As fun as it was following all of the Top Chef adventures in Boston this year (by stalking the judge’s Instagrams and Twitter handles, of course), it’s clear that the show’s filming wasn’t all smooth sailing. Reports surfaced yesterday on Deadline.com, revealing a rather serious alleged confrontation between Top Chef crew and Teamsters Local 25, the more than 100-year-old Charlestown-based labor union.
Update: According to Boston.com, Teamsters Local 25 have responded, largely refuting the reports from Deadline:
Teamsters Local 25 for the last eight years has been a vital part in the success of the film industry in Massachusetts. We continue to support the industry and all the jobs that are created directly and indirectly. The Top Chef situation as it is written is fiction at best. As a union, we have the right to lawfully demonstrate and protest the filming of non-union non-Massachusetts workers. We have fought long and hard to protect our members, their livelihoods and will continue to do so. If the allegations were true Milton Police would have taken appropriate action. Again, Teamsters Local 25 will continue to be vigilant and hold employers accountable when it comes to making sure area standards are upheld, but more importantly to respect the workers that are responsible for their success and prosperity.
The article reports that the Teamsters picketers planted themselves outside Steel & Rye restaurant in Milton, MA, where Top Chef reportedly filmed for multiple days this spring. Not only did the Teamsters try to “push their way into the restaurant during filming” but they also verbally assaulted cast and crew including host Padma Lakshmi, according to Deadline.com. Apparently, the Teamsters group was angry over the fact “that the show had not signed a Teamsters contract and that the production hired local PA’s to drive cast and crew vehicles,” reports the article.
The article notes that one of the protesters went so far as to run up to Lakshmi’s car and scream, “‘We’re gonna bash that pretty face in, you f*cking whore!’” The article also claims that the Teamsters Local 25 group “kept at it for hours, raining down racist, sexist, and homophobic threats and slurs as staffers came to and left the set that day.” One day, a group of them even “slashed the tires on 14 different cars owned by the crew,” according to Milton’s Deputy Police Chief John King.
This isn’t the first time that the Teamsters Local 25 group has found themselves in hot water. Just a few years back, several members of the the Charlestown-based Teamsters union were charged with allegations of “running an extortion racket,” which “allegedly targeted anyone involved in Boston’s convention and trade show business,” according to the Boston Business Journal.
Deadline.com reported that Bravo and Lakshmi both declined to comment on the protest at Steel & Rye restaurant, as has anyone from the Teamsters organization. But in the end, “the police were called,” according to someone from the network.
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