Teamsters, prominent Hollywood vendor in high-profile standoff

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http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-teamsters-quixote-20140809-story.html



Chief Executive Mikel Elliott poses for a portrait at Quixote Studios in Los Angeles. The studio is locked in a labor dispute with Teamsters Local 399.

Teamsters, prominent Hollywood vendor in high-profile standoff
By Richard Verrier
8.9.2014

As chairman of the California Film Commission, Steve Dayan has championed the cause of fighting runaway production and giving companies more incentive to film in Los Angeles.

But, as head of Teamsters Local 399, Dayan finds himself in a high-profile standoff with a prominent Hollywood vendor whose owners say the union wants to drive up costs and make it more difficult to operate locally.



Josh Staheli, left, Adam Roodman, center, vice president of Quixote, and Lindsey Dougherty, right, with the Teamsters Local 399.

The L.A.-based company at the center of the dispute is Quixote Studios, which significantly expanded its fleet of luxury production vehicles earlier this year when it acquired 370 trailers from Sun Valley-based Movie Movers. The consolidation created one of the largest truck and trailer fleets in Hollywood.

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“We're trying to bring production back to California, but we want it to be union production and that's what we're trying to do,” Dayan said. “We're trying to organize the unorganized and to help those individuals maintain a middle-class livelihood. That's what we do.”