Rolling Labor Action Thread

I couldn’t find one, that we should have one. Mostly because I was looking for a place to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtXprCW45RI

Background on Frito-Lay strike: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/7/21/22586982/frito-lay-products-strike-boycott-topeka-kansas

good thread

I've been encouraged to see a lot more ferment and labor talk even here in my very red state over the past year. Local service workers formed Facebook groups etc., have become a lot more outspoken. Still a long way from real organization in most cases, but the ground is fertile.

(btw the video clip at the top is a skit)

posted this on union rat thread

Today, a majority of the Board found that a union’s use of rats or other inflatables, along with other bannering activity, does not violate the National Labor Relations Act, even when targeting a neutral employer. Read more: https://t.co/d5F9OjBJ2Y

— NLRB (@NLRB) July 21, 2021

Long live Scabby.

My wife works in this area and told me about one employer who responded with an inflatable cat.

Was it ... a fat cat?

I think there have been those as well.

Interesting news from the Teamsters: https://www.labornotes.org/2021/07/convention-no-other-teamster-challengers-turn-corner

<3

No contract. No snacks.
Flour and sugar stays on tracks. https://t.co/F7g00htw1H

— Railroad Workers United ✊ (@railroadworkers) August 27, 2021

Happy Labor Day! Leave that Nabisco alone.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/labor-day-demands-supporting-nabisco-s-striking-bakery-workers-n1278486

It’s on.

https://iatse.net/by-a-nearly-unanimous-margin-iatse-members-in-tv-and-film-production-vote-to-authorize-a-nationwide-strike/

Oh yeah here comes big daddy

Maybe I've just been looking in the wrong places, but is there a deadline for when the strike would start? Seems like they are still giving the studios one more chance first...

They are. The idea is that if this doesn't make it happen, they can then call the strike; the vote was to authorize the union leader to call the strike as needed rather than a specific vote TO strike, if you see the difference.

John Deere may be headed to the picket line: https://gizmodo.com/john-deere-workers-sure-look-like-they-re-about-to-go-o-1847847258

And we might be about to get the first unionized Dollar General: https://inthesetimes.com/article/dollar-general-workers-store-connecticut-union-campaign

wow gizmodo comments are woke

one for the 'left wing drift' thread

the dollar general story is great - also grim, also just incredibly familiar. the same things play out again and again and again. places like walmart swoop down like hawks on anybody attempting to unionize. they do captive audience meetings with powerpoints showing employees that their wages will go down etc - and it fucking works. and i guess ufcw just doesn't have the resources to fight it? i dunno. i hope it goes down differently this time.

IATSE gonna strike on the 18th

i keep thinking about these low wage big box jobs and like, 7-11s and stuff. i guess the turnover is just so high, and they're shitty jobs anyway, that it's like... how many people are going to put in the work to actually fight for dignity in these jobs? how many people are going to face the absolute mountain of shit the company is going to rain down on them and make it through to the other side? if it really gets bad you quit and get a job somewhere else if you can. move on.

The John Deere strike is underway.

For anyone just catching up on the 10,000 worker UAW strike at John Deere -- the largest strike in the US in two years -- here's how you can get up to speed, based on what I've written for @labornotes:

— Jonah Furman (@JonahFurman) October 14, 2021

lmao Deere itself put out a graphic in August to show how much better their employees have it, because of their pension -

Here's another great image from Deere management.

In August, they told UAW members how much better they had it than at competitors CAT and CNH, because of the pension.

Now Deere wants to eliminate the pension, and the stool is collapsing; but not in the way the company thought! pic.twitter.com/uLJ9BiERIo

— Jonah Furman (@JonahFurman) October 13, 2021

sorry just restated the tweet there, so you get the drift, doubly

John Deere is trying to break a strike by having salaried office workers operate heavy machinery, let’s see how that’s going— pic.twitter.com/Yb1JkoFAH8

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) October 15, 2021

So happy for the IATSE strike. My union’s working conditions are way better than theirs and I’m still reeling after each film shoot, it’s a very tough industry. I can’t imagine what IATSE members have been going through and I really hope the strike brings about change.

A few days ago the nurses union for Kaiser-Permanente, a very big health care provider on the US west coast, voted to authorize a strike whenever their leadership decides that contract talks have broken down completely. The management was offering them a 1% raise!

btw, they're my provider. if they screw this up I'll be mad as hell at management not the nurses.

Looks like a whole lot of people aren’t taking it anymore

There was a regular at the bar who I hadn't seen for months. He was in Thursday, said he'd had enough of 70-80 hour weeks and had quit his job. I said "way to go, comrade, I love seeing power swing from mgmt to labor." He's a typical white middleaged southern conservative and was extremely uncomfortable with this.

this little wave of strikes is literally the only thing giving me any kind of hope at all about making a better world

xp lol

So IATSE tweeted this out, but a lot of tweets saying the deal sucks and/or isn’t much better than the previous one and that they plan to vote no:

“We went toe to toe with some of the richest and most powerful entertainment and tech companies in the world, and we havenow reached an agreement with the AMPTP that meets our members’ needs.”https://t.co/861fwvQNii

— IATSE // #IASolidarity (@IATSE) October 17, 2021

BREAKING: @BVWU_IWW has reached a tentative agreement with Burgerville. If ratified, 100 workers at five Oregon locations will become the only fast food workforce in the U.S. to be covered by a union contract. They’ve been in contract negotiations since 2018. A historic moment! pic.twitter.com/ujUJaGenLp

— Kim Kelly (@GrimKim) November 12, 2021

the wobblies??

the workers at the local bathhouse here in Toronto won their union drive!!!

we won 🥲 https://t.co/VjscVj78gP

— graeme lamb (@_gmlamb) November 12, 2021

yup. the wobblies are still out there.

Activision action

https://www.polygon.com/22786117/activision-blizzard-walk-out-bobby-kotick-resignation-demands

https://lbo-news.com/2021/11/12/striketober-wasnt/

As marvelous as it would be to see a revival of labor militancy, people got a little ahead of things calling last month “Striketober.” According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stats, it was a blip by historical standards.

Here’s a graph of the number of workers involved in strikes or lockouts (the BLS counts them together) since 2000. There were 57 months with higher numbers of workers off the job. At the high point of this graph, May 2018, there were over fourteen times as many workers on strike as there were last month.

https://doughenwood.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/stoppages-monthly.png?w=1280

Here’s another measurement—what the BLS, in nice Victorian fashion, calls “days of idleness” as a percent of total days worked throughout the economy. It was 0.01% in October, a level that’s been matched in 39 other months since January 2000. And as the bottom graph shows, back in the old days when strikes were frequent, lost workdays were many times 0.01%. Before 1980, the low was 0.07%, set in 1957. From 1948 to 1979, it averaged 0.16%. In 1959, just two years after the pre-neoliberal era low, it was 0.43%, the series high.

there's always hope for strikevember

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/kaiser-nurses-to-hold-sympathy-strike-in-solidarity-with-engineers/

BREAKING: The 10,000 striking John Deere workers voted to approve a third contract offer 61%-39%, ending the 5-week strike & solidifying major concessions from the company.

The big wins include:
- $8500 bonus
- Immediate 10% raise
- Another 10% raise by 2025
- Improved pension

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) November 18, 2021

nice

I think the disproportionate attention is because — at least for the moment — there's a lot of focus on workers, or lack of workers. But it's a good opportunity to get people thinking about it. And publicity for something like the John Deere deal is worth a lot in making people think organizing could work for them.

yeah if it sticks, more media focus on strikes is a welcome trend

i saw some people who cover labor complaining about erasure in this piece, but the fact that it's getting written about as a media trend is a sign something is different (for now) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/business/media/labor-unions-media-coverage.html.

my guess is labor power is about to begin a secular increase for the next few decades, not just for political reasons but because the US is trending towards labor scarcity. the trump/stephen miller reductions in legal immigration (which reduced refugee/asylum-seeker inflows by 100% and green cards by 50%) is now consensus policy, and birth-rates are below replacement. the working-age population started to shrink around 2018-19 and will probably accelerate

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.png?g=J3eH

we named the cc https://t.co/3bcwZPZjmN

— Michael Rose (@dcmichaelrose) December 13, 2021

sorry, posted reply instead of tweet

Wow. An NLRB employee has been charged with bribery and fraud. Charging doc alleges she was selling non-public info on potential union elections and ULP's to an outside labor consultant who would then sell the info to law firms https://t.co/6ybLIeD3Q8 pic.twitter.com/hh7k8Nxkp1

— Dave Jamieson (@jamieson) December 13, 2021

look at the world's tiniest legal notice on the bottom

That last bullet point is fucking despicable.#SupportWorkers #FredMeyerStrike pic.twitter.com/ydAG1aJCOC

— Shawn Levy (@shawnlevy) December 17, 2021

oh, you have to click the photo to see it taped on there

I saw someone say that line was a legal requirement in the state where that store is located.

re: crossing a picket line

it is, it lists the state statute making them say it
xp oh i'm referring to the thing taped under there, yeah

The UFCW is the only union* I've belonged to, at a Kroger. Never saw a union rep or heard from them again after the first sign-up meeting, somewhat disappointing as a 16-year old who had just read A People's History for the first time.

*excluding the IWW for ten years which was basically like a yearly PBS donation

about the only good news i see in my feed these days is labor action stuff

https://scontent-den4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/268148823_251494930420109_4847124755181834689_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=QyC3uHr4pn0AX9h9yfu&_nc_ht=scontent-den4-1.xx&oh=00_AT_ZIt9Qz3-s-9jeis_ybVN2CwoVqAimeFjucTdY1RVHZA&oe=61C6FD7E

no deal until they bring back Product 19

number of american workers covered by a union fell in 2021, percent of workers covered also fell relative to 2020 but flat compared to 2019, according to BLS

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

good write-up https://www.epi.org/publication/latest-data-release-on-unionization-is-a-wake-up-call-to-lawmakers/

thanks for that flopson

You can follow the ongoing Starbucks actions at this Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SBWorkersUnited

Not only did REI make a union busting website, they already have a union busting podcast episode that starts with a fucking land acknowledgement!!

Liberalism is a disease, folks! https://t.co/5sp9T2O8pL pic.twitter.com/1ProLoaZQN

— Honda Wang 王宏达 (@HondaWang) February 7, 2022

How can this be, I was assured all corporations are now woke.

"chief diversity and social impact officer"

I'm a little unclear where Honda Wang's sympathies lie

Memphis Starbucks has fired 7 of its employees involved in unionization

https://news.yahoo.com/starbucks-fires-union-leaders-memphis-204249934.html

minneapolis federation of teachers on strike now, here's a recap of the last week:

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/minneapolis-teacher-strike-week-one-update/89-95a9dd41-2bbe-4724-9ef5-2be2b0738dc5

really good deep dive into the people behind the vote

https://www.thecity.nyc/staten-island/2022/3/24/22995196/amazon-workers-staten-island-union-vote

Current Vote Totals:
2050 Yes
1574 No

476 votes in ALU’s favor after resuming the count today on the last box.

— Amazon Labor Union (@amazonlabor) April 1, 2022

Memphis Starbucks has fired 7 of its employees involved in unionization

Former CEO and also former vaporware presidential candidate Howard Schultz has returned as CEO in order to crush the unionising push and its going great

If @SBWorkersUnited can win new benefits with just 9 unionized stores, imagine the gains Starbucks workers can win with hundreds of unionized stores. https://t.co/VFQF9fRb2F

— Josh Miller-Lewis (@jmillerlewis) March 31, 2022

Starbucks' appeal of a decision ordering a union election, which was due last Friday, was mislabeled and filed with the wrong part of the labor board, Starbucks' law firm Littler said in a new NLRB filing today that ends "Thank you in advance for your...professional cooperation"

— Josh Eidelson (@josheidelson) March 30, 2022

^ this is the second SBU union the law firm has failed to stop in recent weeks due to misfiling an appeal. Labor and employment law specialists Littler Mendelsohn PLC… welcome to the resistance

From earlier this month, guess the union busting podcast didn’t work.

VICTORY: by a vote of 86%, workers have voted to unionize with @RWDSU, officially making REI SoHo the first unionized @REI store in the nation! We go further together! #REIunion pic.twitter.com/tywvPzZAf9

— REI Union SoHo (@reiunionsoho) March 3, 2022

lmaooooo

“We want to thank Jeff Bezos for going up to space, because while he was up there, we were organizing a union,” a jubilant Chris Smalls said in remarks outside the NLRB offices in Brooklyn: https://t.co/PxBsVBAgGL

— Richard Kim (@RichardKimNYC) April 1, 2022

The latest unionized Starbucks is here in Knoxville, first one in the South. It was an 8-7 vote and there was a 16th ballot that Starbucks is challenging (because it was cast by an assistant manager who they say shouldn't have been able to vote), but the fact that they're the ones challenging it means they know it was a vote in favor. So I think either they lose 9-7 or 8-7, but it's going through either way.

this shit is my "inspirational fb meme" - just makes me feel immediately better xp

The first hometown one to unionize was last week - I got off the train three stops (40 min walk) early to stick my face inside a a Starbucks door for the third time ever and call out congrats to the workers

that's awesome. pretty sure it's never going to happen here (utah) for so many reasons, one of which is that conservatism runs so deep in the blood that almost all workers hate their own interests. i mean if it ever does happen i'd be shocked and elated.

Howard Schultz' new pitch for why workers shouldn't unionize: by the end of the year, Starbucks will be the most successful NFT platform in the world.

Why drink coffee when you can have a JPG of an ape drinking coffee?

Not sure if this is the right thread or not, but I've really been looking forward to K1m K3lly's book since it was announced. I was mostly offline for the long weekend and just now catching up on the brouhaha whipped up by the excerpt in the WaPost this weekend. Disappointing to see, even if it sounds like the book itself provides the proper citation. It also seems like the book's "Untold" subtitle is still stirring up a little bit of controversary today.

I like her writing a lot and I've really gotten a lot of our her labor reporting, this is a bummer all around.

There are currently 69 Unionized Starbucks in America! pic.twitter.com/sxOa69LDVm

— Every Union Starbucks (@everyunionsbux) May 15, 2022

Replies check out

Breaking: Dodger Stadium Workers Vote 99% to Authorize Strike Ahead of MLB All-Star Game pic.twitter.com/nQ70evlQj4

— UNITE HERE Local 11 (@UNITEHERE11) July 11, 2022

yessssss

fuck em up

They walking out at Amazon in Atlanta 😭 y’all not getting them prime day packages pic.twitter.com/rECUcRB1Lg

— Maybe: Papi Women Neglecter vol 5 (@JuicegawdinPriv) July 13, 2022

New strike dates dropped

RMT (Uk rail workers' union):

27 July
18 Aug
20 Aug

and drivers for 8 franchises walk on 30 July

It appears to be on, as they say, like Donkey Kong

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62166276
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62173334

hmm

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34248463/dodger-stadium-concession-workers-pleased-progress-negotiations-strike-all-star-game

We are the actors, stunt performers, and stable hands of Medieval Times in Lyndhurst, New Jersey joining together in union to create a fairer, safer, and more enjoyable workplace. With a supermajority of support, we are excited to be forming our union with the AGVA.

— Medieval Times Performers United (@MTUnitedNJ) June 28, 2022

haha nice

so much for the tolerant SPCA

I posted this elsewhere today but it's a good 'un

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNmWPuw5/?k=1

400 Planned Parenthood workers at @ppnorthcentral—who work at 28 locations across Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska—have just won the hell out of their union, with 90% voting YES to join @SEIUHCMNIA in a 238-26 landslide! https://t.co/trnQBOWrn3

— Kim “FIGHT LIKE HELL📕Out Now!” Kelly (@GrimKim) July 21, 2022

sharing this one again because it’s a black-led independent union of Amazon workers in the South using tried-and-tested tactics to build support and shop-floor power. CAUSE estimates it now has 700 workers interested—far more people should know about them https://t.co/6a7x2GNkBO

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) July 21, 2022

UNANIMOUS WIN!

DALLAS IS A UNION TOWN!!!!

— SBWU Mockingbird Station (@sbwumbs) July 29, 2022

The Major League Baseball Players Association has launched a campaign to unionize Minor League Players across the country #1u #FairBall pic.twitter.com/DDq4Q8NOXI

— MLBPA Communications (@MLBPA_News) August 29, 2022

71% of Americans support labor unions

https://news.gallup.com/poll/398303/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx

fuck this

If unions like CWU and RMT melt over something like this, it doesn't give you much confidence that they'll actually fight as hard as they're gonna need to against the shit that's coming https://t.co/coC4NDFNGC

— Tony Collins (@tontytrains) September 8, 2022

who gives a shit tbrr

I do

why?

shouldn't need fucking spelling out

well at least now we know what the M in RMT really stands for.

idk sort of exasperating but i kind of get it. rare time what seems like of mass public support (or at least understanding) for widespread industrial action, probs no harm in waiting a few weeks for the next ones so as not to alienate the 'she was a nice old dearie' or 'its sad when anyone dies' lot

these fucking people shouldn't have any influence on unions and their strike planning and they aren't the majority imo

i trust mick lynch to read the room, the point is to win, and if delaying helps them win then delay. no one’s feelings about royalty have anything to do with the deal they’re fighting for

when Lynch isn't flavour of the month anymore or public opinion is turning against the strikes, is he supposed to read the room then as well?

yeah times like these are exactly when you SHOULD be striking cf the LA Dodgers' Stadium staff threatening to strike before the all star game

lol owned

You literally stormed out of the room in the middle of us reading the “Respect and Dignity” contract proposal to yall, so now we’re playing Mario Party & eating lunch waiting for you to come back to our table.

Slay I guess https://t.co/ttHdIc9N9w pic.twitter.com/BJXgC5Yjsr

— Tyler - Starbucks Workers United (@UnionTyler) October 25, 2022

apparently Starbucks has been doing this a lot i.e. showing up for 5 minutes then leaving so that they can technically claim that they’ve “negotiated” with x many branches

Plans by @BirkbeckUoL to sack 140 staff are a disaster for the university, its students and its staff

UCU will not stand by and let this happen and we urge the university to work with us and rethink these cutshttps://t.co/uv8ETG3AAz

— UCU (@ucu) October 31, 2022

Large number of redundancies planned in University of London, among both academic and administrative and support staff.

UCU and Unison will be involved in negotiations but we will see if this goes to a formal dispute and potentially a very large strike which could have long-term effects all round.

This is at a time when national UCU is already in dispute and has just secured a huge mandate for strike action, though on nationwide issues separate from local cuts like these.

mysteriously, the first Starbucks in Starbucks' home town to unionise is closing down due to "safety and security incidents"

coincidentally, the Starbucks five blocks away closed down due to "crime rates" earlier this year, four weeks after the staff voted unanimously to unionise

yeah they're doing it everywhere afaict

The Starbucks Union-Busting Playbook

Workers Say Starbucks Uses Long-Ignored Problems as an Excuse to Close Stores

pics like this warm my cold dead heart

https://twitter.com/labornotes/status/1617937086354706435?s=20&t=n4GoR5-UwOVFncICSp3Q7w

New: Latino immigrant kitchen workers and a group of racially diverse women servers walked out at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Brentwood, Tennessee, on Saturday, January 14. They say their employer is serving up of a toxic brew of racism and sexism.https://t.co/adHmDEFDTA pic.twitter.com/zD8MozN7wl

— Labor Notes (@labornotes) January 24, 2023

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nbc-and-msnbc-staffers-walk-off-the-job-in-contract-dispute

On a happier note

🔥💯🤝 pic.twitter.com/xwSTduMt2F

— HarperCollins Union on strike since 11/10/22 (@hcpunion) February 10, 2023

After four days of voting, membership has RATIFIED the March 9th Tentative Agreement 344-8. This ratification landslide and the gains of our new Collective Bargaining Agreement are a historic achievement for our union.

(1/11)

— TUGSA (@TUGSA_6290) March 13, 2023

That is very inspiring.

Support some awesomeness

https://www.bandcampunited.org/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/bandcamp-union-1234695308/

If you’re not following what a joke-authoritarian-parody UCU has become, they combined “two questions” as one question in an e-ballot to ensure HQ achieved what they wanted — pausing the strikes /and/ giving members a vote on the “deal” (which isn’t a deal, it’s an insult). https://t.co/2gnDdZCJH0

— Philip Proudfoot (@PhilipProudfoot) March 17, 2023

Much controversy at present around UCU (UK university union).

A better summary:

To whoever is running @ucu twitter comms

Please, read the room. And stop with the happy-shiny.

Members are confused.
We are angry and feel let down.
The e-ballot question is shockingly bad.
This dispute has yet to deliver anything in writing.

Promises don't pay bills.

— Hannah Wilkinson (@DrHWilkinson) March 16, 2023

Somehow I missed this. The British passport office is going on strike for…. 5 weeks!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64981979

There are enough union Starbucks shops now to have a nationwide strike. Going to go out to a local one here and try to get some photos.

BREAKING: Workers at over 100+
Starbucks stores across the country are striking to demand an end to Starbucks' illegal union-busting campaign. While the company keeps a metaphorical 'empty chair' for us in the boardroom, we're demanding a real seat at the table! #StarbucksStrike

— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) March 22, 2023

new minor league baseball deal

Details on pay increases in the minor leagues:

Complex league: From $4,800 per year to $19,800
Low-A: $11,000 to $26,200
High-A: $11,000 to $27,300
AA: $13,800 to $30,250
AAA: $17,500 to $35,800

Players will be paid almost year-round, aside from a six-week break in the winter.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 30, 2023

great day for Bernie

that is a hell of a deal!

glad they got an increase but that's still not really livable wages, even with the teams providing housing and some slop

Bandcamp United have delivered their initial petition; you may sign up for a Public Campaign Call on Monday here:

bit.ly/bcu-update

Bah: https://bit.ly/bcu-update

In 2019, two major gold-industry giants in Nevada merged ops. Over the past year+, current & former workers have shared disturbing workplace issues, harassment & more w/ our reporters. This week, union workers secured a contract ✊https://t.co/0Wfuj0dkbg

— Paige Blankenbuehler (@PaigeBlank) March 31, 2023

Whaddup WGA

"AI can't write Tariq's raps!" Abbott Elementary writer/creator/actor @quintabrunson holds the line, alongside #AFM47 musicians outside Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank 5/5#WGAstrike #WGAstrong #dothewritething pic.twitter.com/gbcKQkAL6H

— AFM Local 47 (@AFMLocal47) May 8, 2023

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-coral-reef-of-humanity-encircling

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/business/media/netflix-writers-strike.html

The Nolan piece was enlightening and changed my mind in some ways, but I still think that people whining that they’re not getting paid enough when the average WGA member salary is 100k is a bit ridiculous. I know that’s probably a minority opinion, but oh well

what percentage of WGA members are on a salary

You should put that opinion back in your pants table

That “average pay” statistic reminds me of how cities try to bust teachers unions with propaganda bullshit like, “THE AVERAGE TEACHER MAKES $75K/YEAR AND THEY GET SUMMERS OFF!” Right, and new teachers make shit, teachers work 12 hour days, pay out of pocket for classroom supplies, and are paying off six-figure student loan debt. And that’s not coming close to scratching the surface. I suspect the majority of writers don’t make $100k/year, but good for those who do. And those who do make that much, it’s from the residuals that studios are fighting against, which is one of the key reasons for the strike. Those making that much aren’t striking because they’re not getting paid enough (though relative to studio execs, they absolutely are not getting paid enough), but because younger writers and those just entering the field will never get paid that much, or anything close to it, if the execs get their way.

yep. solidarity’s supposed to be a good thing i thought

Don’t get me wrong— I support the strike, but as Nolan notes, absolutely loathe most of what is on television or streaming services. If it goes away makes no difference to me or my life, so my support is more tepid than it is for (let’s say) teachers unions, nurses, Starbucks workers, and etc. Just not as gung-ho about it as some people seem to be.

Fucking wild dude

I dont’t have kids or kids in school i dont care what happens to the teachers’ union.

See what a dipshit i sound like?

Teachers are important

Who can forget the famous rallying cry, “An injury to one doesn’t really affect me directly, so my support of the workers in this instance is tepid, and the outcome surely won’t have a cascading effect on other industries”?

Again, I support it. But I’m not going to be posting about it all over social media and donating to a strike fund, that’s all.

people whining that they’re not getting paid enough when the average WGA member salary is 100k is a bit ridiculous

wait until you hear what the average studio exec salary is

What is it like having a brain that smooth

Eh, I can take the abuse.

Excited to hear your views when the DGA and SAG contracts are up at the end of next month

teachers unions, nurses, Starbucks workers

I am distracted thinking this is a quote from Idiocracy

It is, in a way

_ teachers unions, nurses, Starbucks workers_

I am distracted thinking this is a quote from Idiocracy

it's not about you, sorry

I don’t like Starbucks coffee and I don’t think Starbucks is important so I don’t care if people who work there get exploited

So, by saying that I tepidly supported a strike because I have major issues with what the industry produces— what I perceive to be propaganda and pap to control people— I deserve scorn and insult.

I did a bunch of reading after unbookmarking this thread last night. I support the strike much more fully now, despite still feeling the way I do about what it produces. Yes, I realize I was missing some nuances and forgetting the ability to hold two somewhat contradictory beliefs at the same time.

Sorry for lashing out at you, felicity.

You didn’t initially say that, it was this point that people took issue with

I still think that people whining that they’re not getting paid enough when the average WGA member salary is 100k is a bit ridiculous. I know that’s probably a minority opinion, but oh well

I didn’t!

As noted in the depression 77 thread, I have been in an unstable financial situation for years now, and sometimes my class antagonism— reading that 100k figure, for example— brings out the worst in me and sort of blinkers me to the reality that most WGA writers aren’t making much.

Thank you, table.

I think other people have covered what's objectionable about the "some animals are more equal than others" angle in a labor action support thread more directly, but I see you take the point.

If you've seen Idiocracy you might understand that the inclusion of Starbucks in that phrase was kind of funny as a hierarchy. I don't love being personally attacked for that, but I would defend your right to say whatever you want.

As for $100k average salary, I don't know if you realize just how expensive it is to live in LA or what the low end of the salaries are, but the fact that the entertainment production industry is competitive yet unionized basically top to bottom is kind of miraculous. The question seems to be why aren't more industries able to organize and achieve such relatively high average salaries making it possible for everyone to live relatively comfortably? We know the money is there, just pooling at the top.

Hi felicity, I had to leave California because I couldn’t survive there, even making close to the most I’ve ever made in my life, which was about half of 100k. I do realize how expensive it is, but seeing as how I literally lived in a truck for several years while being assistant manager of a luxury retailer, I still think that 100k is a decent amount of money, California or no. I would be absolutely slaphappy to make anything close to that, which I don’t foresee ever happening in my lifetime.

I think that your question about unionization of Hollywood and how it can serve as a model for other industries is the most salient part of the WGA strike for me. I wonder whether Davis covers any of this in Prisoners of the American Dream, a book I’ve read but not in a few years.

This podcast is goes a bit into the ins and outs of things. The latest episode has ER creator John Wells as a guest.

https://deadline.com/2023/05/deadline-strike-talk-podcast-week-2-billy-ray-todd-garner-john-wells-1235364794/amp/

"Don’t get me wrong— I support the strike, but as Nolan notes, absolutely loathe most of what is on television or streaming services."

The longer the strike goes on surely the less will be produced. Even from that pov it's a good idea to support the strike if you hate TV.

I have a lot of thoughts about all of this, but the reason I’m tracking this story (more than a lot of other stories) is because it’s one of the more *public* and visible tests of whether AI will replace people.

(Obviously this has been a thing on various levels for a while but the notion of television written by algorithms might leap out a bit more.)

I asked one of the striking WGA writers at an event what the biggest sticking points were. She mentioned the studios were refusing to guarantee that they wouldn't use AI to write any parts of scripts in the future.

If that's true, it seems incredibly contemptuous of audiences as well as writers. The studios want the prestige of Guild artistry but want to cut corners on one of the most cherished parts of the craft. (No one's stopping them from posting on YouTube.)

I would think writers could use AI as starting points for scripts. Some genre fiction writers are already using it.

The key here is that the human labour isn't devalued.

AI is here to stay, so the key is figuring out how and when to deploy it— it has actually proven a very successful tool for university teaching, but I digress.

I also just want to note that a dear friend of mine is going through some absolutely batshit drama with her academic union at the moment, and the union leadership is entirely at fault. My own experiences of being in a union have also been unhappy. I am still a member of two unions, but there’s a LOT of work to be done in both of them, and one of them is a lost cause— adjuncts, NTTs, and TT professors have completely different frames of reference and goals, and a union whose leadership is driven by TT people will never adequately serve those who are not.

Which again, is not to say that I am not a proud union member, but that there is a sort of blanket “unions good” sentiment among so many people on the left that really elides the lived experience of many people in the unions.

I joined my faculty union two months ago, and, yeah, as a teaching (i.e. NTT) professor I've already noticed the caste system.

yeah, absolutely true. i support unions in general wholeheartedly, and have been in various unions and have seen a very wide set of realities depending on both leadership and membership - like the job itself, depends on the members to put in work to keep it alive and thriving

Definitely been in the arcs of that. When I first formally joined the UC as a full-time employee, there was a burst of new union energy to replace what had been seen as an ineffective earlier version of it with a new one; it won resoundingly and for a few years good things were done. But it all kinda petered out in the late 2000s and honestly if I hadn't been finally reclassified and therefore given a distinct salary boost in mid-2008 -- thankfully a month or so before the big crash -- I was strongly considering looking elsewhere. Active membership had dropped to something like 25% of the workforce represented and it was all kinda sluggish. But in the early 2010s a new crew started firing up a bit and worked out the affiliation with the Teamsters via their public worker arm, and after basically getting a good holding pattern in place, they massively boosted active paying membership -- a big boon when the Janus decision hit since we were somewhere in the high 80% percent range regardless, and so the money hit wasn't so bad -- and scored two big contract wins since, most recently last year just before the grads went on strike. (I suspect there was cascading pressure not to face a dual strike at that point since we'd been out of contract for a few months.) There was both good active leadership overall in terms of communication and outreach on the UC-wide level and the campus level, and we've since put in a lot of work to expand and affiliated unrepresented employees in both the UC system and the CSU to boot; getting in other unrepresented non-librarian employees is a current big focus -- a division I've never understood, since I've been lucky enough to have that the whole time.)

Which again, is not to say that I am not a proud union member, but that there is a sort of blanket “unions good” sentiment among so many people on the left that really elides the lived experience of many people in the unions.

― Goose Bigelow, Fowl Gigolo (the table is the table),

I mean ... cops have unions, and they're one of the most powerful in terms of local US politics (the proposed city budget includes cuts to cops ... there will be performativity by the pigs, I'm sure) ... but that's a classic "wedge issue" for the left ... locally, our teachers' union has been on strike all week, and there's been pushback of the "this is bad for the kids" type, but putting the blame on the teachers, as opposed to the district.

Cop unions are unions in name only because cops aren’t workers.

and cops don't respect picket lines

Yikes

As a coder and someone with a computer science degree I want to tell you where I believe AI is going. 2/

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) May 13, 2023

in Florida if we don't reach 60% membership we're declassified, and, heh, unlike police and fire unions, we're not allowed to use payroll deduction

https://reason.com/2020/06/17/the-case-for-abolishing-police-unions/

Feel like the AI stuff is a distraction that the studios are happy to concede on/use as a distraction.

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/can-a-writers-strike-save-hollywood?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=email

"As a coder and someone with a computer science degree let me tell you why my films are terrible"

Cited in that Matt Stoller article:

Ten years ago, 33% of TV writers were paid the minimum rate. Now, according to the WGA, 49% are. Accounting for inflation, writer pay has declined 14% in the last five years. The median weekly writer-producer pay is down 23% over the last decade, with inflation factored in.

Thanks for the link.

and the companies for which they write ... their profits haven't gone down much or have they?

Bandcamp United has won its vote:

https://blog.bandcamp.com/2023/05/19/bandcamp-and-bandcamp-united-release-joint-statement-on-union-vote/

More WGA strike talk

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-screenwriting-life-with-me-1096076/episodes/138-your-wga-strike-questions-173016839

Michael Schur interview in Deadline

https://apple.news/AW5YT5dDlTv2GEoC8q1nd9w

Great interview, thanks.

This one might be even more enjoyable

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/05/meet-the-writers-strikes-secret-weapon-hollywood-teamsters-boss-lindsay-dougherty

Good Shohei Ohtani analogy on that Michael Schur interview.

The WGA strike coming not that long after Covid production shutdowns of just a couple years ago is pretty brutal on not just writers but working actors, all the day to day production people as well.

Emmy campaign season is in full swing and it's astounding the studios have not even started talks after a month of strikes. Contempt is a good word.

Err, 2 weeks+. Feels like a month.

SCHUR: Look, there are 600 television shows; there’s one Mike White. The purpose of the guild is to protect the 599 people who aren’t that one person, right? It’s like, (the Los Angeles Angels’) Shohei Ohtan is a hitter and a pitcher. If all baseball teams told all of their employees that they had to both be all-star level hitters and pitchers because one guy did it, that wouldn’t seem fair. And it’s not a perfect analogy, but the goal of the union is to protect the 7000 episodic TV members who aren’t the very small number of people who prefer to do it in the way that they prefer to do it. And if the very worst thing that happened was we saved 6,958 jobs and four people had to hire three consultants to give them a second set of eyes on their episodes of their show, I think we would take that deal.

“The WGA strike coming not that long after Covid production shutdowns of just a couple years ago is pretty brutal on not just writers but working actors, all the day to day production people as well.”

I’m hoping all these unions team up and show one another solidarityz

Ha, the “z” shouldn’t have been there

You love to see it

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/david-zaslav-booed-boston-university-graduation-writers-strike-1235497440/

Lol

Get his ass

Lol @ this David Simon interview.

"I'd rather put a gun in my mouth"

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1177194215/tv-writer-david-simon-weighs-in-on-the-writers-guild-of-america-strike

Interesting take from Simon

Re: use of AI in writing

SIMON: Not only I think is it a fundamental violation of the integrity of writers and also of copyright to - you know, when I sold all the scripts I sold, you know, 150 to HBO and, you know, maybe another 50 to NBC, I didn't sell them so that they could be thrown into a computer with other people's and be used again by a corporation. So...

That is kind of true, from a business and legal perspective, because AI could be used as a way to obscure chain of creation. Studios are usually on a hair-trigger alert about not accepting any kind of unsolicited material, because they are subject to so many idea theft claims. And U.S. copyright law is hear an all-time high point in terms of legitimizing infringement claims for even de minimus copying.

Normally studios have to be on guard to be able to show independent creation or "clean room" development of their materials at all times to defend such claims. The fair use defense to copyright infringement is less friendly to allegedly transformative uses after Goldsmith v. Warhol.

So unless you know and can trace all the inputs into AI generated writing, it can start down a slippery slope of essentially idea theft or copyright infringement if the inputs include copyrighted material. This cuts both ways too. A writer could choose to use AI in their writing, but normally has to warrant that all material is original, so if they choose to use AI they are then exposed to claims for breach of the warranty that all material in script is original.

Again, I don't think any of this means no one can or should use AI in creation. It's just what makes a Guild production version not. Plenty of writers do non-union side projects all the time.

Re musicians

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/why-songwriters-cant-have-their-own-writers-strike-yet/

Fantastic piece, this

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/01/opinion/wga-hollywood-writers-strike-unions.html

Gift link version of above story.

Thanks for that, Ned.

Here’s another strike:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-31/amazon-workers-walk-out-to-protest-climate-office-return-policy#xj4y7vzkg

This is all worth listening to, but there’s a really interesting point made at around the 42 minute mark of how little it would cost the studios to get to where WGA is asking them to go.

https://postshowrecaps.com/tv-show/the-writers-strike-a-discussion-with-wga-member-justin-shanes/

The DGA seems to have squeezed something out of the studios

https://deadline.com/2023/06/directors-hollywood-studios-reach-deal-new-contract-1235399542/

SAG authorizes strike if it comes to it:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-06-05/sag-aftra-strike-hollywood-labor-amptp-strike-authorization

98% margin! The equal of the WGA authorization vote.

If you need a free-read link:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sag-aftra-members-authorize-strike-nearly-98-percent-work-stoppage-1235507295/

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/19/1177194215/tv-writer-david-simon-weighs-in-on-the-writers-guild-of-america-strike

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, May 23, 2023 6:36 AM (one week ago

apparently they went with the Season 5 theme music or was that Steve Earle?

The DGA seems to have squeezed something out of the studios

morelike the studios have convinced the union with the smallest voting base and comparative best per-member compensation not to join in solidarity with their more numerous and more precarious colleagues, reinforcing a class division that benefits the studios?

Yay oh wait

LA this summer! pic.twitter.com/5uJqSdyuP8

— Americana At Brand Memes (@americanamemes) June 6, 2023

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-byrne-history-of-union-avoidance_n_647e6c0fe4b0047ed782e1ad

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/writers-strike-sag-aftra-actors-1235508507/amp/

this may be a dumb question, but ... are they getting strike benefits from the Union and how do strike benefits work, and what role do they play in successful vs. unsuccessful labor actions?

According to this story, projectionists at an NYC Alamo Drafthouse (unclear which) filed a petition to unionize Weds

On Fri, Alamo sent an email notifying of its intention to eliminate the projectionist role and replace with with "technical engineer" https://t.co/D08dT7xlEH

— Screen Slate (@ScreenSlate) June 11, 2023

good.

With their latest win, @SBWorkersUnited is now in 80% of U.S. states.

The union's recent victory in Missoula, Montana means that there are now 331 unionized Starbucks spread across 40 states.

Just 1.5 years ago there were zero.https://t.co/Owmwgi3A9a

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) June 26, 2023

Pretty good background on the WGA itself, and what it provides its members

https://podtail.com/en/podcast/bonehead-humor/ep-285-todd-farmer-and-the-wga-strike/

SAG-AFTRA went to bed

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/bob-iger-writers-actors-strike-disney-ceo-1235669169/

Hahaha respectfully sir, fuck you

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/culture/2023/7/13/23793828/sag-aftra-strike-wga-hollywood

I didn't realize that Fran Drescher was such a militant firebrand

Fran Drescher's speech is worth watching:

The business model has changed for all of us - this applies to music equally #solidarity pic.twitter.com/j8sbmisCD3

— Damon K 🎤 (@dada_drummer) July 13, 2023

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/orange-is-the-new-black-signalled-the-rot-inside-the-streaming-economy

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/orange-is-the-new-black-signalled-the-rot-inside-the-streaming-economy🕸

H/t sleeve

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/actors-strike-sag-artificial-intelligence-hollywood-studios-background-1234788191/amp/

I meant to C&P this good Janis Ian post along with that link, here it is:

* you may share anything I post here.
A few people on this page have objected to the SAG-AFTRA strike on the grounds that "you get to do what you love" "you're overpaid already" "I can't afford to take my kids to movies because of you" and my favorite, "I can't afford tickets to sports events any more."
???
So let me explain just a couple of things.
- Statistically, 2% of actors make a living wage. Even fewer singers make that much.
- SAG-AFTRA doesn't only represent actors. It represents singers, dancers, DJs, puppeteers, stunt performers, and dozens of other professions.
- You may work in an industry that will contribute to your pension fund, provide matching funds, provide health benefits. We get none of that. The only benefits artists get are through our unions, and we pay for those.
- Years ago, the union caved to Amazon and its subsidiaries by making deals that ruined audiobook narration and a host of other things. As a personal instance, I narrated The Singer and the Song, which was nominated for an Audie (the audiobook equivalent of a Grammy nomination). It involved singing parts of more than 20 songs, creating new arrangements for them all that would suit solo vocal and guitar, researching names of places and pronunciations, and a host of other things. I spent two full weeks of my life on the project and was paid for 7 hour's work, because that's how long the audiobook plays. At that time, the rate was about $230 an hour, so for my two week's work I was paid $134 a day, or about $14 an hour for a basic nine hour day.
- Most performer's "days" are more like 12 hours.
- Most performers earn in the region of $8-$10 an hour if they're lucky.
- The studios are not "negotiating". Read the below article from Rolling Stone to see what they want from us. If you happened to be lucky enough to be a "background actor" on a show that needs warm bodies in a restaurant, or walking around the street, you'd be paid $200 for up to 16 hour's work, and have to agree to have your body scanned, after which the studio would OWN that scan and the right to use it FOREVER.
- As a last aside, please don't come on my page and tell me artists get to do what we love so we shouldn't be paid for it, because we don't really work as hard as non-artists. Until I stopped touring, 12-hour work days were routine, and I was lucky if that's all it took.
Thank you for your support, of art, and of artists.

Damn, good post. And YIKES.

also relevant along w/the Black Mirror episode everyone is referencing that I have not seen

https://bojackhorseman.fandom.com/wiki/Secretariat_(film)

After an incident with her and her daughter Penny, BoJack returned to L.A. to find the film has been finished without him. They did this by using a CGI version of BoJack, which was created from a computer scan they did of his face during the first few weeks of shooting in Brand New Couch. In fact, they actually replaced the real BoJack with the CGI version for the entire movie, meaning that BoJack technically isn't in the film at all.

https://deadline.com/2023/07/oliver-stone-oppenheimer-sag-aftra-wga-strike-roots-1235438219/

truth bomb from above link:

“I don’t think it will be wrapped up quickly. Because well, I don’t understand the economics of Netflix and these new guys, but it’s the same old bullsh*t. You know they’re making money and they always say they’re losing money. It’s the classic conflict that goes back to the 1880s in America.”

So Netflix also hides viewership figures from cast and crew, too? Creeps.

Not just Netflix. Tony Gilroy, showrunner of Andor on Disney+: https://www.indiewire.com/awards/industry/tony-gilroy-andor-emmy-nomination-wga-strike-1234883534/

Critics have raved about it, but it doesn’t necessarily have the highest viewership for Star Wars. What would you tell people who have maybe hesitated to watch it?

I’m gonna go back to the strike then. One of the central issues of this entire labor experience is that I don’t have any idea what the audience is. We don’t know what that is, and I think that the obscurity of data doesn’t help anyone. Really. I think it looks like low-hanging fruit and easy profitability for certain corporations, but in the end it just crushes any kind of free market. It crushes the economics of the business, it means people are being overpaid and underpaid and never properly paid. It means that productions are overloaded with expenses up top because what used to be commonly residuals and royalties now have to be front loaded. I think it’s distorted and warped and is close to ruining this amazing industry. So I wish I knew how many people watched, I wish I knew who they were, and I’m not sure that that’s possible.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/07/hollywoods-cruel-strategy/674730/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/os-angeles-shooting-days-plummet-writers-strike-1235539756/amp/

Lotta shooting not happening

Everything has been said on the thread already, I’m really hoping both writers and performers get what they deserve.

If you aren’t working in the industry and want to support, please consider using less Netflix/Disney + type streaming for the coming weeks or months, there are great alternatives for top content that aren’t benifiting these ghouls!

Great piece on Starbucks and their owner’s stonewalling and general evil vibe.

Yeah that’s a fantastic piece and close to home for me. A Starbucks near my workplace is also unionized so I’ve patronized them feeling a bit self-righteous for doing so (worker solidarity!) but knowing that no unionized Starbucks has a contract makes me feel like shit now. I’ve wanted to talk to the baristas about their union experience but haven’t thinking they’d be wary of talking to a customer about their experiences.

Starbucks can’t be blamed for Ms. Cruz Borrazas’ health crisis. Plenty of Starbucks workers are organizing under tremendous pressure without winding up in the hospital.

The fuck Starbucks can't. The woman who wasn't eating enough and spiraling in anxiety and depression because of Starbucks' actions wound up in the hospital.

I assume that was some kind of CYA from the Times legal department but fuck that shit.

Pretty great:

https://teamster.org/2023/07/weve-changed-the-game-teamsters-win-historic-ups-contract/

DANG.

Quite a coup for O'Brien, who hasn't been president all that long

Sets him up well for his big quest: unionizing Amazon.

The contrast between 1997 and 2023 in terms of pre-strike mobilization and preparation couldn’t have been more stark. Many major locals — Chicago local 705 in particular — were kept in the dark, and had no idea if there’d even be a strike until it was called. And while it wasn’t a Hoffa, Jr. -affiliated local, it was still very top-down, with the rank and file asking questions and not getting answers. A nearby Hoffa local, 710 in Rockford, actually scabbed on the ‘97 strike (and one of my favorite memories of that summer is when my friends and I chased scab-driven UPS trucks around the quiet and tony North Shore suburbs, honking, shouting at them, and hilariously scaring the shit out of them).

O’Brien is the first non-Hoffa president since Carey was ousted by the government in 1998 (on what turned out to be completely false charges), and obviously isn’t interested in getting cozy with UPS like Hoffa Jr was. That said, I’m cautiously optimistic about the new contract, and am curious what Teamsters for a Democratic Union’s position on it is.

Per your first paragraph there's some particular detail about the past vs. now in this solid piece

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-07-25-teamsters-historic-contract-ups/

Damn. Glad to hear that about UPS.

Thanks for that, Ned. Great background on their strategies.

O’Brien didn’t face similar opposition today from hostile local officers. “We’ve taken different factions and coalitions, come together, under one vision, one voice,” he said when asked about the role TDU has played in the contract campaign. “I think it’s been effective, and it should be a template for the power of collaboration to effectuate change.”

UPS came dangerously close to putting itself on strike

vg wording

Rather!

Good new piece here on the SAG/WGA front

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/the-system-is-quicksand-sag-and-wga-union-members-tell-all

Also, Wil Wheaton's IG post here is pretty sharp.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CvFzWyCPiN8/?hl=en

Great post and he and spacemom are cuet.

Good piece on the UPS tentative agreement here:

https://www.tempestmag.org/2023/07/what-happened-to-the-big-ups-strike/

What would a historic victory have looked like? Well, among other demands, it would be ending two-tier wage structures between part-timers and full-timers, and installing air conditioning for all delivery vehicles now. The current TA, despite threats from O’Brien and Zuckerman to “pulverize” UPS, has the feel of being underwhelming. But, underwhelming in an era of growing threats to the livelihood and health of UPS Teamsters are actually major concessions.

Given the historic moment of low unemployment, record profits, and public sympathy for UPS workers, it feels like a moment has been missed for real historic victories.

And I’m seeing on social media some locals organizing for a “no” vote.

https://deadline.com/2023/08/writers-strike-meeting-union-studios-no-new-talks-1235455349/amp/

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/steven-soderbergh-interview-command-z-christopher-nolan-hollywood-strike-streaming-1234799431/amp/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna98755

From nbc dot com

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-08-10/wga-to-meet-with-amptp-friday-as-writers-strike-stretches-on

Skip ahead to about the 20 minute point

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tvs-top-5-podcast-chris-keyser-writers-strike-100-days-1235561162/amp/

UPS contract approved:

https://teamster.org/2023/08/teamsters-ratify-historic-ups-contract/

Meantime word out of Duke that their grad workers have organized, pretty cool:

Live from our watch party, we are thrilled to join a historic wave of organizing #UnionsForAll in higher ed, and so excited for Duke grad workers. Today, we’ve formed the first recognized grad student union at a private university in the South, and 1 of the largest unions in NC! pic.twitter.com/ADWxqq9iPr

— Duke Grad Union (@dukegradunion) August 22, 2023

Bandcamp United begins contract negotiations tomorrow!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwTSiOsyPmx/

👍🏽

“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

Was bummed to read this, I thought he was a good one

‘A slap in the face’: progressive anger as Teamsters union chief meets Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/18/teamsters-union-chief-trump-meeting

This will be big if it comes through: Unionizing a VW plant in Chattanooga that has twice voted not to unionize. (Under crazy heavy pressure campaigns, of course, including our own governor warning of apocalypse etc.)

The United Auto Workers union says it has signed up the majority of employees at Volkswagen AG’s Tennessee plant, teeing up a high-stakes test of the union’s ability to expand its ranks following its record Detroit contract wins.

In November, the UAW announced an audacious effort to organize 13 automakers’ non-union plants, including Toyota Motor Corp., Tesla Inc., and Nissan Motor Co. facilities. The union, which represents around 265,000 automaker or auto parts employees, is aiming to organize around 150,000 more workers at those 13 firms. VW’s Chattanooga factory is the first of those locations where the union says it’s secured over 50% support. It previously announced signing up more than 30% of employees at Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Hyundai Motor Co. facilities in Alabama.

Under US law, a company can voluntarily recognize and negotiate with a union once a majority of workers have signed union cards, or can refuse to do so unless the group first wins a government-run election. The UAW has said it will seek recognition once it has 70% of a plant signed up.

“Momentum’s picked up in a big way,” said Zach Costello, a six-year VW employee who’s a member of the Tennessee plant’s UAW organizing committee. The union’s successful strike last year against Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., and Stellantis NV, which ended with agreements that will boost many union members’ pay by a third or more, “was massively influential in waking people up” at the VW factory, Costello said. “It really turned a lot of people to our side.”

And of course ...

The Center for Union Facts, a business-backed nonprofit, on Monday announced plans to place billboards in cities including Chattanooga advertising a website that criticizes the union’s political stances, contracts, and past corruption scandals.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-06/uaw-signs-up-majority-of-workers-at-vw-plant-after-detroit-wins

On the bad front, the union at the school where I adjunct has secured a tentative agreement that is fucking wack, and is not a win at all, particularly for more rank and file members. I am furious and will be voting NO on ratification and withdrawing my card after this is over— honestly, my experience with academic unions has been so bad that I will never voluntarily join a union ever again.

Uber

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/02/13/business/uber-lyft-deliveroo-valentines-strike/index.html

On the bad front, the union at the school where I adjunct has secured a tentative agreement that is _fucking wack_, and is not a win at all, particularly for more rank and file members. I am furious and will be voting NO on ratification and withdrawing my card after this is over— honestly, my experience with academic unions has been _so bad_ that I will never voluntarily join a union ever again.

No, it’s a corrupt union leadership working in concert with the school and accepting the first TA offered. I know because two friends who have worked for the AFT told me privately that they agree with me but can’t say so publicly, and told me why.

Also, spare me the “you can do such and such.” You think I have time for that when I’m making next to nothing because the union is deferential to management’s needs to fuck over employees? Please . Get one clue.

Big deal

https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2024/message-from-sara-starbucks-and-workers-united-agree-on-path-forward/

It's interesting how many European & Korean companies have absolutely no issues with collective bargaining.. even VW was fine with their Tennessee plant going union, it's just part of the business
It makes it easier to budget when you know what your labor expenses are going to be, years in advance

Corporate America just has this utter contempt for the worker, like they should be fucking grateful to get a fifteen minute break now and then

^^^^ Speak of the devil

Under previous leadership at the UAW, the union came close to winning elections in 2014 and 2019 at the plant but came up short after a surge of anti-union organizations and Republican elected officials aggressively opposed the efforts. Similar efforts have already begun during the current campaign at the plant.

US Volkswagen workers file for union election to join United Auto Workers

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/18/volkswagen-workers-file-union-election-to-join-uaw

IATSE seems to be making deals

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/iatse-negotiations-cinematographers-reach-deal-craft-issues-1235857297/amp/

Fuck these people

To be sure, southern politicians have spoken out against the UAW. Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, said, “It would be a big mistake for (the VW) workers to risk their future” by unionizing. Alabama’s governor, Kate Ivey, wrote, “Alabama has become a national leader in automotive manufacturing, and all this was achieved without a unionized workforce … Unfortunately, the Alabama model for economic success is under attack.”

(UAW President) Fain fired back, saying that Ivey “dared to say that the economic model of the south is under attack. She’s damn right it is! It’s under attack because workers are fed up with getting screwed.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/17/uaw-union-drive-south-volkswagen-tennessee

these governors were bought by special interests a long time ago

Well, it's not VW that's paying them off... most of their plants worldwide are already union. It's just this aggressive posture where they don't want to see labor make any gains at all, because pretty soon they'll be coming after the poultry plants that are employing 14 year old undocumented workers and we can't have that

well sure, those are also special interests, but don’t be under any illusions that vw wants unionized plants in the US

btw there has been a lot of organizing effort in TN poultry plants.. a great movie about that here (my mom worked on it) - https://annelewis.org/morristown-in-the-air-and-sun/

They did it!!

https://tabithaarnold.substack.com/p/these-hands

Studio visit with the leader of the free world! pic.twitter.com/4J6loV6RZC

— tabitha (@thetolerantweft) April 18, 2024

White conservative Southern governors don't need to be bought off by special interests — the preservation of cheap labor by any means has been an explicit part of their agenda since the country formed. (Including trying to secede to preserve it, obviously.)

But hell yeah UAW. Shawn Fain looking like one of the strongest, smartest major union leaders in years.

Alabam's next!

https://www.al.com/news/2024/04/inside-uaws-latest-alabama-mercedes-benz-plant-union-push-will-this-time-be-different.html

Some more good news:

BREAKING: 4 million workers will now take home more money when they work more than 40 hours a week under a new Labor Dept. rule released today. The changes would make it so salaried workers earning less than about $59k annually would automatically be due overtime pay.

— Rebecca Rainey (@RebeccaARainey) April 23, 2024

They've also just outlawed noncompete agreements.

got this fucked-up spam on my work email today.. for some kind of webinar

What Managers Need to Know as The Union Knocks on the Door

Managers and Supervisors are taken to task every day in managing their Non represented employees. It is important for them to learn the Initial warning signs of Union Organizing long before a Union gets the appropriate number of signed Authorization Cards and the NLRB Conducts a secret Election. Learn here the best Election is the one that is never held.

xp ok that's some real progress!

I’m surprised the overtime rule only affects 4m people. Is it only federal workers or something?

overtime-exemption impacted workers will be the intersection of exceeded the previous salary threshold, below, the new threshold, and already passing the "primarily perform executive, administrative, or professional duties" exemption test

Starting the conversation about the nuts and bolts reality of how to pull off a 2028 general strike. (Which is truly possible.) https://t.co/5fyNBrO5oH

— Hamilton Nolan (@hamiltonnolan) April 23, 2024

dare to dream (I am in favor)

In general, however, it’s pretty much been disaster after disaster for five decades: Reagan busting the air traffic controllers’ union, four failed congressional attempts to make the NLRA more functional, even more failed attempts to raise the federal minimum wage (stuck at $7.25 for the past 15 years), the passage of NAFTA, the enactment of permanent normal trade relations with China, and the relentless, sickening decline in the share of American workers who belong to unions, which now stands at 10 percent, and a bare 6 percent among private-sector workers. That decline correlates well with the shrinking of the American middle class.

However, the seven days between Friday, April 19, and Thursday, April 25, saw a succession of worker victories that was almost breathtaking in its scope.

Two of those victories were the direct result of worker mobilizations. On Friday, the UAW won a recognition election at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga factory by a 73 to 27 percent margin, in an election where fully 84 percent of the eligible workers voted. Workers evidently viewed the UAW’s landmark victory in its strike several months earlier against General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis as proof positive that the union could raise their wages and benefits. They ignored the pleas of six Southern governors that the union would subvert “Southern values,” which most workers apparently understood to mean “low-wage work sustained by a lack of worker power.”

The new UAW leadership, headed by president Shawn Fain, had made sure to keep the strike against the Big Three and the unprecedented contract they won in the public eye, and that leadership then appropriated $40 million to unionize factories in the South—historically, the graveyard of unionization efforts.

https://prospect.org/labor/2024-04-29-great-week-for-american-workers/

Tesla's next, baby

BREAKING: Oakland @McDonalds workers at 1330 Jackson St are ON STRIKE due to a rat infestation. Management has warned us we’ll be fired if we document the rats.

We’re sending evidence to CalOSHA.

We know the biggest rats are making huge profits off our labor.

Not today. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/lu1baX0z9G

— California Fast Food Workers Union (@CAFastFoodUnion) May 3, 2024

they're not even asking for more money, they just want the rats removed from the workplace... lol

has there ever been a better moment for the giant inflatable rat??

I walk by that location all the time - they closed the dining room for Covid and never reopened, it's drive-up only now which is becoming more and more common around here.. too bad if you don't have a car

xp no, this is what the giant inflatable rat was born to do, this is its moment

Go Scabby!