As the writer’s strike enters its second week, the effects of not having some of most important people on set around are already starting to show: two of the biggest projects currently in production—Marvel’s Blade reboot and the fifth season of Stranger Things—have been put on ice (along with loads more movies and shows I’ll get to in a minute).
This Wacky Magical Girl Anime Is Studio Trigger-Coded To Perfection
What’s the strike about?
Writers are deservedly fed up with loads of stuff, from the number of exploitative short-term contracts being offered in the age of streaming to low pay to poor residuals to the threat of machine-learning.
Posting on the official Twitter account of the Stranger Things writer’s room, the show’s creators, the Duffer brothers, wrote:
Duffers here. Writing does not stop when filming begins. While we’re excited to start production with our amazing cast and crew, it is not possible during this strike. We hope a fair deal is reached soon so we can all get back to work. Until then — over and out. #wgastrong
Without its writers or showrunners, production has ground to a halt. Hell yeah. Also downing tools is Marvel’s new Blade movie, which has been shut down and “will restart…production once the strike is over”.
And those two are far from the only shows and films affected. A ton of live TV, especially late night comedy programs, have already gone dark, with The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!all having stopped filming.
And while networks and studios will be fine for a while coasting on material that had already been written and filmed, if the strike continues and that dries up, they’ll be in trouble. And even when the strike is over they’ll still be in trouble, because production backlogs and rescheduling will be an absolute nightmare.
Of course not every project and studio is hitting the pause button. HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon will continue filming, just without its writers, while Amazon’s second season of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power will do likewise. Disney and HBO are among companies who have also ordered writers back to work, with the latter asking them to perform “non-writing” tasks.
The Writers Guild of America, the union calling the strike, figures that improving their member’s contracts would cost Hollywood a collective $430 million per year. There are already estimates this strike could do $2 billion worth of damage to the entertainment economy. That might seem like some easy sums, just pay these people what they’re worth, but these strikes are never about the money, they’re about control.
Solidarity with everyone manning the picket lines, and best of luck with the coming days/weeks/months.
Drew Barrymore disclosed Thursday that she has withdrawn from hosting duties for the upcoming MTV Movie & TV Awards in order to be “in solidarity” with the thousands of writers who went on strike this week.
The actress and host of “The Drew Barrymore Show” said in a statement provided to CBS News that she “will pivot from hosting” the awards show, which is scheduled to air live Sunday night.
MTV is part of Paramount Global, which also owns CBS News.
The more than 11,000 members that make up the Writers Guild of America went on strike Tuesday after failing to negotiate a new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade group which represents major Hollywood studios such as Netflix, Sony, Disney, Paramount, NBC Universal, Amazon and Apple.
“Everything we celebrate and honor about movies and television is born out of their creation,” Barrymore said of writers in her statement.
Drew Barrymore arrives for the Time 100 Gala at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall in New York City on April 26, 2023.
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
The two sides are far apart on issues including residuals from streaming shows, staffing levels in writers’ rooms, and the role of artificial intelligence in penning film and television scripts.
The impact of the strike is already being felt across the entertainment industry, temporarily shuttering production on shows including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
While Sunday’s awards show from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, will go on live as scheduled, it will not have a red carpet or pre-show celebrity interviews. Variety reports that the show will not have an official host. Barrymore is slated to host again in 2024.
“I can’t wait to be a part of this next year, when I can truly celebrate everything that MTV has created, which is a show that allows fans to choose who the awards go to and is truly inclusive,” Barrymore said in her statement.
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Contract negotiations are keeping thousands of commercial pilots grounded at a time when the nation will soon be entering the busy summer travel season.
The union representing pilots at American Airlines gave its members authorization to strike this week after contract talks stalled. Pilots at Southwest Airlines are also now voting on whether to walk off the job. Here’s what to know about the potential labor actions and how it could impact passengers’ summer travel plans.
Why are pilots threatening to strike?
The two main reasons are pilots’ demands for higher pay and better schedules.
American Airlines executives are under pressure to match or beat the pay terms Delta Air Lines gave its pilots earlier this year — a 34% raise over a four-year contract. AA has offered a four-year deal that includes a 21% pay bump in the first year. Including higher profit-sharing and 401(k) retirement contributions, by the end of the contract pilots who fly narrower planes would earn $475,000 a year, while senior pilots flying wide-body planes would make $590,000 a year,
American Airlines’ pilots union said it is also seeking scheduling changes that the labor group says would improve efficiency and prevent the kind of widespread delays and cancellations seen last summer.
Would a strike impact passengers’ summer travel plans?
It all depends on how quickly airlines and pilots can agree to a new contract. In statements this week, officials from American said they’re confident they can reach an agreement with their unions quickly.
“We understand that a strike-authorization vote is one of the important ways pilots express their desire to get a deal done, and we respect the message of voting results,” American Airlines spokeswoman Sarah Jantz said Monday.
Adam Carlisle, vice president for labor relations at Southwest, said in a statement that the strike won’t hurt the airline’s “ability to take care of our customers.”
“Our negotiations continue, with talks resuming this week, and we’ll keep working with the assistance of the National Mediation Board to reach an agreement that rewards our pilots and places them competitively in the industry,” he said.
But failing to reach agreements soon could leave passengers frustrated in the coming months, said Ed Sicher, the pilots’ union president at American.
“The summer travel season is almost here, and we’re all wondering whether this will be another summer of uncertainty for American Airlines,” Sicher said in a statement this week.
What’s happening in the meantime?
American Airlines pilots have organized a series of demonstrations at airports, including in Boston, Dallas, Miami and New York, hoping to put further pressure on management. Both sides will continue negotiating for now. If talks sour and pilots decide to strike, they’ll first need approval from a U.S. mediation board.
But the airlines have expressed confidence they can resolve their differences with pilots.
“We remain confident that an agreement for our pilots is within reach and can be finalized quickly,” American Airlines said in a statement Monday. “The finish line is in sight.”
Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.
Thousands of film and television writers who are members of the WGA are on strike for the first time since 2007, a move that could bring an immediate halt to the production of many television shows and possibly delay the start of new seasons of others later this year. What do you think?
“Typical self-centered behavior from Hollywood’s penniless elite.”
Shannon Hickel, Bassinet Weaver
Police Officers Explain Why They Are Resigning En Masse
“Jobs weren’t intended to be something you could live off of as an adult.”
Bart Watts, Unemployed
“Barely making enough money to survive is a small price to pay for being tenuously employed at your dream job.”
The first TV and film writers’ strike in 15 years kicked off Tuesday, and it’s expected to bring production in the nation’s entertainment center to a halt.
The impact of the strike could be far-reaching, depending on how long it takes for writers and studios to reach a deal. The last Hollywood strike, in 2007-2008, took three months to resolve.
With the 11,500 members of the Writers’ Guild of America working across film, TV, streaming and fiction podcasts, here’s how the labor stoppage is expected to affect shows.
What shows are affected?
The most immediate impact of the strike will be seen in late-night shows, which are written daily to pivot off current events.
“The Late Show” on CBS, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, “The Tonight Show” on NBC, “Late Night” on NBC and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” have stopped production and plan to run repeats for the foreseeable future.
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” has a slightly longer production timeline but is even more dependent on its writers, the Associated Press notes. The show will not air the last three episodes of its season, starting with the scheduled May 6 show guest-hosted by Pete Davidson.
Not all late-night shows will go dark. Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” with Greg Gutfeld will continue airing new episodes, Fox said Tuesday. Gutfeld and his writing team are not WGA members, Deadline reported.
It’s less certain how daytime talk shows would be affected, as they lean more into host chats and interviews. ABC’s “The View” was uninterrupted during the last strike in the 2007-2008 season.
How does the strike affect streaming shows and movies?
The impact on these services is uncertain. Scripted shows — not to mention movies — work on longer timelines than late-night TV, so many viewers may not notice the effects of a strike until long after it’s over.
“When it comes to scripted dramas or comedies, it would actually be quite a while before a normal viewer would see a difference,” Alex Weprin, media and business writer at the Hollywood Reporter, told CBS News. “There are a lot of episodes that have already been shot that are banked for later use; there are also some scripts that have already been written for some of these shows.”
The menus on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video will look no different next week, but they could change months down the line, the AP noted. If a strike lasts through the summer, fall schedules for scripted shows and films could be upended.
With the walkout long anticipated, many studios rushed to finish projects and create a backlog to have enough content for the short term. Netflix has said it could turn to overseas series to fill some of the void during a strike.
“We’ve got ourselves ready. We’ve had a lot of content that’s been produced,” David Zaslav, chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery, said last month.
Does the strike affect show production?
Production on finished screenplays can proceed as planned, but without the benefit of last-minute rewrites. As a result, films currently shooting could see a notable drop in quality.
However, that’s assuming that crews, whose union recently came very close to striking, are willing to cross WGA picket lines and work. If they aren’t willing to do that, the strike could have ripple effects in Hollywood.
Contracts for two other major unions, the Directors’ Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA — which represents actors, expire in June. Both negotiations are likely to focus on similar issues around the business model of streaming, the AP reports. The DGA is set to begin negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on May 10.
TV and movie writers went on strike Tuesday for the first time in 15 years after negotiations with film studios failed to reach a new contract.
History suggests the walkout could last weeks or even months, meaning a hiatus in production for everything from favorite late-night shows to hit streaming series. Here’s how we got here and what could happen next.
Who is involved?
Some 11,500 film and TV writers belonging to the Writers Guild of America are negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents eight major studios: Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount and Sony. (CBS News and Paramount+ are owned by Paramount Global.)
WGA members work in film, TV, animation and fiction podcasts, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Which shows are affected by the writers’ strike?
Late-night shows, which are written daily, are expected to stop production immediately. “The Late Show” on CBS, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, “The Tonight Show” on NBC, “Late Night” on NBC and Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” are expected to turn to reruns starting Tuesday.
Less clear is how daytime talk shows, which tend to rely more on chit-chat by hosts and celebrity interviews, could be affected. Production on ABC’s “The View” continued uninterrupted during the last strike in the 2007-08 season, for example.
Meanwhile, streaming networks aren’t likely to see an immediate impact given that they work on longer timelines than late-night shows.
Some TV show hosts have voiced support for the striking writers. On “The Late Show” Monday night, host Stephen Colbert expressed support for the union.
“Everybody, including myself, hopes both sides reach a deal,” he said. “But I also think that the writers’ demands are not unreasonable. I’m a member of the guild. I support collective bargaining. This nation owes so much to unions.”
Speaking on “Late Night” on Friday, host Seth Meyers, a WGA member, also expressed support for striking writers, while saying a strike “would really be a miserable thing for people to have to go through.”
Writers “are entitled to make a living,” he said. “I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.”
Why are writers striking?
At the core of the dispute is the explosion in streaming services and its effects, including the erosion of writers’ pay and job security, according to the WGA.
Even as budgets for series have grown, writers are making a smaller share of the money, the guild said. Streaming services use smaller writing staffs, which the industry calls “mini rooms,” and also tend to have shorter seasons than broadcast shows. That leaves some writers scrambling to put together several sources of income in a single season.
On average, showrunners for streaming series make less than half of what showrunners for broadcast series do, the WGA said. And because writers on streaming shows don’t get the back-end payments that have allowed broadcast and screenwriters to make a living, such as syndication and international licensing, the WGA is seeking to secure more pay on the front end for its members.
Since 2018, inflation-adjusted pay for screenwriters has fallen 14%, according to the guild. For writer-producers, pay has sunk 23%.
What are the writers asking for?
The Writers Guild wants total pay increases for members amounting to about $429 million per year, according to the WGA, while the AMPTP’s counter would run $86 million per year.
The number of writers working at guild minimum pay has risen from about a third to about half in the past decade. Meanwhile, writers for comedy-variety shows for streaming services have no minimum pay protections and tend to get paid less than their counterparts in broadcast.
The minimum pay for WGA members varies based on a writer’s title and the length of the individual’s employment contract, but the minimum for the lowest-paid writer is $4,546 per week, according to Variety.
The studios “have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession,” WGA leadership said Monday in a statement. That has created a “gig economy inside a union workforce,” it added.
Studios counter that they are thinking about the long-term health of the industry. The AMPTP said Monday that the primary sticking points to a deal revolved around the guild’s request for a minimum number of scribes per writer room. The group added that its offer “included generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals.”
A key industry dynamic behind the labor dispute: Hollywood is under increased pressure from Wall Street to turn a profit. After years of lavish spending to expand streaming services, many studios and production companies are slashing spending. For example, the Walt Disney Co. is cutting 7,000 jobs, Warner Bros. Discovery is slashing costs to lessen its debt and Netflix has pumped the brakes on spending growth.
“The current streaming services are largely not profitable. Only Netflix is turning a profit right now,” Alex Weprin, media and business writer at the Hollywood Reporter, told CBS News. “These large entertainment companies, they don’t really have a good sense of how profitable these services are going to be and how much they can afford to pay the writers.”
What does AI have to do with it?
Artificial intelligence is another point of contention in the labor talks, with guild writers asking for strict limits on AI use in scripts. They don’t want to rewrite material generated by AI, nor for AI to rewrite human-created scripts, and they want union-covered material to be excluded from training AI models.
The studios have so far rejected these demands, a position one writer described as “insulting.”
“We are fighting for nothing less than the survival of writing as a viable career,” writer and comic Adam Conover tweeted.
We proposed that AI not be used to undermine our work; they rejected our proposal, and offered an “annual meeting to discuss advances in technology.” Wow, a MEETING?!? Thank you ever so much!!
An insulting counter, just dripping with contempt.
Staff writers, the lowest-paid roles, typically work an average of 29 weeks on a network show for $131,834 annually, or an average of 20 weeks on a streaming show for $90,920. For a writer-producer, the figure is $6,967 per week, according to the trade magazine Variety. For a writer-producer, the figure is $6,967 per week.
Advocates for the studios and producers say that pay is far from the poor-house picture writers present publicly. AMPTP leaders say their priority is “the long-term health and stability of the industry” and that they are dedicated to reaching “a fair and reasonable agreement,” according to the Associated Press.
What are writers allowed to do during the strike?
According to the WGA’s strike rules, writers cannot do any writing or rewriting during the strike. They are barred from attending meetings or negotiating with the studios, pitching new projects, entering agreements to option their work or even attending promotional events for existing projects.
By contrast, they are allowed to accept payment for any writing that’s already been completed. Writer-producers, writer-actors and writer-directors are allowed to do the non-writing part of their job during the strike, but they’re banned from doing any writing no matter how minor, such as revising dialogue or tweaking stage directions.
When was the last writers’ strike?
The last time the film and TV writers put down their keyboards was in 2007-08 in a strike that lasted 100 days.
During that labor action many shows, such as “30 Rock,” “CSI,” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” shortened their seasons while studios pumped out more unscripted reality shows. “Big Brother” and “The Amazing Race” both increased their output. “The Apprentice,” hosted by Donald Trump, got new life when a celebrity version of the shelved show was created to help fill the scripted void.
Among the main concessions the writers won that time were requirements for fledgling streaming shows to hire unionized writers if their budgets were big enough. It was an early harbinger of nearly every entertainment labor fight in the years that followed.
How often have writers gone on strike?
Writers have gone on strike more than any group in Hollywood, according to the AP, with six strikes since 1960. The first strike, in 1960, lasted nearly five months; strikes followed in 1973, 1981 and 1985.
The longest work stoppage, lasting 153 days, came in 1988.
Thousands of writers are on strike as Writers Guild of America members demand better pay on streaming shows and better working conditions. The strike affects TV shows and movies across Hollywood. Elise Preston reports.
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Blockbuster news out of Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced late tonight that they will be on strike.
After negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed, the union said they would start picketing tomorrow at 1 pm PT.
The Board of Directors of the @WGAwest and the Council of the @WGAeast, acting upon the authority granted to them by their memberships, have voted unanimously to call a strike, effective 12:01 AM, Tuesday, May 2.
— Writers Guild of America West (@WGAWest) May 2, 2023
“Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal – and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains – the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said in a message to members.
The announcement came three hours before their new film and scripted TV contract officially expired. The last WGA strike was back in 2007-2008. It lasted 100 days. More than 11,000 TV and movie writers are expected to walk off the job.
What the WGA wants
The Writer’s Guild is asking for several changes in their new contract, including:
Increases in compensation for streaming and new media.
Ending the practice of mini-rooms, smaller writing rooms where a showrunner and a limited group of writers develop scripts for minimum compensation.
Increases in contributions to health and pension benefits
More control over the writers’ work
With the advent of streaming services, the writers say they need a contract that reflects the changing times.
“Writers at every level and in every genre, whether it’s features or TV, we’re all being devalued and financially taken advantage of by the studios,” Danny Tolli, a writer whose credits include “Roswell, New Mexico” and the Shondaland show “The Catch” told The New York Times. “These studios are making billions in profits, and they are spending billions on content — content that we create with our blood, sweat, and tears.”
AMPTP, which represents studios and streamers such as Amazon, Apple, CBS, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony, and Warner Bros Discovery, said in a statement that it offered a “comprehensive package proposal.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, the sticking points included the guild’s proposals around minimum writing staff sizes and a minimum number of employment time.
The strike has caused a mad scramble in Hollywood.
“All over town, agents and producers are moving with last minute haste to get deals sewn up before midnight so in some cases, some scribes can get one last paycheck, we hear,” wrote Deadline.
To date, it’s hard to know which shows and productions will be affected by a WGA strike, but the powerful Teamsters union has declared their members “do not cross picket lines.”
Running a production would be difficult without the teamsters union, which represents workers such as drivers, location professionals, dispatchers, and caterers.
The Writers Guild of America continues to negotiate with studios, but as the midnight deadline approaches, a strike appears to be in the cards. More than 11,000 writers are ready to picket if no deal is reached. Entertainment Tonight cohost Kevin Frazier has the latest.
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Paris — Massive protests across France against President Emmanuel Macron’s national pension reforms have delayed the first state visit by Britain’s new monarch, King Charles III. Charles had been set to visit Bordeaux on Tuesday next week as part of a four-day visit to France, but that city was one of many across France hit by massive unrest on Thursday, with the entrance to its city hall being set alight during a demonstration.
France’s presidency announced Friday that the visit had been postponed after French labor unions announced a new day of strike and protest action for the very day Charles had been scheduled to visit Bordeaux. The two countries decided to wait, promising a new visit would be organized soon. Macron later said it would likely take place in “early summer.”
Anti-riot police are seen during a demonstration against pension reforms in Bordeaux, France, March 23, 2022.
Fabien Pallueau/NurPhoto/Getty
The British prime minister’s office said the decision to postpone Charles’s visit “was taken with the consent of all parties” involved after Macron’s administration requested the delay.
“Given yesterday’s announcement of a new national day of action against pension reform on Tuesday March 28 in France, the visit of King Charles III, initially scheduled for March 26 to 29 in our country, will be postponed,” the Élysée Palace, France’s presidential office, said in a statement.
The significant rescheduling of the king’s state visit came after more than a million demonstrators took to the streets in France Thursday to protest against government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. It was the ninth day of national action, and it was again marred by outbreaks of violence and vandalism.
Riot police scuffle with protesters during a rally in Paris, France, March 23, 2023.
Christophe Ena/AP
There were protests in more than 200 towns and cities across France. As well as Bordeaux’s City Hall, other symbols of power were targeted, including police stations and courthouses.
There were more people on the streets and more violence on the sidelines of the marches as people vented their anger at Macron, whose televised interview two days ago served only to make them more convinced that the president is out of touch with strong public sentiments against his reforms.
In Paris and other places, riot police used tear gas to clear groups of troublemakers who threw firecrackers and ripped up paving stones to hurl at officers.
Macron has made it clear that his reforms will go ahead and will begin to roll out next September as planned. Despite the unrest that has continued since January, there’s been no indication that the government or the labor unions driving the strikes and protests are about to back down from their positions.
Anger at Macron’s reforms has in fact been building, not abating. Many workers feel it’s unfair that they will be forced to alter their plans for the future. Women, in particular, have been angered because they were promised the reforms would improve the situation for those who take time off work to look after children, but along with the age raise, the reforms mean people will now have to work 44 years to get a full pension — which means many women will still be worse off than men.
The bill is now with the Constitutional Council, which has to vet it and either approve it or send it back to parliament to be amended. That process will take a month.
John Dickerson reports on the school strike in Los Angeles impacting more than 400,000 students, the spread of a dangerous fungus called Candida auris, and a preview of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision.
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John Dickerson reports on the school strike in Los Angeles impacting more than 400,000 students, the spread of a dangerous fungus called Candida auris, and a preview of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision.
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Support staff for Los Angeles public schools has gone on strike, demanding higher wages and more hours for part-time staff. The teachers union is also picketing in solidarity, closing schools for some 400,000 students. Carter Evans reports.
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Tens of thousands of workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District walked off the job Tuesday over stalled contract talks, and they are being joined in solidarity by teachers in a three-day strike that has shut down the nation’s second-largest school system.
Demonstrations began at a bus yard and are expected at schools across the city by members of Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff.
The workers joined picket lines in a steady rain before dawn, demanding better wages and increased staffing. Some held signs that read “We keep schools safe, Respect Us!” The district has more than 500,000 students from Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas.
Sylvia Garcia speaks at a Los Angeles Unified School District rally on March 15.
Francine Orr via Getty Images
“The working conditions have gone down every year,” Danielle Murray, a special education assistant who was picketing, told KABC-TV. “We’re very understaffed. The custodial staff is a ghost crew, so the schools are dirty. They’re doing the best they can.”
She added, “Some people are saying, ‘If you want more money, get a better job.’ Well, some of us have bachelor’s degrees, but we choose to work with a special population that some people don’t want to work with. We want to make a difference to these students.”
Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho accused the union of refusing to negotiate and said that he was prepared to meet at any time day or night. He said Monday a “golden opportunity” to make progress was lost.
“I believe this strike could have been avoided. But it cannot be avoided without individuals actually speaking to one another,” he said.
Local 99 said Monday evening that it was in discussions with state labor regulators over allegations that the district engaged in misconduct that has impeded the rights of workers to engage in legally protected union-related activities.
“We want to be clear that we are not in negotiations with LAUSD,” the union said in a statement. “We continue to be engaged in the impasse process with the state.”
Those talks would not avoid a walkout, the statement said.
During the strike, about 150 of the district’s more than 1,000 schools are expected to remain open with adult supervision but no instruction, to give students somewhere to go. Dozens of libraries and parks, plus some “grab and go” spots for students to get lunches also planned to be open to kids to lessen the strain on parents now scrambling to find care.
Tens of thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District employees went on strike early Tuesday morning after attempts to make a deal between the district and the union for school support staff failed.
The district employees — including teacher’s aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers — stood together at a protest Tuesday morning. The Associated Press reported that workers joined picket lines before dawn, demanding better wages and increased staffing.
The strike is expected to last through Thursday. The Los Angeles Unified School District serves over 500,000 students from Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas. In addition to the 30,000 support staff members, the local teachers’ union, United Teachers Los Angeles, said it will honor the strike as well, meaning its members will also walk out.
Negotiations between LAUSD, the largest school district in the country, and Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents LAUSD support staff like custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers, broke down last week. The union on Monday then accused the district of leaking a confidential mediation meeting that was scheduled for Monday to the press.
A crowd gathered in Grand Park infant of City Hall on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, in Los Angeles, CA. United Teachers of Los Angeles and SEIU 99 members hold a joint rally at Grand Park in a historic show of solidarity. It has been almost ten months since the contract between LAUSD and UTLA has expired, and a staggering three years for SEIU members, leaving almost 60,000 employees vulnerable in the midst of a record-high inflation and a housing crisis.
Francine Orr
“We do not believe at this point that tomorrow’s event is avoidable,” Carvalho said at a press conference Monday evening. “With that said, I will be here for however long it takes waiting on a call from a willing partner to have a meaningful conversation.”
“This afternoon, SEIU Local 99 had agreed to enter a confidential mediation process with LAUSD to try and address our differences,” the union said Monday in a statement. “Unfortunately, LAUSD broke that confidentiality by sharing it with the media before our bargaining team, which makes all decisions, had a chance to discuss how to proceed. This is yet another example of the school district’s continued disrespect of school workers. We are ready to strike.”
“We want to be clear that we are not in negotiations with LAUSD,” SEIU Local 99 added. “We continue to be engaged in the impasse process with the state.”
Carvalho said he would remain available for negotiations throughout the rest of the night and Tuesday.
Two dozen grab-and-go food sites will be open and several Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation sites and Los Angeles public libraries will be open to provide supervision for students, Carvalho said. The Associated Press also reported that about 150 of the district’s more than 1,000 schools plan to remain open with adult supervision but no instruction to give students somewhere to go during the day.
“Schools are so much more than centers of education — they are a safety net for hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles families,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Monday. “We will make sure to do all we can to provide resources needed by the families of our city.”
Carvalho said Monday that the strike was not called “on the basis of economic conditions or compensation demands,” but said it was instead called because of “allegations of unfair treatment.” However, workers who spoke with CBS Los Angeles mentioned a living wage as a major demand, with one saying the demands include a 30% pay increase along with increased staffing and more hours for part-time workers.
“It is not a question of being greedy,” LAUSD employee Adrian Alverez told CBS Los Angeles. “We need to make a living wage.”
“We live in this weird paradox as workers that help feed children and yet we struggle to feed our own children,” Alverez added. “It’s a paradox. We help students go to college, yet we don’t have enough money to send our kids to college.”
Carvalho said Monday that the district has offered a 23% pay increase along with a 3% “cash in hand bonus.”
Tens of thousands of workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are set to strike for three days next week over stalled contract talks, and teachers will join them, likely shutting down the nation’s second-largest school system, union leaders announced Wednesday.
Unless a deal is reached, the strike was set to begin Tuesday, March 21. It was announced at a rally by the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff.
United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 teachers, counselors and other staff, expressed solidarity.
A rally held in Grand Park on March 15, 2023, in Los Angeles, California by United Teachers of Los Angeles and SEIU 99 members.
Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
“Educators will be joining our union siblings on the picket lines,” a UTLA tweet said.
Teachers waged a six-day strike in 2019 over pay and contract issues but schools remained open.
This time, schools would likely close and there wouldn’t be any access to virtual learning, Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said in an email to parents on Monday.
“We would simply have no way of ensuring a safe and secure environment where teaching can take place,” Carvalho said.
Carvalho also accused the union of refusing to negotiate.
“Let’s go to the table,” Carvalho said in a news conference Wednesday. “Let’s stay at the table. Whatever time, whatever place, until such time as a solution is reached.”
The district has more than 500,000 students. It serves Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas.
SEIU members have been working without a contract since June 2020 and the contract for teachers expired in June 2022. The unions decided last week to stop accepting extensions to their contracts.
The SEIU says district support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 per year and many live in poverty while struggling with inflation and the high cost of housing in LA County.
SEUI is seeking a 30% wage raise for its workers across the board, according to CBS Los Angeles, while LAUSD says it has offered a 10% raise up front, along with another 9% that would be provided over time.
“Despite LAUSD having one of the largest school budgets and largest reserves in the nation, teachers and essential school workers are struggling to support their own families and live in the communities they work for,” UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said in a statement Wednesday. “To add insult to injury, the district has chosen to violate their legal rights as workers, resulting in an unfair labor practice strike.”
For Sean Miller, a warehouse worker at a food distribution company, being called essential during the pandemic “was one of the most terrifying times of my life.”
“Everybody was scared, whether it was workers or employers,” recalled Miller, who works near Syracuse, New York, for Sysco — a major food distributor for restaurants, schools and nursing homes.
But two years later, when it came time to negotiate a new contract, Miller said the company had forgotten about its “essential” workforce and wasn’t willing to increase pay or curb what the workers called excessive overtime.
“You talk about being essential, a hero, and ‘you guys are the best,’ and when it comes time to shine — nothing,” he said.
So Miller and 230 of his coworkers, members of Teamsters Local 230, went on strike, declaring nearly three weeks later that the company had met their major demands.
Miller is one of thousands of workers who went on strike last year — many for the first time. Newly released figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that large work stoppages increased nearly 50% between 2021 and 2022, continuing a trend of renewed labor activism in the wake of the pandemic.
“It does take courage for any worker to go on strike, so the fact that we’re seeing an increase, compared to what we saw during the pandemic, is a win,” said Margaret Poydock, a policy analyst at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
“Throughout 2022, strikes provided workers critical leverage to bargain over fair pay, safe working conditions, and a fair share of the economy,” the EPI said in a blog post.
More than half of the strikes last year involved health care workers or educators. And while pay was a major reason for strikes, with last year seeing the hottest inflation in 40 years, it wasn’t the only one. Workers also struck for safer working conditions, lower patient-to-nurse ratios and smaller class sizes, Poydock noted.
The Labor Department’s report is far from a complete picture. The report only counts work actions involving over 1,000 people, leaving out most of last year’s strikes. A report released this week from the Cornell Institute of Labor Relations paints a fuller picture, showing nearly a quarter of a million workers went on strike last year, an increase from the year before.
Cornell counted 279 strikes last year, up 50% from the year before — a trend in line with the government’s findings. Nearly half of those were in small workplaces, with fewer than 50 employees. That includes more than 100 strikes and walkouts at Starbucks stores across the country.
The uptick in strikes wave coincides with a surge of public approval for labor unions, which are the most popular they’ve been since 1965, according to Gallup. Still, despite the increase in worker activism last year — including a historic six-week strike among 48,000 University of California workers — strike activity is far below historic levels.
Could be short-lived
“In the ’70s and ’60s we saw a million workers striking each year, so the level today is nowhere near pre-pandemic levels,” Poydock said.
The surge in worker militancy could be short-lived. The Supreme Court appears poised to curtail workers’ right to strike further when in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters. The court will issue a decision in the case, in which a company is suing concrete workers over a strike that made some concrete unusable, sometime before June.
Many observers believe the conservative-dominated court will rule in favor of the employer, opening the door for businesses to sue workers over any strike that causes economic damage to the company.
Strike, the leading digital payment platform built on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, has announced the expansion of its “Send Globally” product to the Philippines. This will allow for fast, secure and low-cost money transfers between the U.S. and the Philippines, which is one of the world’s largest remittance markets. The Philippines relies on more than $35 billion annually in money sent from abroad, with over $12 billion coming from the U.S. alone.
Strike has partnered with Pouch.ph to enable transfers from U.S. dollars to Philippine pesos, which can be received in a bank or mobile money account in the Philippines.
Strike uses the Lightning Network to make digital payments faster, cheaper, and more accessible, particularly in countries with a high number of unbanked individuals. With Send Globally, dollars are converted into bitcoin, sent via the Lightning Network to a third-party partner in the recipient’s country, then converted into local currency and sent directly to the recipient’s bank or mobile money account. This eliminates the need for both the sender and recipient to worry about bitcoin’s tax treatment, dollar volatility or custody implications.
“Remittances are a broken system and Strike delivers an incredibly empowering experience for people to send money around the world in nearly an instant,” Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of Strike commented. “We’re excited to partner with Pouch.ph to advance financial inclusion and bring fast, low-cost cross-border payments via the Lightning Network to the Philippines. Our technology allows us to both improve on the existing cross-border experience and include those that have previously been excluded by legacy payment rails.”
Bitcoin Magazine was fortunate enough to interview Mallers on the development, which can be viewed below:
Send Globally was launched in December 2022 starting with transfers from the U.S. to Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana. CoinCorner has also partnered with Pouch.ph to enable remittances for European customers.
With the integration of Pouch.ph and Strike, the cross-border payment experience has been revolutionized and has further empowered people to easily send money to their loved ones back home. Lightning will continue to expand into more markets with more partners to provide better payment services to communities around the world.
Strike CEO Jack Mallers has taken to Twitter to announce that Strike is now an integrated partner with payments giant Fiserv, parent company of Clover. Subsequently, Strike has launched a pilot integration with Clover allowing merchants to accept bitcoin over the Lightning Network.
According to his announcement, the integration is not limited to Strike. Instead, merchants will be able to accept Lightning payments from any source — “From Cash App to a node over Tor. If it can make a Lightning payment, you can use it,” Mallers stated on Twitter.
Mallers clarified that this rollout is part of a 90-day trial period, which will involve measuring the speed and cost of facilitating transactions using the new integration. In addition to that, the amount of business that integrating Lightning brings to merchants will be closely monitored.
After the pilot, Strike aims to enter the Clover app store, and afterwards, direct integration into Clover. This would enable Lightning by default for all Clover merchants, putting it right next to card networks like Visa and MasterCard.
“Ultimately, these payment giants want to see Lightning in action,” Mallers said on Twitter. “They want to feel it, touch it, and see people use it. An open, instant, cheap, inclusive, and innovative payment network seems too good to be true. Time to show Lightning is the world’s superior payments rail.”
The trial period is now active and Clover merchants can reach out to Strike in order to enable cheaper, faster payments using the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Over 200,000 Americans went on strike in 2022, making it the hottest year for work stoppages since 2005. But a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this week could make striking, a right enshrined in labor law for nearly a century, much riskier for workers.
The case, Glacier Northwest v. Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters, centers on construction workers in Washington who went on strike for a week five years ago, which among other things led to the physical destruction of some of the company’s concrete as well as the loss of $100,000 fee from a client. After the strike, the company, CalPortland, sued the union for those losses. A lower court dismissed the case, saying the strike was a matter of federal labor law for the National Labor Relations Board, but the company appealed all the way to the Supreme Court.
Yet a decision from the high court could go beyond looking at whether the CalPortland workers who joined the strike and who were represented by the Teamsters, are liable for the company’s financial losses. If the court rules in favor of Glacier, the ruling would give the green light for employers to sue their employees for striking, potentially chilling workers’ willingness to challenge management on pay, safety and many other issues.
“It’s like allowing employers to put a tax on the right to strike,” Sharon Block, executive director of the Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, told CBS MoneyWatch.
“Right now, the general rule is that an employer cannot sue for damages for the result of a strike, except in limited circumstances,” said Dan Altchek, a management-side labor lawyer at Saul Ewing.
Those limited circumstances include deliberate property destruction and violence. For instance, taking over a company facility and vandalizing it is against the law, as the Supreme Court ruled in 1939 after a group of Chicago metalworkers staged a sit-down at their employer’s factory.
The strike at Glacier Northwest seems like hundreds of others. On Aug. 11, 2017, construction workers frustrated with the pace of their contract negotiations walked off the job. As they stopped work, they returned trucks loaded with concrete to the company’s headquarters. Because concrete hardens as soon as it stops moving, the workers left the trucks’ drums turning. Non-union workers at the company scrambled to empty the drums and save the trucks, which escaped damage. The strike ended a week later.
CalPortland alleges that, far from a standard strike, the workers’ action was “deliberately timed to destroy [the] employer’s property” and that the company should claim damages from the union representing the workers, just as it would be able to in a case of vandalism.
“The intentional destruction of an employer’s property in the course of a labor dispute is not protected,” former U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the justices on Tuesday as he argued for CalPortland. “Federal security guards can’t leave their posts in the middle of a terrorist threat … A ferryboat crew can’t drive their boat out into the middle of the river and abandon ship.” The concrete workers should not have been permitted to walk out, either, Francisco claimed.
The problem with this argument is that the term “property damage” could encompass any damage that occurs during a strike. As Harvard’s Block explained, that means Starbucks baristas who stage a walkout could suddenly face the prospect of being sued over milk that goes bad or coffee that goes stale during the stoppage. And supermarkets could sue striking deli workers for cold cuts that expire before the sell-by date.
“You’re saying, ‘You as an employee have to continue an employment duty with me until all of my profits are safe.’ That’s what I see you arguing,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in questioning Francisco.
Staging a strike is a challenging proposition, even without the threat of such lawsuits.
“Already, when you go out on strike, you’re saying, I’m willing to risk not getting paid, to give up my paycheck, to try to get a better deal. But to say, I’ll give up my paycheck and I’m willing to risk a massive payout to these corporations? You could imagine a lot of workers not wanting to take on that risk,” Block told CBS MoneyWatch.
A ruling by the Supreme Court against the union — which is widely expected given the court’s ultra-conservative makeup — will affect all employees, not just those who work in manufacturing or those represented by unions, said Block and other labor experts.
Many workers who don’t belong to a formal union engage in activism on the job: One-third of the work stoppages in 2021 were led by non-union employees, according to research from Cornell University. And, if companies can turn to state courts in cases of “destruction of property,” that means states will not only be interpreting federal labor law, but defining what counts as “property,” Block said.
Property “doesn’t just mean your physical structure — it’s defined by state law,” she explained.
The lawyer for the Teamsters made a similar observation in his argument Tuesday. “Property could be anything,” he told the Supreme Court. “Property could be goodwill. Property could be money. Property could be intangibles.”
