SAG-AFTRA New England Local board member and National presidential candidate Chuck Slavin has been criticized for past social media posts that include disparaging language about undocumented immigrants and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic.
A collection of four of Slavin’s Facebook posts from the last year and a half surfaced Monday on the crew-led Instagram account Crew Stories.
“Here’s a thought on future pandemic prevention… evacuate China’s ‘Wuhan Lab’ and we send it one U.S. Ballistic Missile,” the most recent of the posts, from February, reads. Another, also from February, says: “I’d like to see ICE get a lot of these deportations done by summer…they’ll be a lot less burning of our cities by liberals that way.”
The oldest of the posts, from March 2024, speculates how long it will take until “the first American citizen on U.S. soil get eaten (Dahmer-style) by an illegal migrant.”
Deadline has independently verified these posts.
In a statement Monday, Slavin said: “I put my personal opinions and preferences aside to serve membership. I welcome working with democrats and republicans and any legislators necessary to serve our members. All political policies should be dealt with compassion and at the same time political satire should not be used against any performer, comedian, or improviser to disqualify them for union service including the highest level.”
Within an hour, the Crew Stories post had already begun to generate backlash with nearly 600 likes and dozens of comments.
Crew Stories is ran independently by a network of crew members across the nation. The account has been known to act as a watchdog, often alerting its followers (who are mostly other industry workers) to misconduct from both the studios and the major unions.
“A union leader embodies inclusivity and empathy, never promoting harmful narratives that target vulnerable community members,” the caption of the post read. “A union leader represents all, transcending personal biases. I’m dismayed by certain comments, but let’s be clear: ideology shapes our actions, and we vote for leaders based on their morality and core values. This individual doesn’t represent our union’s values or the morality we expect from leadership. Normalizing hate is unacceptable.”
Slavin is running his campaign for SAG-AFTRA President alongside Peter Antico, who is vying for national secretary-treasurer. They are running against Sean Astin and Michelle Hurd, respectively. Slavin previously ran for union president in 2017.