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#los angeles writers strike
xxenbypunkxx · 10 months
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WRITTERS STRIKE AT THE DISNEY STUDIO LOT (July 18, 2023)
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tarzinnia · 10 months
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"Check The Math On That..."
With respect to The Social Network gif regarding Universal Studios, Tree Law, and the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike I posted, look once more at the scene where Mr. Garfield is smashing the laptop. Besides Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake, how many background actors do you see? The witnesses to this pivotal scene are there for a reason that enhances every single thing about the emotions on display.
I want human beings in those scenes, not AI. Do the math, pay the actors, and don't replace them with machines. Destroy the laptop not the people.
The people you don't see in films, the writers, the crew, and all the others who labor or work in industries nationwide to support our well-being and our daily lives? Pay them a living wage. They count.
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karihighman · 9 months
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Tracy Spiridakos & Jesse Lee Soffer supporting the Writers/SAGAFTRA strike 🪧 today in LA. Photo by Marisa Roffman - article here!
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evanpetersgoddess · 10 months
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Evan Peters supporting the sagaftra strike! We love a supportive king 👑💞
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World Harvest Food Bank in Los Angeles' Arlington Heights neighborhood is among the organizations helping fill actors' and writers' bellies as they demand higher pay, better residual payment and guarantees they won't be supplanted by artificial intelligence. All actors and writers have to do to take home a full cart of groceries, including fresh produce worth about $300, is show their union cards. The offer stands until the strike resolves. ... After 9 p.m., SAG-AFTRA card holders can enjoy free meals at Manhattan theater district establishments Nizza and Marseille. Beverages (tax and tips aren't included.) It's an offer Robert Guarino, the owner of both restaurants, also made to Broadway performers, who work in an industry that has long supported his establishments, when they went on strike in 2020. "Because we are a theater-driven restaurant, the idea is to give back," Nizza and Marseille restaurant manager David Trufcello told CBS MoneyWatch. Guarino "is now carrying that same thing into the SAG-AFTRA strikes ." ....
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canadiangirl-82 · 10 months
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Santi in Solidarity with the SAG Strike in LA.
Credit to: Santi’s IG
My edit.
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thelusciousdevil · 9 months
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filmcourage · 7 months
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Why Studios Are Going To Regret These Strikes - Corey Mandell
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bkenber · 10 months
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The Scene at the SAG/AFTRA and WGA Picket Line Outside of Netflix
After joining the union members of SAG/AFTRA and WGA, still on strike for a fair contract from producers, in front of Paramount Studios, I joined them again outside of Netflix, Sunset Bronson Studios and KTLA Channel 5 studios on July 27, 2023. It was a scorcher of a day as the temperature got up to ninety degrees, but the union members remained determined to march on, and the strike captains did…
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cigarretteluvr · 1 month
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lucky strikes and scarlet begonias in the sun
i look at you in awe of being young
putting our lives in the hands of your wrist
july sunsets, pch, and ocean mist
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tarzinnia · 10 months
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Wired In
Seeing the Tree Law posts regarding Universal Studios & the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike: someone ask Andrew Garfield to smash a laptop in front of executives. The amount of takes that occurred to get this shot ought to be worth the destruction of one more Apple device.
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jimbotimes · 4 months
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STRAIGHT OUTTA SAN FERNANDO VALLEY
On this installment of J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast we speak with Jillian Burgos, the treasurer of the North Hollywood Neighborhood Council, which is known to issue more Community Impact Reports than any other Neighborhood Council! Burgos has called Los Angeles home since 2009 and is now running a people-powered campaign to replace Paul Krekorian for L.A. City Council District 2 this March.…
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karlicartoons · 1 year
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WALT DISNEY PRODUCTION WORKERS NEED YOUR HELP!
(Edit 05/15/2023): NOW THE WRITERS NEED YOUR HELP! THEY ARE CURRENTLY ON STRIKE RIGHT NOW!!
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(Posted March 8, 2023) Hey fam! The Mouse is refusing to recognize the unionization efforts of its production workers. If you're not familiar with what PCs or PMs do, I'll outline it briefly. The tl;dr is that NO ANIMATION WOULD GET DONE WITHOUT PRODUCTION WORKERS. They are the glue holding together every single production of your very favorite cartoons!
They take notes in all the meetings with the artists.
They make sure the artists are meeting their deadlines (and showing up to the meetings in the first place).
They help us navigate studio servers to find the files we're looking for.
They send us our time cards, and make sure we get paid!
Production workers do all this and more, often for minimum wage. The hardships that they suffer as a result--the long hours, the unpaid overtime, the abuses of power--are horrific.
You'd really think that they'd be compensated fairly for these jobs! Can you imagine trying to live in Los Angeles or New York on minimum wage with a job that definitely won't allow you time to pick up a second or third one??
This has to stop, and you can help.
All that Walt Disney Animation Studio's production workers ask is that you add your name to this petition! That's it.
This isn't some Change.org petition. It's not going to sell your email to spam companies. This is through IATSE (our union)'s website.
TELL DISNEY YOU STAND WITH PRODUCTION WORKERS!!!
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247liveculture · 10 months
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August 3rd, 1963, Actor, Producer, Director and Writer Isaiah Washington was born!
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fans4wga · 11 months
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Strike Support Declining - Here's how you can continue to support the writers
Since the WGA strike started on May 2, the public has shown immense support for the writers—sending food, snacks, drinks, and encouragement from across the world all the way to Los Angeles, New York, and other picketing locations.
But loud and vocal strike support—in the news and in public spaces—is notably declining the longer the strike goes on. So we're bringing you a few ways to show writers, studios, and fellow fans: we're still here, and we still stand with the WGA.
1. Post on Twitter (and other social media sites)
You might think social media noise won't be noticed by the studios, but it CAN encourage individual WGA members—and slowly but surely put pressure on the studios to make a fair deal.
If you follow WGA members such as Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything), John Rogers (Leverage, Librarians), Gennifer Hutchison (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost, The Witcher) [and many many more you can find through their following lists], tell them you support them! Hashtag #IStandWithTheWGA #DoTheWriteThing and tell them that you and your fandom are prepared to support them as long as the strike lasts; that they deserve to have their demands met and you're with them all the way. Boost morale however and whenever you can!
Likewise, actively push back against misinformation/disinformation. See a TikTok claiming that all Hollywood writers are filthy rich and we shouldn't vocally support them? Correct it with well-sourced citations from the WGA, published news articles, and stories from those affected (like the time a writer on FX's The Bear attended the an awards show with his bank account balance in the negative, only to then win an award for Best Comedy Series—proving that good writers on award-winning shows still cannot make a living!)
Remember you can always link to Adam Conover's excellent explanation of WGA demands versus studio refusals, tweeted here.
2. Donate or boost fundraisers
You might be surprised to learn that the picketing locations are not always parties! Sometimes themed pickets are fun, and fandoms and celebrities occasionally are able to fundraise for a food truck or ice cream truck at picketing locations. However, that is the EXCEPTION and not the norm. Writers are asking for food & drinks at many locations.
There are many funds to donate to, and it can be overwhelming to pick one! But one that could use your support RIGHT NOW is the CBS Radford picket line:
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-If you're in LA, you can bring food and snacks directly to that picket line (or get food deliveries sent there, with instructions to be given to the strike captain on duty.) Strike locations are available on the WGA West website and are updated there.
-Or there's a pizza fund for the strike locations (unfortunately Venmo is a US-only donation option)
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-If you're not in LA, donate to the Entertainment Community Fund to support TV and film workers affected by the strike.
-More tips on donating to the strike in this great article!
-Lots of fandoms are organizing donations on their own, for instance the Our Flag Means Death fundraiser on Paypal (updated 30 July 2023 with new link) (available internationally). Check to see if your fandom has started a fundraiser... or start one yourself to show your support! We're happy to give tips on organizing your fandom!
As always, please boost this post and any and all well-sourced information that comes from the WGA or its members. We're happy to fact-check anything you send our way too.
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"Efficiency" left the Big Three vulnerable to smart UAW tactics
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Tomorrow (September 22), I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. Tomorrow night, I'll be in person at LA's Book Soup for the launch of Justin C Key's "The World Wasn’t Ready for You." On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.
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It's been 143 days since the WGA went on strike against the Hollywood studios. While early tactical leaks from the studios had studio execs chortling and twirling their mustaches about writers caving once they started losing their homes, the strikers aren't wavering – they're still out there, pounding the picket lines, every weekday:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/09/how-hollywood-writers-make-ends-meet-100-days-into-the-writers-guild-strike.html
The studios obviously need writers. That gleeful, anonymous studio exec who got such an obvious erotic charge at the thought of workers being rendered homeless as punishment for challenging his corporate power completely misread the room, and his comments didn't demoralize the writers. Instead, they inspired the actors to go on strike, too.
But how have the writers stayed out since May Day? How have the actors stayed out for 69 days since their strike started on Bastille Day? We can thank the studios for that! As it turns out, the studios have devoted so much energy to rendering creative workers as precarious as possible, hiring as little as they can getting away with and using punishing overtime as a substitute for adequate staffing that they've eliminated all the workers who can't survive on side-hustles and savings for six or seven months at a time.
But even for those layoff-hardened workers, long strikes are brutal, and of course, all the affiliated trades, from costumers to grips, are feeling the pain. The strike fund only goes so far, and non-striking, affected workers don't even get that. That's why I've been donating regularly to the Entertainment Community Fund, which helps all affected workers out with cash transfers (I just gave them another $500):
https://secure2.convio.net/afa/site/Donation2?df_id=8117&8117.donation=form1&mfc_pref=T
As hot labor summer is revealed as a turning point – not just a season – long strikes will become the norm. Bosses still don't believe in worker power, and until they get their minds right, they're going to keep on trying to starve their workforces back inside. To get a sense of how long workers will have to hold out, just consider the Warrior Met strike, where Alabama coal-miners stayed out for 23 months:
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/warrior-met-strike-union/
As Kim Kelly explained to Adam Conover in the latest Factually podcast, the Alabama coal strikers didn't get anywhere near the attention that the Hollywood strikers have enjoyed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvyMHf7Yg0Q
(To learn more about the untold story of worker organizing, from prison unions to the key role that people of color and women played in labor history, check out Kelly's book, "Fight Like Hell," now in paperback:)
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fight-Like-Hell/Kim-Kelly/9781982171063
Which brings me to the UAW strike. This is an historic strike, the first time that the UAW has struck all of the Big Three automakers at once. Past autoworkers' strikes have marked turning points for all American workers. The 1945/46 GM strike established employers' duty to cover worker pensions, health care, and cost of living allowances. The GM strike created the American middle-class:
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-18-uaw-strikes-built-american-middle-class/
The Big Three are fighting for all the marbles here. They are refusing to allow unions to organize EV factories. Given that no more internal combustion cars will be in production in just a few short years, that's tantamount to eliminating auto unions altogether. The automakers are flush with cash, including billions in public subsidies from multiple bailouts, along with billions more from greedflation price-gouging. A long siege is inevitable, as the decimillionaires running these companies earn their pay by starving out their workers:
https://www.businessinsider.com/general-motors-ceo-mary-barra-salary-auto-workers-strike-uaw-2023-9
The UAW knows this, of course, and their new leadership – helmed by the union's radical president Shawn Fain – has a plan. UAW workers are engaged in tactical striking, shutting down key parts of the supply chain on a rolling basis, making the 90-day strike fund stretch much farther:
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-09-18-labors-militant-creativity/
In this project, they are greatly aided by Big Car's own relentless pursuit of profit. The automakers – like every monopolized, financialized sector – have stripped all the buffers and slack out of their operations. Inventory on hand is kept to a bare minimum. Inputs are sourced from the cheapest bidder, and they're brought to the factory by the lowest-cost option. Resiliency – spare parts, backup machinery – is forever at war with profits, and profits have won and won and won, leaving auto production in a brittle, and easily shattered state.
This is especially true for staffing. Automakers are violently allergic to hiring workers, because new workers get benefits and workplace protection. Instead, the car companies routinely offer "voluntary" overtime to their existing workforce. By refusing this overtime, workers can kneecap production, without striking.
Enter "Eight and Skate," a campaign among UAW workers to clock out after their eight hour shift. As Keith Brower Brown writes for Labor Notes, the UAW organizers are telling workers that "It’s crossing an unofficial picket line to work overtime. It’s helping out the company":
https://labornotes.org/2023/09/work-extra-during-strike-auto-workers-say-eight-and-skate
Eight and Skate has already started to work; the Buffalo Ford plant can no longer run its normal weekend shifts because workers are refusing to put in voluntary overtime. Of course, bosses will strike back: the next step will be forced overtime, which will lead to the unsafe conditions that unionized workers are contractually obliged to call paid work-stoppages over, shutting down operations without touching the strike fund.
What's more, car bosses can't just halt safety stoppages or change the rules on overtime; per the UAW's last contract, bosses are required to bargain on changes to overtime rules:
https://uaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Working-Without-Contract-FAQ-FINAL-2.pdf
Car bosses have become lazily dependent on overtime. At GM's "highly profitable" SUV factory in Arlington, TX, normal production runs a six-days, 24 hours per day. Workers typically work five eight-hour days and nine hours on Saturdays. That's been the status quo for 11 years, but when bosses circulated the usual overtime signup sheet last week, every worker wrote "a big fat NO" next to their names.
Writing for The American Prospect, David Dayen points out that this overtime addiction puts a new complexion on the much-hyped workerpocalypse that EVs will supposedly bring about. EVs are much simpler to build than conventional cars, the argument goes, so a US transition to EVs will throw many autoworkers out of work:
https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-20-big-threes-labor-shortages-uaw/
But the reality is that most autoworkers are doing one and a half jobs already. Reducing the "workforce" by a third could leave all these workers with their existing jobs, and the 40-hour workweek that their forebears fought for at GM inn 1945/46. Add to that the additional workers needed to make batteries, build and maintain charging infrastructure, and so on, and there's no reason to think that EVs will weaken autoworker power.
And as Dayen points out, this overtime addiction isn't limited to cars. It's also endemic to the entertainment industry, where writers' "mini rooms" and other forms of chronic understaffing are used to keep workforces at a skeleton crew, even when the overtime costs more than hiring new workers.
Bosses call themselves job creators, but they have a relentless drive to destroy jobs. If there's one thing bosses hate, it's paying workers – hence all the hype about AI and automation. The stories about looming AI-driven mass unemployment are fairy tales, but they're tailor made for financiers who get alarming, life-threatening priapism at the though of firing us all and replacing us with shell-scripts:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way
This is why Republican "workerism" rings so hollow. Trump's GOP talks a big game about protecting "workers" (by which they mean anglo men) from immigrants and "woke captialism," but they have nothing to say about protecting workers from bosses and bankers who see every dime a worker gets as misappropriated from their dividend.
Unsurprisingly, conservative message-discipline sucks. As Luke Savage writes in Jacobin, for every mealymouthed Josh Hawley mouthing talking points that "support workers" by blaming China and Joe Biden for the Big Three's greed, there's a Tim Scott, saying the quiet part aloud:
https://jacobin.com/2023/09/republicans-uaw-strike-hawley-trump-scott/
Quoth Senator Scott: "I think Ronald Reagan gave us a great example when federal employees decided they were going to strike. He said, you strike, you’re fired. Simple concept to me. To the extent that we can use that once again, absolutely":
https://twitter.com/American_Bridge/status/1704136706574741988
The GOP's workerism is a tissue-thin fake. They can never and will never support real worker power. That creates an opportunity for Biden and Democrats to seize:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/18/co-determination/#now-make-me-do-it
Reversing two generations of anti-worker politics is a marathon, not a sprint. The strikes are going to run for months, even years. Every worker will be called upon to support their striking siblings, every day. We can do it. Solidarity now. Solidarity forever.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/21/eight-and-skate/#strike-to-rule
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