Rolling Labor Action Thread

👍🏽

“People close to the studios who were not authorized to speak publicly also acknowledged the decision to make deal points public was designed to circumvent WGA leadership to spur writer-producers and legions of workers who are struggling financially to begin to apply pressure to WGA’s leadership to accept a deal.”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-08-23/writers-strike-studios-wga-talks-amptp-actors-strike

UAW membership votes 97% for strike authorization in mid-September if needed

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/25/uaw-strike-vote-to-authorize.html

“A former senior studio executive called me from his car. “Everyone is feeling down on all sides,” he said. “It really does feel like the business is in a lot of upheaval. People are talking about how linear television is declining faster than anybody thought, which means that the twenty-two-episode scripted network show is becoming a rarer and rarer thing. And the six-to-eight-to-ten-episode series on a streamer—the economics of that turns out to be much harder for everybody. If you look at all the legacy studios, it seems like their profit margins are going down. And, obviously, talent—writers and directors and actors—are feeling like they’re getting squeezed.”

He went on, “So the mood is tough for everybody. There’s a lot of mistrust and animosity between the studios and the guilds. In the past, there has been more empathy across the aisles. Right now, it just feels like everybody’s sort of frustrated with everybody, almost like everybody’s fighting for a bigger piece of a shrinking pie.””

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/scenes-from-hollywoods-hot-labor-summer

lol the pie isn't shrinking dog

"it seems like their profit margins are going down"

*citation needed

Today, @AmericanAir Flight Attendants returned a 99.47% ‘yes’ vote to authorize a #strike. Our 26,000+ Members have sent a clear message: we are ready to strike. #1u #SolidaritySummer pic.twitter.com/JwEnHcFzne

— Association of Professional Flight Attendants (@APFAunity) August 30, 2023

salute

Dang, a SECOND SAG strike

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-aftra-seeks-video-game-strike-approval-1235711251/amp/

Happy Labor Day!

I enjoyed listening to this today:

https://www.wnyc.org/story/witness-history-labor-movement/

Workers at Powells Books in Portland are holding a one-day strike rally Im heading downtown for

Alright, y’all, let’s do this! 🪧✊📣

On Monday, September 4, workers at Powell’s Books will be going on a one-day Unfair Labor Practice Strike. This will be the first strike for Powell’s workers in 20 years! Come join us on the picket line!

RSVP: https://t.co/G8UK7fYazR pic.twitter.com/Wy1PcfVGuM

— ILWU Local 5 (@ILWULocal5) August 22, 2023

This is not a labor action but I would like to suggest several actions against this asshole. (Same dude who went viral for telling millennials to stop buying avocado toast.)

Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner tells the Financial Review Property Summit workers have become "arrogant" since COVID and "We've got to kill that attitude." https://t.co/lcX3CCxGuj pic.twitter.com/f9HK2YZRRE

— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) September 12, 2023

there's a face in need of a fist

another Tim Heidecker persona?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/11/tuc-agrees-non-compliance-strategy-against-anti-strike-laws

Meeting at the Trades Union Congress’s annual meeting in Liverpool, delegates unanimously agreed to seek to resist the new law, which allows public sector employers to establish “minimum service levels” on strike days.

“That’s what we have to do – that’s the message,” the RMT leader, Mick Lynch, told union activists at the conference. “We are a fighting union movement and we are going to turn this legislation over.”

The motion says: “We have no choice but to build mass opposition to the minimum service levels laws, up to and including a strategy of non-compliance and non-cooperation to make them unworkable, including industrial action.”

The Fire Brigades Union leader, Matt Wrack, described it as a “message of defiance” to the government, signalling that “this government’s nasty, authoritarian agenda will be vigorously opposed by the trade union movement”.

Worthwhile interview with Sam Gindin here about the UPS Teamster bargaining and its shortcomings

https://shows.acast.com/jacobin-radio/episodes/behind-the-news-cold-war-liberalism-ups-teamsters

Announcement via More Perfect Union:

BREAKING: Marvel VFX workers have just won a historic first union in the visual effects industry.

The workers who power the biggest superhero movies on the planet voted unanimously to unionize with vfxunion.

This is a major first step for the industry, and Disney is next.

YES!!!!!!

let's go

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/detroit-three-strike-deadline-nears-sides-remain-far-apart-2023-09-14/

Bring it

It’s already broughten

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/15/business/auto-workers-strike/index.html

✊

Hmmm

https://deadline.com/2023/09/authors-openai-lawsuit-john-grisham-george-rr-martin-1235551400/?fbclid=IwAR0M4ucuTIo2ajqI0TWxyjY_b2OOpN4IvenGukPPqluE64XtuimH32U2CB0

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/24/1200770450/writers-strike-ends

Tentative deal reached

👍🏽

Back to work

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/09/26/business/wga-back-to-work/index.html

Another good thing!

https://variety.com/2023/artisans/news/walt-disney-pictures-vfx-workers-unionize-1235730179/

Also this!

Student Assistants are making history by forming a union with @CSUEU. This is the largest non-academic student worker campaign in U.S. history. Next stop, a UNION YES election. @CalState administration needs to accept PERB decision & let Student Assistants Vote! #CSUStudentsWork pic.twitter.com/JcYTz64v5I

— CSUEU (@CSUEU) October 3, 2023

Looking good...

https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-strike-general-motors-battery-plants-a6ad7d6b9c3f42c24f3c7dbe21f4b694

walgreens pharmacy workers (who are not yet unionized) have organized a walkout mostly on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/WalgreensStores/) and facebook afaict

some local labour action: https://jacobin.com/2023/10/public-sector-workers-quebec-canada-general-strike-common-front

https://deadline.com/2023/10/levar-burton-drew-barrymore-national-book-awards-1235572952/

On we go

https://www.thewrap.com/why-sag-studio-talks-ended-fran-drescher/?fbclid=IwAR0sgKE4qvLo2P7Iz1M-FCGkzvJsZLUpgPp2IGybBxFF5rCXBlCPQPQlC_c

https://www.thewrap.com/studios-sag-strike-one-week-deadline/

yessss

https://archive.ph/2023.10.30-192803/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-30/uaw-strike-why-elon-musk-tesla-could-be-union-s-next-target

oh please

new boss unlocked

Tesla workers should be unionized. Driving Elon absolutely nuts and to the point he commits multiple unfair labor practice violations is just the sweetener.

A six-week wave of strikes that hobbled the three largest U.S. automakers has resulted in tentative contract agreements that would give workers their biggest pay raises in decades while avoiding a protracted work stoppage that could have damaged the economy.

On Monday, General Motors and the United Automobile Workers reached a deal that mirrored agreements the union had reached in recent days with Ford Motor and Stellantis, the parent company of Ram, Jeep and Chrysler. The terms will be costly for the automakers as they undertake a switch to electric vehicles, while setting the stage for labor strife and demands for higher pay at nonunion automakers like Tesla and Toyota.

The tentative agreements, which still require ratification by union members, also appeared to be a win for President Biden, who had risked political capital by picketing with striking workers at a G.M. facility in Michigan last month.

“They have reached a historic agreement,” Mr. Biden said Monday after speaking with Shawn Fain, the U.A.W. president. The deals, the president said, “reward autoworkers who gave up much to keep the industry working and going during the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.”

Flawless victory

Cool

https://www.axios.com/2023/10/31/toyota-raises-uaw-strike-ford-gm

Cool!

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/07/world/europe/sweden-tesla-strike.html

Let Oscar campaigning season commence

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-aftra-tentative-deal-historic-strike-1235771894/amp/

I've got an actor friend losing his shit on FB right now over how bad he feels the SAG deal is.

What’re his complaints?

The pay raise isn't high enough, particularly when they are also promising shorter, more efficient work hours (ultimately less pay overall).

But his big deal is that he feels the AI restrictions/protocols don't go far enough, particularly on a three-year contract because the tech will so much stronger when they're back at the negotiating table there's no way a good deal is happening them or any time afterwards.

I'm inclined to believe him there, because his current day job is a consulting thing with Disney, where he goes around the country checking up on projects at their different studio and tech spaces, so he knows a bit about what they are already doing re: computerization and AI.

nice

New: How Formula One accidentally helped Las Vegas workers land the 'best contract ever'

Culinary Union, threatening a mass strike timed to the much-hyped F1 race, inked deals w/casino giants mere days before the event.

They say it gave them "leverage."https://t.co/5IgYmqYOIL

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 22, 2023

Washington Post striking tomorrow

https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/12/05/washington-post-staffers-will-go-on-strike-thursday/

Get ready

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/iatse-teamsters-hollywood-labor-peace-next-year-1235823080/amp/

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/18/media/los-angeles-times-staffers-to-protest-layoffs/index.html