Equity in the News The Hollywood Reporter

Despite COVID-19 cases surging in Florida, the Magic Kingdom Park and Disney's Animal Kingdom Park will reopen in less than 24 hours.

The conglomerate responded that it was "exercising our right" to reopen without the union performers.

The union's model standards could help the film and television industry, as well.

Their goal: restore tax deductions for unreimbursed business expenses, which can be quite large, even for working- and middle-class personnel.

The actors and stage managers' union urged members to contact their regional office if asked to work again in less than a month amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The union, which represents actors and stage managers, has extended the traditional May deadline for spring dues to July 31.

The union will contribute $500,000 and match another $250,000 in contributions, to support members at risk due to work cancellations in the effort to contain COVID-19.

With Broadway theatres shut down by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid the deepening coronavirus crisis, the stage performers union Actors' Equity called on government Thursday to help affected arts and entertainment workers as they face lost income, health insurance and retirement savings.

Actors' Equity declared a strike Monday against the lab process used to develop new Broadway shows, particularly musicals. The union, which represents performers on stage, said it had been trying for two years to negotiate a new contract with the Broadway League, which represents theater owners, producers and others.

"Entertainment workers aren't going to see what hit them until they file their tax returns next year," warns actress and tax attorney Sandra Karas, secretary treasurer of the Actors' Equity Association, who estimates that 75 percent of her guild will be paying more taxes this year.