, has been placed on leave for unspecified reasons. Elias, who has been the local’s top staffer since January, could not be reached for comment.
Katie Murphy, the union’s assistant business rep, declined requests for details, telling Deadline to “please direct questions to the Board of Directors at this time.” In a cryptic letter to the local’s members, the Local 871 Board of Directors said: “Jason Elias has been on leave from the Local. We understand this announcement will come as a surprise to most of you and while we work through the next steps for the Local we ask for grace and understanding that there is little more information we can offer at this time.” Read the letter full below.
On advice of the Local’s counsel, we cannot now specify the nature of that leave, but the Board and counsel have been diligently working, conducting numerous intensive meetings over the last two weeks and moving forward to advance the best interests of the members, the Local’s staff and the Local as an organization. Providing more detail at this time could cause harm to the Local and to others.
Please refer questions or concerns that would ordinarily be made to Jason to Katie . The Board of Directors stand together, ready to expedite our internal processes as soon as possible, and as legally permitted, so that we all have the support and representation that we need as our industry returns to work.