I am hearing that AHF has filed a complaint with Cal-OSHA against Kink.com studios, apparently for exposing workers to “infectious diseases”.
UPDATE Now Verified
from http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/08/27/5152975/ahf-calosha-safety-complainttargets.html
LOS ANGELES — AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) filed a formal ‘Notice of Alleged Safety or Health Hazards’ complaint yesterday with Cal/OSHA (California’s Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health), the state’s health and safety regulatory and watchdog organization, against Bay Area adult film production company Kink Studios, LLC and Kink.com, over recent filming that may have exposed employees—adult film performers—to infectious disease by exposure to blood and other potentially infectious materials. Early last week, the industry halted production and declared a moratorium on filming after a female performer involved in the Kink filming disclosed that she was HIV-positive and had apparently sero-converted since her last HIV test in July.
“The landscape around adult film has changed dramatically in the last two weeks, to the point that action to protect adult film performers from disease is more urgent now than it has ever been. We sadly now have this latest adult performer infected with HIV—the basis for our Cal/OSHA complaint—a previous case of Hepatitis C found in another performer and a recent industry-wide syphilis scare,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “At the same time, a federal court recently ruled that requiring worker safety protections such as condoms in porn is constitutional. As such, we believe it is imperative that the California Legislature act this year to enact real protections for adult film performers.”
AHF previously filed similar worker safety complaints with Cal/OSHA beginning in August 2009 against 16 California-based adult film companies, and in the years since, filed additional complaints specifically targeting Steve Hirsch’s Vivid Entertainment as well Larry Flynt’s Hustler Video. To date, Cal/OSHA has opened investigations into several of the companies, has cited and fined several, and is still evaluating and considering additional investigations of some of the remaining companies.
The complaints targeting Kink.com and Kink Studios LLC were submitted to officials at the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health. AHF’s Cal/OSHA complaint documents that the film in question (shot on July 31, 2013) demonstrates unsafe—potentially life-threatening—behavior in a California workplace, as the sexual acts filmed without participating performers using condoms depict the unprotected exchange of bodily fluids.
Court Ruling on Condoms, Uptick in STDs in Industry Prompt Renewed Call for State Legislation
This uptick in reports of various infections among performers in the adult industry and the court ruling by Judge Dean Pregerson, U.S. District Court, Central District of California [Case No. 13-00190 DDP (AGRx)], that found that the requirement that porn actors wear condoms during the production of adult films was constitutional has prompted a renewed call for statewide California legislation to protect all adult film performers.
Assembly Bill 640, a bill introduced by California Assemblymember Isadore Hall, III will require condom use in all adult films produced in California.
Last year, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the bill’s sponsor, successfully spearheaded Ballot Measure B, the ‘County of Los Angeles Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act,’ – also known as the ‘condoms in porn’ measure, which Los Angeles County voters overwhelmingly approved – 57% to 43% – in the November 2012 election.
Hall and AHF believe workers in the adult film industry are entitled to the same safeguards and worker protections that any employee in California is. AHF is urging concerned Californians to contact California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg: [email protected] and California Assembly Speaker John Perez: [email protected] about AB 640, urging that they both support this important legislation. To send an e-letter to the legislators, click here.
14 Responses
AHF Files Complaint Against Kink Studios With Cal OSHA http://t.co/l54mfLy3qj
Michael Weinstein is a tool. Metaphorically getting into bed with the likes of Shelley Lubben to further your agenda? He threatened to take this statewide a long time ago, and he’ll take support from ANYONE. He must be wearing quite the self-satisfied smirk right now.
Sure is baby! And I personally don’t give a flying fuck!
That piece of shit Ackworth is a cocksucker and needs to get
“diced” up and thrown to the sharks in the Bay.
He is a Piece of shit and I hope he get some time in Pelican Bay
in a cell with “Bubba” the 6’4 320lbs brother from Compton with a very violent rap sheet and tie Peter to a cell bunk and assrape him for 5 days. That poor Bubba is really Horny now for men.
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@Ricco: considering the fact that Michael Weinstein is, to use your favorite term, an avowed “faggot,” shouldn’t you be blaming him for something as well? Oh, and black men rarely go by the name “Bubba.”
This is a case where I think the law should be tightened up to allow filing of a complaint to be only from people who were working on the set, who work for the company, or who provide services to the company. An uninvolved activist third party making such claims is a real negative to the process, and could be abused to bring the industry to it’s knees, having to answer complaints day in and day out.
@rawalex: Weinstein and other third parties SHOULDN’T be allowed to file complaints with OSHA. His agenda was ALWAYS to bring the industry to its knees (btw, if you’ve seen him, he looks like someone who would NEVER have sex), which is why he collaborated with nutjobs like Shelley Lubben to get Measure B on the ballot. He has just as much of an agenda as Rob Black, the main difference being that his isn’t a personal vendetta.
I don’t think Weinstein’s intentions are to bring the industry to its knees. I think he wants to appease the condom companies and this is a great way to do it. (I’m sure they fund the AHF in large amounts, but I have no actual paperwork at hand to back that up. Let’s call it a hunch.)
Rob has a vendetta. I think the negative aspects may bring out a greater good though. Lubben is a fucking joke. I once witnessed a Pink Cross member with a t-shirt that read “Got Herpes”. OK, that is nice to know. Thanks for telling us. “Got Herpes?” is most likely what she was going for. Damn punctuation.
Weinstein obviously has a lot of power as he has shown us. So fucking wear condoms and have him shut up. Enough is enough. Why debate measure B at this stage? People are getting deadly diseases. This is not something to try to work around or even think about working around unless you somehow have discovered the cure for HIV. Rubbers won’t bring the industry to its knees. Fines and imprisonment will though.
@CPanzram: it hadn’t even occurred to me how much the AHF is likely raking in from Trojan et al, but that makes perfect sense. Of course it makes no sense to fight Measure B (or whatever the new statewide version is called) at this point. But I have no doubt that some studios will shut down, resulting in job losses not just for the talent but the production crews and administrative staffs and numerous others involved on the other side of the cameras. I can see Evil Angel having the means to relocate to Europe- about half of their directors are already based in Europe- and I’d think Germany could be a perfect fit for kink.com if it actually survives the storm. There is zero chance of kink.com being a viable studio with condoms appearing all over boundgangbangs and publicdisgrace shoots. The effect would be comical. Shelley Lubben- she may be a discredited lunatic, but she definitely helped the AHF get Measure B before the voters……
@sachertorte: Why do you think Michael Weinstein is a ‘tool’? And why the name calling? And why start a ridiculous rumor (not true) that the AHF had ANYTHING to do with Shelley Lubben (now she’s calling herself a doctor! lol) at all? A sachertorte is a cake, right?
Nick, Shelly was working hand in hand with AHF a few years ago appearing at press conferences together, and filing 16 OSHA complaints. Several of Shelleys ‘saved girls’ have also testified at OSHA hearings with AHF. They were working very closely together.
Jilted? The AHF distanced themselves from Shelley Lubben as soon as they realized that she was insane. She would have you believe she had more to do with them than is true just as she would call herself a doctor! So, in conclusion, just because Shelley says it, does not make it TRUE! Shelley Lubben is a LIAR!
@jilted: exactly. And despite Nick’s assertions, I wouldn’t doubt that the AHF isn’t STILL working with Lubben without making it public knowledge.
@Nick: sorry, but you’re WRONG on this. Why is Michael Weinstein a tool? Because he take vast amounts of money from condom manufacturers for his supposed quest to save the health of the performers. Did you honestly believe he wasn’t in the pockets of Trojan , et al? Yes, a sachertorte is a cake. A Nick is a small cut. What does that have to do with anything?