'Biggest Loser' Strike Update: Production To Resume On Monday With Replacements

EXCLUSIVE... 3RD UPDATE FRIDAY 11PM: It's war! I hear that The Biggest Loser producers, Shine Group's Reveille and JD Roth and Todd Nelson's Eyeworks-owned 3 Ball Prods., are planning to resume production on the weight-loss reality series on Monday morning after a week-long shutdown because of the IATSE-backed strike by crew members. But the restart of filming is not the result of an agreement with IATSE. I hear the producers are bringing in replacements and the show will continue to be non-union. (In a letter sent to the crew members on Tuesday, the full text of which is displayed in the 2nd Updatedbelow, the producers threaten striking crew members that their jobs may be lost if they hire permanent replacements.) I hear that no Biggest Loser crew members are expected to cross the picket line on Monday. "Should be ugly," one insider says. Meanwhile, I hear that the Biggest Loser employees who are striking to go union have received support from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, a voluntary federation of 57 national and international unions, which has issued a "Do Not Patronize" sanction against the Biggest Loser producers. The companies' put on AFL-CIO "Do Not Patronize" list "have been identified as unfair employers and adversaries of the labor movement, and all trade unionists and friends of organized labor are urged ... Read More »

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