Teamsters Local 399 Calls For Voluntary Recognition At 3 Hudson Pacific Companies: Quixote, Zio Studio Services & Star Waggons

David Robb
·3 min read

Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 is calling on Hudson Pacific Properties to voluntarily recognize it as the bargaining representative of nearly 120 workers employed at Quixote, Zio Studio Services and Star Waggons.

Hudson Pacific Properties is a West Coast real estate firm that recently expanded its business into the motion picture industry. In 2021, it acquired Zio Studio Services and Star Waggons, where workers provide transportation and logistics services to studio productions. Earlier this year, Hudson Pacific also acquired Quixote Studios, which provides studio space, vehicles and equipment to film and TV productions.

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Local 399 says these recent acquisitions and changes to business practices “have motivated workers from all three companies to seek union representation by Local 399.”

“First and foremost, we are proud of these workers and their resolve,” said Lindsay Dougherty, Local 399’s principal officer and director of the Teamsters Motion Picture and Theatrical Trade Division. “Each unit has been essential to the growth and success of these companies. The workers who tirelessly give their time and talents on the job deserve the assurance that they will be protected and part of the next phase of growth. That is something only a collective bargaining agreement can provide. We are grateful to have their trust in this process.”

This is the first group of workers at Star Waggons to organize with Local 399, but the union already has two contracts with Quixote covering workers in its production vehicles department and in its grip and lighting department. The new demand for union recognition is for cleaners and trailer-manufacturing workers at Quixote’s Penrose location in Sun Valley.

“We were expecting positive changes with Hudson Pacific coming in,” said Diego Castillo, a seven-year employee working as a material coordinator at Star Waggons. “We had high hopes with the new direction of Star Waggons. But then we started to realize we were getting less and being expected to produce more. I think unionization is long overdue. We’re done waiting to be rescued. We realized we needed to do this for ourselves and our families.”

Local 399 also has a current contract with Zio, although the existing agreement does not include those workers who clean, wash, fix and provide overall fleet maintenance, and who are now seeking union representation.

“We are hopeful to see these workers voluntarily recognized and work collaboratively with these three companies,” Dougherty said. “We are asking Hudson Pacific Properties to join us in a partnership that will be mutually beneficial for both the workers and their respective employers.”

Local 399 says it reached out to Jake Stotland, Hudson Pacific’s executive vice president of global studios, “to make him aware of the call for voluntary recognition at each company and ask for the company’s support in the process.” The union notes that although the three companies are now owned by Hudson Pacific, they continue to operate independently.

Local 399 represents almost 6,400 members in the motion picture industry in Hollywood and New Mexico, including drivers, animal trainers/handlers, wranglers, dispatchers, DOT admins, location professionals, casting professionals, chef assistants, mechanics, auto service and warehouse workers.

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