What Paramount’s new ownership means for Local 40 members

By OREN PELEG

In August, Skydance Media closed its acquisition of Paramount Global. For most people, the only noticeable change will be the addition of the Skydance logo to the famed water tower on the Paramount Studios lot. But for members of IBEW Local 40, the merger and new ownership mean an immediate reinvigoration of infrastructure. This is great news for our members,” said Local 40 Business Manager Stephan Davis. “We’ve already seen a bunch of new work come online. They’re putting people to work, they’re putting in job calls to the hall, and they’ve been a great partner to put members to work.”

For Raphael Rangel, the electronics foreman on the lot, his crew of seven has now doubled to 14 as work under the new ownership ramps up.

“There’s definitely a lot of work to go around, and the guys have been doing great,” Rangel said. His team’s projects include upgrading data and Wi-Fi capabilities around the sound stages and office buildings as well upgrading the HVAC systems. “We’ll follow that up with a lot of Wi-Fi projects to improve the signal capability around the lot; cell phone boosters, to improve cell phone signals; 5G antennas; and then upgrading card access.”

Local 40 Vice President and eight-year Local 40 journeyman Dave Melcher has been on the Paramount lot for a few months helping install massive new air handlers that cool the sound stages. 

“We started out with a clean slate,” said Melcher from the top of a sound stage roof. “We had a couple conduits coming up, and after that we had to figure out these paths, figure out all these angles, and get all these segments up one at a time.”

The new air handlers use chilled water coming from a central plant on the lot, making them “infinitely more energy efficient,” said Dan Fischer, Local 40 construction superintendent. The sound stages had previously been cooled by pre-World War II-era A/C units.

This commitment to renovation and reinvestment by new ownership has sent a positive message to all members, said Local 40’s Manny Michel. “We’re happy to have an owner [David Ellison] that has the future of this industry as a passion,” Michel said. “Filmmaking is his passion.” 

Meanwhile, at another corner of the lot Local 40 Brothers Carlos Conde and Mark Lowery were busy intersecting PVC in a trench dug outside one of Paramount’s oldest office buildings. For Lowery, it’s exciting to be able to update offices that once housed Tom Cruise and were a stand-in for the high school in Happy Days.

“We’re adding these conduits into the building to do more modern work, like updating the fire alarms and HVAC system and pulling in fiber optics,” Lowery said. 

For Fourth-Year Apprentice James Minasian, who joined the Local 40 team on the lot in February, the thrill of learning new skills daily, “is an opportunity of a lifetime.”

“Every day is pretty much a different ball game,” said Minasian. “Today, you could be doing construction, tomorrow maintenance, or you could be doing high voltage wire pulls. I love it. I love that I can always learn, and I love that the journeymen here are teaching me the craft they were taught.”

It’s that spirit of taking pride in your work and supporting fellow union members that has kept Local 40 crew on the Paramount lot for year after year, and now under new ownership, the future looks even brighter. 

For more photos, click here: https://flickr.com/photos/197150006@N04/albums/72177720330883614