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AIP Week 2020’s theme is ‘MIND Your Health: Mental Health Awareness’ and focuses on the invisibility of mental illness, how we can all be more mindful of our mental health and how to help improve others. The aim is to bring awareness to factors such as stress, fatigue, concussion, that have an impact on an individual’s mental health and how this, in turn, affects the arts and entertainment industries.

As you are aware, as a result of the pandemic, AIP Week has become a completely virtual event where Actsafe will be sharing mental health information, resources, and hosting webinars presented by mental health experts to help reduce the stigma around mental health.

The webinars are scheduled for 10 am and 1 pm daily and you can find the full webinar schedule and registration here.

Some of the webinar topics include:

• An overview of concussions and their impacts on your mental health Philippe Saucier, SportMedBC (Monday, Sept. 21)
• Creating a Supportive Workplace: How Managers, Stewards, and Supervisors can support Mental Health Calltime: Mental Health and FSEAP (Tuesday, Sept. 22)
• Support for Performers’ Mental Health Before, During, and After COVID-19 The Professional Society of Canadian Intimacy Coordinators and Directors  (Tuesday, Sept. 22)
• Returning to Work and Life in the Era of COVID-19 Dr. Joti Samra, MyWorkplaceHealth (Wednesday, Sept. 23)
• Sick and Tired: A conversation about stress and fatigue Mike Harnett, Solaris Fatigue Management (Friday, Sept. 25)
• Your Mental Health in Entertainment Production: Taking Care of Yourself and Your Peers Calltime: Mental Health and FSEAP (Friday, Sept. 25)

The annual dues year for ACFC West, Local 2020 Unifor begins October 1st of each year and runs through to and including
September 30th of the following year. If you are currently a Member in Good Standing and have received our notice, you are
eligible to renew your membership for the upcoming year commencing October 1st, 2020.

Annual dues for the 2021 dues year, which is required to maintain your Member in Good Standing status, is $100.00.

Please note: in order to renew membership, a Member who requires a driver’s license to perform his or
her duties must provide a current drivers abstract or a signed authorization letter allowing the union to
obtain the member’s abstract.

In addition, payment of annual dues DOES NOT entitle you to renew your benefits through ACFC West, Local 2020
Unifor’s health benefits plan. However, maintaining benefits on the health plan are subject to payment of Annual Dues, and
will be immediately terminated if dues are delinquent by 30 days.

Payment Instructions:
1) In order to remain a Member in Good Standing of ACFC West, Local 2020 Unifor, you are required to pay one
payment of $100.00 for the full year. Your payment must be received at the ACFC West, Local 2020 Unifor
business office on or before October 1st, 2020.
*** This payment DOES NOT automatically entitle you to renew health benefits. ***

2) You can pay your 2021 Annual Dues by phone with Visa or Mastercard, or in-person with Cash, Debit or Cheque.
Please call our office at (604) 299-2232

3) Please mail any Cheques or Money Orders to the following address:
c/o ANNUAL DUES
ACFC West, Local 2020 Unifor
#108 – 3993 Henning Drive
Burnaby, BCV5C 6P7
Cheques and/or Money Orders should be made payable to: ACFC West, Local 2020 Unifor

The BC Motion Picture Industry COVID-19 Best Practices Coalition (the “Coalition”) developed this COVID-19 Pandemic Production Guide in collaboration with representatives from across BC’s Motion Picture Industry . This guide is intended to support the assessment and management of COVID-19 risk in all types of production, and to assist employers in developing their own COVID-19 safety plans.

Employers in BC are required by regulation to develop a COVID-19 Safety Plan that outlines the policies, guidelines, and procedures they have put in place to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. This plan should follow the six steps outlined in WorkSafeBC’s COVID-19 and returning to safe operation guidance.

Everyone working in the film and television industry needs to consider how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at work.

Click here for the BC Motion Picture Industry COVID-19 Production Pandemic Guide

Creative BC has facilitated the creation of the BC Motion Picture Industry COVID-19 Safety Guidelines document, which ACFC recommends all Members and Permittees take a moment to read. This document is meant to help guide employers, supervisors, and workers in creating and implementing individual safety plans for each production.

While the document speaks to actions that can be taken in the work place, ACFC would like to remind you that social distancing, personal hygiene, and limiting exposure to larger groups should continue to be best practices at all times, not just at places of work. One outbreak on any set could do major damage to our entire industry. A safe set is everyone’s responsibility. Please continue to have this in mind when your work day concludes.

Click here for the BC Motion Picture Industry Best Practices COVID-19 Safety Guidelines PDF

Currently the film shut down in BC is completely voluntary, no order from Worksafe, or the health authority has been issued telling Producers to shut down. However, in order to return to operations productions must now have a COVID-19 response plan in place.

Crew should be aware:

• It is the responsibility of the Employer, Supervisors and Employees to, read, be familiar with and follow the guidelines of each production.
• Individual Producer’s COVID-19 plans should be made available and posted for easy access by Crew and Supervisors.
• Individual Producer’s COVID-19 plans should take into account the Worksafe motion picture industry return to operation guidelines, found here: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/about-us/covid-19-updates/covid-19-returning-safe-operation/motion-picture-television-production

In addition to the Worksafe guideline for return to operation, Creative BC has been facilitating the creation of a more comprehensive set of documents as a guideline for employers to use when creating a COVID-19 plan for the work place. This document will contain an overall guide for the entire industry, as well as recommendations tailored to specific departments and workplaces common to the motion picture industry. ACFC West will update the website with a link when this document is ready.

ACFC West will continue to review our signed producers return to work plans on an ongoing basis, and work to ensure the risk of infection to all crew is minimized.

ACFC West is advising our Craft Service/First Aid professionals about the new WorkSafeBC protocols for COVID-19. Please click on the following link to be directed the WorkSafeBC website.

Occupational First Aid Attendants (OFAA) protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic: A guide for employers and OFAA

This information sheet provides information to employers and occupational first aid attendants on safely treating patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides additional precautions to first aid attendants on following the public health directives—including physical distancing, hand hygiene, and sanitization—while treating a patient. In this resource, you can also review these protocols used in three first aid scenarios, as well as link to further COVID-19 health and safety resources.

Click here for the PDF version

To all ACFC West Hair and Make-up professionals 

Barbicide.com is offering FREE certification in regards to keeping up-to-date with safe sanitization and work practices.

Please click on the following links to be directed to the Barbicide website.

Barbicide COVID-19 certification
Barbicide certification 

COVID – 19  UPDATE: MAY 7

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR SLOW REOPENING OF ECONOMY:

The following link takes you to a comprehensive discussion of reopening business across BC.  It discusses what employers will be required to do.  Currently, the Employers’ Associations, Unions, Guilds and industry representative bodies (MPPIA) are working together to create a return to work strategy.  The timeline as to when the industry can get back to work is yet to be established but we will announce soft dates as soon as we have an idea as to when that might be. 

Please take the time to review the BC government recovery plan:

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/emergency-preparedness-response-recovery/covid-19-provincial-support/bc-restart-plan

Please Also Remember to review the following benefits to determine if you qualify.  If you do, we urge you to apply if you haven’t already

1. BC Emergency Benefit for Workers – Please click on the following link to apply for the one-time $1000.00 supplement.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/covid-19-financial-supports/emergency-benefit-workers#find-out-eligibility

2. BC Government Temporary Rental Supplement – To apply, go to

https://bctrs.bchousing.org/

3. REVISED: CANADA EMERGENCY RESPONSE BENEFIT (CERB)

All of the following information is more clearly particularized on the FEDERAL government webpage here: 

https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/cerb-application.html

4. THE PROVINCIAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN:

All of the following information is more clearly particularized on the BC government webpage here: 

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/emergency-preparedness-response-recovery/covid-19-provincial-support

Please continue to check back regularly for updates as more information becomes available.

Click here for the PDF version.

This week is Mental Health Week in Canada.

We’ve all spent the past several weeks in crisis management mode, reeling from changes coming faster than we can process. Now we’re moving into the next phase of this pandemic, and working out what that is. What that looks like for our industry, and the way we live our lives, is uncertain, and uncertainty is hard to manage, even at the best of times. A recent survey [http://angusreid.org/covid19-mental-health/] shows half of Canadians feel their mental health has suffered in recent weeks.

It’s okay to not be at your best in the middle of all this. Actually, it’s to be expected.

Calltime Mental Health has created a Coping with COVID-19 web page. It includes union Member and Employee Assistance Program information as well as links to publicly available resources. [https://www.calltimementalhealth.com/coping-with-covid19]

More than ever, we need each other, even at a distance. Calltime Mental Health is calling on our community to reach out and connect with one another in our Calltime Connect initiative. Call or text that friend or co-worker you haven’t talked to in too long. Make a habit of reaching out to a different person every day. Not to solve problems, not to give advice. Just to connect, human to human. To say hello and how are you, and trade stories of how we’re all getting through this bewildering time, together. Apart but not alone. Distant but connected.

And if you’re struggling with anxiety of feeling overwhelmed, reach out for help. We’ll get through this, together.

www.calltimementalhealth.com