie houses certified in under union contract (closed shop only) for safety and health. I strongly believe that this would benefit the owners and talent. AIDS is the only thing that can destroy an industry that is now bigger than regular films.

I do enjoy reading your newsletter which gives me an idea of what goes on. I do know that there is way too [much] exploitation of talent via not very good wages such as those in the SAG would get. Everyone would benefit through the formation of a strong union.

That is my comment and I would hope someone in the AFL-CIO and management would get the ball rolling.

Thanks for listening,

David at [redacted]@Yahoo.com