Tag: Strikes

A UPS strike could be just around the corner. Here’s what you need to know

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NEW YORK — The clock is ticking. As the deadline to reach a new contract nears, a potential UPS strike feels closer than ever.

Negotiations broke down earlier this month and unionized workers have been holding rallies and practice pickets across the country. The Teamsters, which represent more than half of the company’s workforce, will resume talks with UPS on Tuesday.

That leaves less than a week to come to an agreement before the current contract expires at the end of the day on Monday, July 31. The union has authorized a strike and Sean M. O’Brien, a fiery leader elected last year to lead the union, has vowed to do so if their demands aren’t met.

“We’re sending a message… all 340,000 of our members are united and ready to fight,” O’Brien told The Associated Press at a practice picket Friday in Atlanta, where UPS is based.

UPS’s unionized workers still seethe about a contract they feel was forced on them in 2018, and say that the company delivers millions more packages every day than it did just five years ago. The Teamsters are calling for better pay, particularly for part-time employees, and improved working conditions.

UPS has maintained that it already offers “industry-leading pay and benefits,” but says it’s prepared to increase that compensation. In a Friday update, the company said it aimed “quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country.”

If negotiations are unsuccessful the deliveries that Americans have come to rely on, particularly since the pandemic began in 2020, could be vastly disrupted. Such an impasse hasn’t been seen since 1997, well before delivery of everyday items from dog food to prescription drugs became the norm, when a walkout by 185,000 workers crippled UPS. Here’s what you need to know.

WHAT ARE THE TEAMSTERS ASKING FOR?

Much on the union’s demands comes down to better pay and improved working conditions.

Annual profits at UPS in the past two years are close to three times what they were before the pandemic. The company returned about $8.6 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks in 2022, and forecast another $8.4 billion for shareholders this year.

The Teamsters say frontline UPS workers deserve some of that windfall. A sticking point in negotiations has been wage increases for part-time workers, who make a minimum of $16.20 an hour.

“People want their packages yesterday with the emergence of the e-commerce. So it’s a very demanding job,” O’Brien said, pushing back on the salary statistics that UPS shares. “Everybody doesn’t realize what it takes to get these packages on the truck. And a lot of our part timers… work for poverty wages.”

In addition to addressing part-time pay, the union wants to eliminate a contract provision that created two separate hierarchies of workers with different pay scales, hours and benefits. Driver safety, particularly the lack of air conditioning in delivery trucks, is also in the mix.

HAS UPS AGREED TO ANY DEMANDS?

Before contract talks broke down on July 5, with both sides blaming each other for walking away from the bargaining table, tentative agreements were made on several issues — including installing air conditioning in more trucks. UPS said it would add air conditioning to U.S. small delivery vehicles purchased after January 1, 2024. Existing vehicles wouldn’t get that upgrade, but the union said they will have other additions like fans and air vents.

The union also said it has reached tentative agreements to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full holiday for the first time, end unwanted overtime on drivers’ days off and get rid of the two-tier wage system for drivers who work weekends and earn less money.

COULD A STRIKE BE AVOIDED? CAN THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENE?

The strike can be avoided if UPS and the Teamsters agree to a new contract before the July 31 deadline. There’s also a possibility of government intervention.

O’Brien said Sunday that he has asked the White House on numerous occasions not to intervene if workers end up going on strike. Last year, President Joe Biden intervened to avert a railroad strike to avoid disrupting the nation’s supply chain, and workers had accept an agreement that wasn’t broadly supported by union members.

WHAT IMPACT WOULD A STRIKE HAVE?

The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. As UPS puts it, that’s the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.

Higher prices and long wait times are all but certain if there is an impasse. A strike also threatens to extend lingering supply chain troubles.

“Something’s got to give,” Thomas Goldsby, logistics chairman in the Supply Chain Management Department at the University of Tennessee, told The Associated Press. “The python can’t swallow the alligator, and that’s going to be felt by all of us.”

UPS said this month that it will temporarily begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike.

Beyond shipping and supply implications, a union win at UPS could have significance for organized labor across industries. UPS’s contract talks arrive amid other prominent labor campaigns at Apple, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and other companies — as well as the current writers and actors’ strikes seen in Hollywood.

WILL IT COST MORE TO HAVE THINGS SHIPPED?

If a strike does occur, experts say it’s likely that shippers will raise prices to keep up with the influx of demand that’ll be coming their way. Businesses may pass some of those costs to consumers who want items delivered to their doors.

“The e-commerce part of the pain will be felt immediately,” said Medini Singh, a senior lecturer at Columbia Business School, adding that customers who order online might face more shipping fees and get less free shipping offers from companies.

It’s also likely that carriers such as FedEx will prioritize shipping higher value items that make them more money, like healthcare equipment and luxury products, Singh said.

“Availability of all items doesn’t get affected in the same way, things with higher margins can afford the increased shipping costs,” he said.

_______

Videojournalist Sharon Johnson contributed from Atlanta

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July 25, 2023
AI is the wild card in Hollywood’s strikes. Here’s an explanation of its unsettling role

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LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Artificial intelligence has surged to the forefront of Hollywood’s labor fights. Standing alongside more traditional disputes over pay models, benefits and job protections, AI technology is the wild card in the contract breakdowns that have led actors and writers unions to go on strike.

The technology has pushed negotiations into unknown territory, and the language used can sound utopian or dystopian depending on the side of the table. Here’s a look at what the unions and their employers each say they want.

WHY IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUCH A HOT-BUTTON ISSUE?

As the technology to create without creators emerges, star actors fear they will lose control of their lucrative likenesses. Unknown actors fear they’ll be replaced altogether. Writers fear they’ll have to share credit or lose credit to machines.

The proposed contracts that led to both strikes last only three years. Even at the seeming breakneck pace at which AI is moving, it’s very unlikely there would be any widespread displacement of writers or actors in that time. But unions and employers know that ground given on an issue in one contract can be hard to reclaim in the next.

Emerging versions of the tech have already filtered into nearly every part of filmmaking, used to de-age actors like Harrison Ford in the latest “Indiana Jones” film or Mark Hamill in “The Mandalorian,” to generate the abstracted animated images of Samuel L. Jackson and a swirl of several aliens in the intro to “Secret Invasion” on Disney+, and to give recommendations on Netflix.

All sides in the strikes acknowledge that use of the technology even more broadly is inevitable. That’s why all are looking now to establish legal and creative control.

Actor and writer Johnathan McClain said the battle echoes fights over automation across other industries, but foretells many more to come as tech becomes better.

“It’s easy to marginalize what we do because it’s entertainment” McClain said on the picket lines outside Warner Bros. Studios. “And I get it. But I feel on some level we are, as far as this tech conversation is concerned, a little bit of a canary in a coal mine. This is an important moment and we’ve got to really make a decisive stand.”

THE ACTORS’ TAKE

AI discussions between the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers, went from a theoretical framework to a bitter battle that spilled into the public when the strike broke out July 13.

In a description widely shared by outraged actors on social media, SAG-AFTRA released this characterization of the studios’ AI position, which the AMPTP called a deliberate distortion:

“We want to be able to scan a background performer’s image, pay them for a half a day’s labor, and then use an individual’s likeness for any purpose forever without their consent,” the union said. “We also want to be able to make changes to principal performers’ dialogue, and even create new scenes, without informed consent. And we want to be able to use someone’s images, likenesses, and performances to train new generative AI systems without consent or compensation.”

The AMPTP said in a statement in response that its offers included an “AI proposal which protects performers’ digital likenesses, including a requirement for performers’ consent for the creation and use of digital replicas or for digital alterations of a performance.”

SAG-AFTRA used similar language in describing what they wanted, emphasizing the need to protect “human-created work” including alterations to the “voice, likeness or performance” of an actor.

It may be fitting that “voice” comes first on that list. While many viewers still cringe at the visual avatars of actors like Hamill and Jackson, the aural tech feels further along.

The voices of the late Anthony Bourdain and the late Andy Warhol have both been recreated for recent documentaries.

Union members who make a living doing voiceovers have taken note.

WRITERS WANT THEIR LINE OF CREDIT

In screenwriters’ contract talks, which broke down in early May, the Writers Guild of America said it would allow for the use of AI — but only insofar as it was a tool for them to use in their own work.

They would be willing, potentially, to shape stories with help from AI software. But they do not want it to affect the credits that are essential to their prestige and pay.

The guild wants to prevent raw, AI-generated storylines or dialogue from being regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they wouldn’t be competing with computers for credit — or for an original screenplay Oscar.

The writers also don’t want those storylines or dialogue to be considered “source material” — their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may develop into scripts.

The AMPTP said in a document outlining its position that writers “want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can’t be copyrighted.”

The studios also emphasized that previous writers’ contracts established that any “corporate or impersonal purveyor” of literary is not a screenwriter.

“Only a ‘person’ can be considered a writer,” the AMPTP said. “AI-generated material would not be eligible for writing credit.”

While this position could assuage writers’ worries about sharing credit with AI, it could also lead to no one getting credit when they “collaborate” with AI.

Modern screenwriting contracts, and who gets what credit, are already a bramble that the guild often has to step in and sort out. Detailed legal language is pulled out to determine whose name is preceded by “written by,” whose name comes before “story by” or whose name follows “from characters created by.”

Putting artificial intelligence into the mix threatens to turn each of those terms into an even stickier thicket.

___

Associated Press journalist Krysta Fauria contributed from Burbank, California.

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July 21, 2023
Comedians energize the picket lines as Hollywood actors and writers strikes enter second week

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LOS ANGELES — The combined strike by Hollywood actors and screenwriters entered its second week with no swift end in sight, and union leaders and star strikers, including a bevy of comedians attempted to boost morale Friday as the novelty of picket lines wears off.

“The momentum is still building,” said stand-up comic, writer and actor Marc Maron outside Netflix headquarters. “I got some of my comedy buddies — we’re like, let’s go, let’s make sure we’re there and we show up for our union. There’s a lot of people here and look, eventually they have to, they have to negotiate, right?”

Maron starred on the series “GLOW” for Netflix, whose headquarters in an increasingly hip section of Hollywood has been a bustling hub during the strike, with music blasting and food trucks serving ice cream, shaved ice and churros.

His fellow comedians and comic actors abounded on the picket line, including “Saturday Night Live” and “Portlandia” alum Fred Armisen, “Hacks” star Hannah Einbinder, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” actor Chelsea Peretti, “What We Do in the Shadows” vampire Mark Proksch, and longtime comedy team Eric Wareheim and Tim Heidecker, who said they were not optimistic about a quick end to the strike.

“I think it’s going to be a long struggle, a long fight,” Heidecker said. “We’re going to have to be out here until we get what we need to get.”

But they were confident about finding sustenance to get them through it.

“There’s an Arby’s here and Eric hasn’t eaten Arby’s in a year,” Heidecker said.

“It’s been 364 days since I had a big roast beef and we’re doing it today,” Wareheim said.

It has been harder for picketers to keep the energy up at more sprawling corporate campuses like Warner Bros. Studios and Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where a Southern California heat wave hit hard all week.

But as the strike has begun to stretch on, the regular appearance of star writers and actors has given a jolt to picket lines in both LA and New York, and provided high-profile voices on issues that are key to both writers and actors — better pay and preserving established practices like residual payments, as well as protection from the use of artificial intelligence. Roughly 65,000 actors — the vast majority of whom make less than $27,000 a year from their screen work — along with 11,500 screenwriters, are on strike.

On Friday, actors in London rallied in solidarity with their Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists brethren. Stars including Brian Cox, Andy Serkis, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg and Imelda Staunton gathered with other performers and production crew in Leicester Square for the demonstration organized by British actors’ union Equity.

They chanted “One struggle, one fight, we support SAG-AFTRA fight” and “The luvvies, united, will never be defeated,” using a British slang term for actors.

Cox, who played media mogul Logan Roy in “Succession,” said, “I think we are at the thin end of a horrible wedge,” with artificial intelligence shaking the foundations of actors’ work.

“The wages are one thing, but the worst aspect is the whole idea of AI and what AI can do to us,” he said. “AI is the really, really serious thing. And it’s the thing where we’re most vulnerable.”

The British actors’ union is not on strike, though many members are also part of the U.S. union.

Cox said it was important actors showed solidarity with striking screenwriters in the Writers Guild of America.

“We’re just like pieces of furniture without writers,” he said.

Serkis, who has become a specialist in playing digitally created characters since he first played Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” saga two decades ago, said “I’m probably one of the most scanned actors on the planet.”

“I know that my image can be used, or my library of movements, can be used or my voice,” he said, adding that it “is wrong that that is easily accessed and used without remunerating the artist.”

In the U.S., Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago were among the the major cities with strike events Wednesday and Thursday, demonstrating that film production doesn’t just happen in New York and Los Angeles.

There’s no indication when negotiations with studios and streaming companies, which are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, will resume. The group has said they’ve offered both writers and actors substantial pay increases and have tried to meet other demands.

“Please come back to the table, please be realistic, please have a little bit more socialism in your heart and think of the people who make the money for you,” “Mission Impossible” star Pegg urged studios and streaming services.

Many on the picket lines in the U.S. have seized upon comments by their corporate bosses like Disney CEO Bob Iger, who last week called the unions’ demands “not realistic.”

During an earnings event Wednesday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said grew up in a union household and knew the strike was painful on workers and their families.

“We’re super committed to getting to an agreement as soon as possible. One that’s equitable and one that enables the unions, the industry and everybody in it to move forward into the future,” he said.

___

Lawless reported from London. Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

___

For more on the writers and actors strike, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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July 21, 2023
A UPS strike could be just around the corner. Here’s what you need to know

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NEW YORK — The clock is ticking. As the deadline to reach a new contract nears, a potential UPS strike feels closer than ever.

Negotiations broke down earlier this month and unionized workers have been holding rallies and practice pickets across the country. The Teamsters, which represent more than half of the company’s workforce, will resume talks with UPS on Tuesday.

That leaves less than a week to come to an agreement before the current contract expires on Monday, July 31. The union has authorized a strike and Sean M. O’Brien, a fiery leader elected last year to lead the union, has vowed to do so if their demands aren’t met.

“We’re sending a message… all 340,000 of our members are united and ready to fight,” O’Brien told The Associated Press at a practice picket Friday in Atlanta, where UPS is based.

UPS’s unionized workers still seethe about a contract they feel was forced on them in 2018, and say that the company delivers millions more packages every day than it did just five years ago. The Teamsters are calling for better pay, particularly for part-time employees, and improved working conditions.

UPS has maintained that it already offers “industry-leading pay and benefits,” but says it’s prepared to increase that compensation. In a Friday update, the company said it aimed “quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees and businesses across the country.”

If negotiations are unsuccessful the deliveries that Americans have come to rely on, particularly since the pandemic began in 2020, could be vastly disrupted. Such an impasse hasn’t been seen since 1997, well before delivery of everyday items from dog food to prescription drugs became the norm, when a walkout by 185,000 workers crippled UPS. Here’s what you need to know.

WHAT ARE THE TEAMSTERS ASKING FOR?

Much on the union’s demands comes down to better pay and improved working conditions.

Annual profits at UPS in the past two years are close to three times what they were before the pandemic. The company returned about $8.6 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks in 2022, and forecast another $8.4 billion for shareholders this year.

The Teamsters say frontline UPS workers deserve some of that windfall. A sticking point in negotiations has been wage increases for part-time workers, who make a minimum of $16.20 an hour.

“People want their packages yesterday with the emergence of the e-commerce. So it’s a very demanding job,” O’Brien said, pushing back on the salary statistics that UPS shares. “Everybody doesn’t realize what it takes to get these packages on the truck. And a lot of our part timers… work for poverty wages.”

In addition to addressing part-time pay, the union wants to eliminate a contract provision that created two separate hierarchies of workers with different pay scales, hours and benefits. Driver safety, particularly the lack of air conditioning in delivery trucks, is also in the mix.

HAS UPS AGREED TO ANY DEMANDS?

Before contract talks broke down on July 5, with both sides blaming each other for walking away from the bargaining table, tentative agreements were made on several issues — including installing air conditioning in more trucks. UPS said it would add air conditioning to U.S. small delivery vehicles purchased after January 1, 2024. Existing vehicles wouldn’t get that upgrade, but the union said they will have other additions like fans and air vents.

The union also said it has reached tentative agreements to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a full holiday for the first time, end unwanted overtime on drivers’ days off and get rid of the two-tier wage system for drivers who work weekends and earn less money.

COULD A STRIKE BE AVOIDED? CAN THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENE?

The strike can be avoided if UPS and the Teamsters agree to a new contract before the July 31 deadline. There’s also a possibility of government intervention.

O’Brien said Sunday that he has asked the White House on numerous occasions not to intervene if workers end up going on strike. Last year, President Joe Biden intervened to avert a railroad strike to avoid disrupting the nation’s supply chain, and workers had accept an agreement that wasn’t broadly supported by union members.

WHAT IMPACT WOULD A STRIKE HAVE?

The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. As UPS puts it, that’s the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.

Higher prices and long wait times are all but certain if there is an impasse. A strike also threatens to extend lingering supply chain troubles.

“Something’s got to give,” Thomas Goldsby, logistics chairman in the Supply Chain Management Department at the University of Tennessee, told The Associated Press. “The python can’t swallow the alligator, and that’s going to be felt by all of us.”

UPS said this month that it will temporarily begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike.

Beyond shipping and supply implications, a union win at UPS could have significance for organized labor across industries. UPS’s contract talks arrive amid other prominent labor campaigns at Apple, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and other companies — as well as the current writers and actors’ strikes seen in Hollywood.

_______

Videojournalist Sharon Johnson contributed from Atlanta

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July 21, 2023
Actors and writers on strike rally in Philadelphia and Chicago as union action spreads

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Striking screenwriters and actors held rallies in Philadelphia and Chicago on Thursday as the labor dispute that has halted Hollywood spreads to more cities.

While Los Angeles and New York are the epicenters of strike actions, there are dozens of mid-sized and small locals across the country representing performers and writers.

“We have the same issues,” said Nikki Izanec, president of the Philadelphia SAG-AFTRA local, on her way to Thursday’s rally. “Lots of people pay attention to L.A. and New York, but our issues are the same as theirs.”

The Philadelphia rally at Love Park drew actors Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lisa Ann Walter, stars of the hit Philly-set TV show “Abbott Elementary.” Said Ralph: “Enough is enough and we demand more.” Actors David Morse and Brian Anthony Wilson also attended.

Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted unanimously last week to start striking, joining the Writers Guild of America, who walked out on May 2.

“We’re the voices of multi-trillion dollar TV theatrical streaming industry. And we all have a common goal, and that’s to make living wages in an industry that takes advantage of us,” said Izanec.

In Chicago, hundreds of strikers — many wearing black SAG T-shirts — marched and chanted at Millennium Park. “We’re union/United/Never be divided.” A small brass band accompanied the strikers and at one point played ”This Land Is Your Land.” One sign read: “Corporate Greed Stinks.” Cars honked their horns in support. Many unions were represented, including Teamsters and teachers.

The unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which represents studios, streamers and production companies — seem far apart, with no negotiations happening or planned.

“I feel like people would be surprised to hear that 87% of our members make under $26,000 a year, and that’s just under the amount that they need to qualify for health care. So that’s a national problem,” said Izanec.

Film and TV sets dot America. Cities like Chicago with shows like “Chicago Med,” “Chicago PD,” and “The Chi” have stopped filming until the strike is resolved. There were more than 30 major productions in Massachusetts last year. Strikers took to the street in Boston on Wednesday.

In Chicago, Courtney Rioux, a SAG-AFTRA member since 2010 who has had roles in “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago PD,” took to the podium to rally fellow actors and writers to fight for protections from artificial intelligence and revenue from streaming.

“The whole business model has changed and our contract has not changed with it,” she said. “It’s billions of dollars in streaming and they’re crying broke.”

The rallies outside New York and Los Angeles are an important step to showing that many of the issues the actors and writers are fighting for are global ones, she said.

“We get so upset that people are saying Hollywood actors are on strike,” Rioux said. “We are not Hollywood actors. We are working class actors.”

“I think they’re saying Hollywood actors, because people have the feeling of like, ‘Oh, Hollywood actors are millionaires and they make so much money and they’re greedy.’ No, 86% of our members can’t qualify for health care.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger warned last week that it was not a good time for a strike, arguing that the entertainment industry’s recovery from the pandemic is not complete.

Izanec replied that she resents the fact that the average WGA member makes $69,000 a year and Iger makes $74,000 a day. “Most of us know that we’re performers and we’re middle class people. We’re trying to be middle class workers,” she said.

Key issues for both unions include residual payments, which have been nearly wiped out by the switch to the streaming system, and the unpaid use of their work and likeness by artificial intelligence avatars.

The AMPTP said it has offered fair terms on those and other issues.

In Los Angeles, strikers outside Netflix studios included Sarah Silverman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Witaske and Kendrick Sampson. Kristen Schaal was seen on a picket line outside Disney studios.

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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July 20, 2023
Actors and writers on strike rally in Philadelphia and Chicago as union action spreads

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Striking screenwriters and actors held rallies in Philadelphia and Chicago on Thursday as the labor dispute that has halted Hollywood spreads to more cities.

While Los Angeles and New York are the epicenters of strike actions, there are dozens of mid-sized and small locals across the country representing performers and writers.

“We have the same issues,” said Nikki Izanec, president of the Philadelphia SAG-AFTRA local, on her way to Thursday’s rally. “Lots of people pay attention to L.A. and New York, but our issues are the same as theirs.”

The Philadelphia rally at Love Park drew actors Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lisa Ann Walter, stars of the hit Philly-set TV show “Abbott Elementary.” Said Ralph: “Enough is enough and we demand more.” Actors David Morse and Brian Anthony Wilson also attended.

Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted unanimously last week to start striking, joining the Writers Guild of America, who walked out on May 2.

“We’re the voices of multi-trillion dollar TV theatrical streaming industry. And we all have a common goal, and that’s to make living wages in an industry that takes advantage of us,” said Izanec.

In Chicago, hundreds of strikers — many wearing black SAG T-shirts — marched and chanted at Millennium Park. “We’re union/United/Never be divided.” A small brass band played ”This Land Is Your Land.” One sign read: “Corporate Greed Stinks.” Cars honked their horns in support.

The unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which represents studios, streamers and production companies — seem far apart, with no negotiations happening or planned.

“I feel like people would be surprised to hear that 87% of our members make under $26,000 a year, and that’s just under the amount that they need to qualify for health care. So that’s a national problem,” said Izanec.

Film and TV sets dot America. Cities like Chicago with shows like “Chicago Med,” “Chicago PD,” and “The Chi” have stopped filming until the strike is resolved. There were more than 30 major productions in Massachusetts last year. Strikers took to the street in Boston on Wednesday.

Disney CEO Bob Iger warned last week that it was not a good time for a strike, arguing that the entertainment industry’s recovery from the pandemic is not complete.

Izanec replied that she resents the fact that the average WGA member makes $69,000 a year and Iger makes $74,000 a day. “Most of us know that we’re performers and we’re middle class people. We’re trying to be middle class workers,” she said.

Key issues for both unions include residual payments, which have been nearly wiped out by the switch to the streaming system, and the unpaid use of their work and likeness by artificial intelligence avatars.

The AMPTP said it has offered fair terms on those and other issues.

In Los Angeles, strikers outside Netflix studios included Sarah Silverman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Witaske and Kendrick Sampson. Kristen Schaal was seen on a picket line outside Disney studios.

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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July 20, 2023
Union in Canadian province of British Columbia rescinds port strike notice after Trudeau meeting

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with top officials after the longshore union renewed a 72-hour strike notice

Gantry cranes sit idle as a container ship is docked at port during a work stoppage, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. British Columbia port employers say the longshore workers’ union has given 72-hour notice of renewed strike action starting on Saturday morning. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with top officials Wednesday after the longshore union renewed a 72-hour strike notice. The noticed was later rescinded by the union which had earlier blocked shipments in and out of ports in Canada’s west coast region of British Columbia for nearly two weeks.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada said late Wednesday in a brief note to its locals that strike notice set for July 22 at 9 a.m. “has now been removed.”

With the 72-hour notice lifted, the union can’t resume strike action unless it files another notice, according to the Canada Industrial Relations Board decision issued against the union on Wednesday.

The previous shut down British Columbia ports for 13 days at the start of the month, stalling cargo worth billions.

About 7,400 workers at more than 30 British Columbia port terminals and other sites began striking on July 1 and originally returned to work last Thursday after a tentative deal was drafted by a federal mediator.

But workers briefly returned to picket lines on Tuesday afternoon after the union caucus rejected the four-year contract.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board ruled that was unlawful and ordered members to cease and desist from strike action until proper 72-hour notice had been given. It said the union’s position was that it didn’t need to provide notice since there was an ongoing strike.

Trudeau convened the incident response group, which only convenes at times of national crisis, or to discuss events with major implications for Canada. Consisting of Cabinet ministers and senior officials, it has previously been convened over events including the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and blockades associated with the Freedom Convoy movement last year.

Federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra issued a statement late Tuesday saying workers and employers across Canada cannot face further disruption and that they were looking at all options.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said relying on Ottawa to bring in back-to-work legislation would not be a quick solution.

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Trudeau must end the strike immediately because of the massive cost to workers, consumers and businesses.

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July 19, 2023
Union in Canadian province of British Columbia rescinds port strike notice after Trudeau meeting

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with top officials after the longshore union renewed a 72-hour strike notice

Gantry cranes sit idle as a container ship is docked at port during a work stoppage, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Wednesday, July 19, 2023. British Columbia port employers say the longshore workers’ union has given 72-hour notice of renewed strike action starting on Saturday morning. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

The Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with top officials Wednesday after the longshore union renewed a 72-hour strike notice. The noticed was later rescinded by the union which had earlier blocked shipments in and out of ports in Canada’s west coast region of British Columbia for nearly two weeks.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada said late Wednesday in a brief note to its locals that strike notice set for July 22 at 9 a.m. “has now been removed.”

With the 72-hour notice lifted, the union can’t resume strike action unless it files another notice, according to the Canada Industrial Relations Board decision issued against the union on Wednesday.

The previous shut down British Columbia ports for 13 days at the start of the month, stalling cargo worth billions.

About 7,400 workers at more than 30 British Columbia port terminals and other sites began striking on July 1 and originally returned to work last Thursday after a tentative deal was drafted by a federal mediator.

But workers briefly returned to picket lines on Tuesday afternoon after the union caucus rejected the four-year contract.

The Canada Industrial Relations Board ruled that was unlawful and ordered members to cease and desist from strike action until proper 72-hour notice had been given. It said the union’s position was that it didn’t need to provide notice since there was an ongoing strike.

Trudeau convened the incident response group, which only convenes at times of national crisis, or to discuss events with major implications for Canada. Consisting of Cabinet ministers and senior officials, it has previously been convened over events including the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and blockades associated with the Freedom Convoy movement last year.

Federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan and Transport Minister Omar Alghabra issued a statement late Tuesday saying workers and employers across Canada cannot face further disruption and that they were looking at all options.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said relying on Ottawa to bring in back-to-work legislation would not be a quick solution.

Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Trudeau must end the strike immediately because of the massive cost to workers, consumers and businesses.

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July 19, 2023
Netflix’s subscriber growth surges in a sign that crackdown on password sharing is paying off

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SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix enjoyed its biggest springtime spurt in subscribers since the early days of the pandemic three years ago, providing the latest sign that a recent crackdown on password sharing and the rollout of a cheaper subscription option are paying off.

The video streaming service added 5.9 million subscribers during the April-June period, according to numbers released Wednesday along with its latest quarterly financial results. The gains easily surpassed the roughly 2.2 million additional subscribers that analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had anticipated. Netflix ended June with 238.4 million worldwide subscribers.

Investors seemed unsatisfied, perhaps rattled by management commentary in a shareholder letter warning that “quite a competitive battle” continues to unfold against the backdrop of ongoing strikes by both the writers and actors union in the U.S. that threaten to clog the pipelines feeding entertainment to streaming services. Netflix’s stock price fell 8% in Wednesday’s extended trading. The drop could also reflect some investors locking in profits that have accrued while the shares have climbed by more than 50% so far this year.

Money manager Louis Navellier said Netflix now appears “locked and loaded” again after going through a turbulent stretch that included losing 1.2 million subscribers during the first half of last year. Even though Netflix has bounced back this year, Investing.com analyst Jesse Cohen believes another slowdown may be coming. “It will be a challenge for Netflix to sustain this pace of subscriber growth in the future,” Cohen said.

Netflix predicted its subscriber growth during the July-September period will be similar to the numbers posted from April through June.

The second-quarter performance marked Netflix’s biggest spring —- traditionally the company’s slowest stretch of growth — since gaining 10 million subscribers during the same period in 2020 under dramatically different market conditions.

In 2020, people were still largely stuck at home and looking for ways to keep themselves entertained while governments around the world struggled to find a way to contain the spread of pandemic. Now, Netflix finds itself trying to bounce back from a growth slowdown amid stiff video streaming competition and inflationary pressures that have caused many households to clamp down on spending, especially on discretionary items such as entertainment.

As an antidote, Netflix last year introduced a low-priced option that includes commercials and then began to block the rampant sharing of passwords that has enabled an estimated 100 million people worldwide to watch its TV series and films for free. Freeloading viewers are now being required to open their own accounts unless a subscriber with a standard or premium plan agrees to pay an $8 monthly surcharge to allow more people living in different households to watch.

In its shareholder letter, management said the crackdown on password sharing is resulting in a “healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships.”

And Netflix still isn’t done tinkering. As part of Wednesday’s earnings release, Netflix also revealed it’s phasing out its cheapest ad-free plan – a service that costs $10 in the U.S. Existing subscribers already paying for this basic plan will be allowed to keep it. The shift appears designed to get more people to switch to the $7 monthly plan that includes commercials in hopes of boosting ad revenue or sign up for its $15.50 monthly standard plan or $20 monthly premium plan.

“There is just tons of work ahead of us, tons of opportunity,” Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters said during a Wednesday conference call.

The pricing changes that have already been made helped Netflix boost its second-quarter revenue by 3% from the same time last year to $8.2 billon, falling below analyst forecasts. Netflix earned $1.49 billion during the period, compared with $1.44 billion last year. But earnings per share came in at $3.29 per share, eclipsing the average analyst estimate of $2.85 per share, according to FactSet.

Netflix didn’t delve into the potential fallout from the current walkout in the U.S. by writers and actors. The dispute revolves largely around the payment system used in video streaming and the rise of artificial intelligence technology threatening to exploit the work of humans and eventually replace them.

Unlike traditional movie and TV studios in the U.S., Netflix has been able to keep feeding its entertainment pipeline with shows that it has been able to use to keep luring in and retaining subscribers.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos deflected a question about how long Netflix could keep releasing new series and films if the strike drags on past Labor Day. “It’s beside the point,” Sarandos said during the conference call. “The real point is we need to get this strike to a conclusion so we can continue to move forward.”

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July 19, 2023
Cairo’s BBC staff begin a three-day strike, calling for equal pay with other Mideast colleagues

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BBC’s employees in Cairo have gone on a three-day strike to demand equal pay with other colleagues in the Middle East as Egypt’s economic crisis deepens further

CAIRO — BBC’s staff in Cairo went on a three-day strike Monday to demand equal pay with other colleagues in the Middle East as Egypt’s economic crisis deepens further.

According to Khaled el-Balshy, the strikers’ spokesperson and head of Egypt’s journalism union, the 75 staff members from the broadcaster’s Cairo bureau are demanding to be paid in dollars — like other BBC employees in the region, including in Beirut and Istanbul.

The walkout is to end on Wednesday.

Over the past year, the Egyptian pound has lost over 50% of its value against the dollar, with annual inflation reaching 36.8% in June, up from 33.7% recorded in May. The country’s economy is reeling from years of government austerity measures, the coronavirus pandemic and fallout from the Ukraine war. Egypt is a top wheat importer from Russia and Ukraine.

El-Balshy posted on Facebook that the BBC staff in Egypt consider the disparity in pay as a form of “systematic discrimination.” They had earlier asked for their salaries to be re-evaluated in light of the Egyptian pound’s depreciation but this request was first ignored before “meagre increases” were eventually offered.

The BBC said the broadcaster was aware of Egypt’s economic situation and has been planning “increasing salaries by 27% between March and July this year to mitigate the levels of high inflation in the country.” The statement did not elaborate.

El-Balshy told The Associated Press the strikers may consider legal action and extending the walkout if their demands are not met. Last month, the BBC Cairo staff held a one-day strike over unequal pay.

BBC staff declined to comment on the walkout and referred media questions to el-Balshy, who was to hold a news conference on the industrial action on Wednesday.

___

This story has been corrected throughout to show that the spelling of the family name of the strikers’ spokesperson and head of Egypt’s journalism union is el-Balshy.

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July 17, 2023
Teamsters president says he’s asked the White House not to intervene if UPS workers go on strike

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The head of the Teamsters said Sunday that he has asked the White House not to intervene if unionized UPS workers end up going on strike

FILE – President Joe Biden, center left, talks with Teamsters union President Sean O’Brien, facing, after he spoke about strengthening the supply chain with improvements in the trucking industry, April 4, 2022, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. The head of the Teamsters said Sunday, July 16, 2023, that he has asked the White House not to intervene if unionized UPS workers end up going on strike. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — The head of the Teamsters said Sunday that he has asked the White House not to intervene if unionized UPS workers end up going on strike.

Negotiations between the delivery company and the union representing 340,000 of its workers have been at a standstill for more than a week with a July 31 deadline for a new contract approaching fast.

The union has threatened a strike if a deal is not reached by the time the collective bargaining agreement expires. Asked during a webcast with members Sunday on whether the White House could force a contract on the union, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said he has asked the White House on numerous occasions to stay away.

“My neighborhood where I grew up in Boston, if two people had a disagreement and you had nothing to do with it – you just kept walking,” O’Brien said.

“We don’t need anybody getting involved in this fight,” he said.

The Teamsters represent more than half of the Atlanta-based company’s workforce in the largest private-sector contract in North America. If a strike does happen, it would be the first since a 15-day walkout by 185,000 workers crippled the company a quarter century ago.

Before contract talks broke down, both sides had reached tentative agreements on several issues, including installing air conditioning in more trucks and getting rid of a two-tier wage system for drivers who work weekends and earn less money. A sticking point in negotiations is wage increases for part-time workers, who make a minimum of $16.20 an hour, according to UPS.

Last week, UPS said it will temporarily begin training nonunion employees in the U.S. to step in should there be a strike.

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July 16, 2023
United Airlines agrees to give union pilots big pay raises

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United Airlines and the union representing its pilots said Saturday they reached agreement on a contract that will raise pilot pay by up to 40% over four years.

The union valued the agreement at about $10 billion. It followed more than four years of tumultuous bargaining that included picketing and talk of a strike vote.

The deal reflects the leverage enjoyed by labor groups, especially pilots, as airline revenue soars on the strong recovery in travel.

The Air Line Pilots Association said the agreement, which is subject to a ratification vote, would put United pilots on par with counterparts at Delta Air Lines, who approved a pay-raising deal earlier this year.

The union said the agreement includes substantial increases in pay, retirement benefits and job security.

At least on pay, the deal appears far better than one that United pilots rejected last November.

Once the deal is approved, pilots will get immediate wage-rate increases of 13.8% to 18.7%, depending on the type of plane they fly, followed by four smaller annual raises, according to a summary on the union’s website.

Over the course of the contract, pilot pay would rise 34.5% to 40.2%.

Garth Thompson, chair of the United pilots’ union, called it an “historic agreement” that was made possible by the resolve of the 16,000 pilots.

In a statement on the LinkedIn social media site, CEO Scott Kirby said, “We promised our world-class pilots the industry-leading contract they deserve, and we’re pleased to have reached an agreement with ALPA on it.”

Pilots at American Airlines are scheduled to begin voting July 24 on an offer that includes average cumulative raises of 41.5% over four years. Southwest Airlines pilots are still negotiating. American and Southwest have independent unions, while pilots at Delta and United are represented by ALPA.

The unions believe they are in strong bargaining position with airlines, which took $54 billion in federal aid to help get through the pandemic, booming because of a resurgence in travel. The number of people flying in the U.S. is roughly back to pre-pandemic levels.

This week, Delta reported a record quarterly profit of more than $1.8 billion and record revenue during the April-through-June period that includes the first part of summer travel season. United is scheduled to report results Wednesday, and analysts expect the airline to post a profit of more than $1.3 billion, according to a FactSet survey.

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July 15, 2023
United Airlines agrees to give union pilots big pay raises

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United Airlines and the union representing its pilots said Saturday they reached agreement on a contract that will raise pilot pay by up to 40% over four years.

The union valued the agreement at about $10 billion. It followed more than four years of tumultuous bargaining that included picketing and talk of a strike vote.

The deal reflects the leverage enjoyed by labor groups, especially pilots, as airline revenue soars on the strong recovery in travel.

The Air Line Pilots Association said the agreement, which is subject to a ratification vote, would put United pilots on par with counterparts at Delta Air Lines, who approved a pay-raising deal earlier this year.

The union said the agreement includes substantial increases in pay, retirement benefits and job security.

At least on pay, the deal appears far better than one that United pilots rejected last November.

Once the deal is approved, pilots will get immediate wage-rate increases of 13.8% to 18.7%, depending on the type of plane they fly, followed by four smaller annual raises, according to a summary on the union’s website.

Over the course of the contract, pilot pay would rise 34.5% to 40.2%.

Garth Thompson, chair of the United pilots’ union, called it an “historic agreement” that was made possible by the resolve of the 16,000 pilots.

In a statement on the LinkedIn social media site, CEO Scott Kirby said, “We promised our world-class pilots the industry-leading contract they deserve, and we’re pleased to have reached an agreement with ALPA on it.”

Pilots at American Airlines are scheduled to begin voting July 24 on an offer that includes average cumulative raises of 41.5% over four years. Southwest Airlines pilots are still negotiating. American and Southwest have independent unions, while pilots at Delta and United are represented by ALPA.

The unions believe they are in strong bargaining position with airlines, which took $54 billion in federal aid to help get through the pandemic, booming because of a resurgence in travel. The number of people flying in the U.S. is roughly back to pre-pandemic levels.

This week, Delta reported a record quarterly profit of more than $1.8 billion and record revenue during the April-through-June period that includes the first part of summer travel season. United is scheduled to report results Wednesday, and analysts expect the airline to post a profit of more than $1.3 billion, according to a FactSet survey.

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July 15, 2023
On the picket lines with Hollywood’s actors and writers, from LA to New York

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LOS ANGELES — It’s a “Strike Girl Summer.”

So read a picket sign as the sidewalks of Hollywood and midtown Manhattan teemed with actors on Day 1 of their strike, protesting alongside the writers who have been at it since May.

Together, the two guilds have ground the entertainment industry to a halt. On both coasts, though, there was a buoyant mood in the air as picket lines were reinvigorated by the support of some of the 65,000 actors who comprise SAG-AFTRA (98% of members voted to approve a strike back in June). This is Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in six decades, and the first dual strike since 1960, reigniting the fervor against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just as a historic heat wave hits Southern California.

Outside the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, throngs of protesters chanted: “Fists up, curtains down, LA is a union town.” Food trucks flanking organizers’ tents served churros, boba tea and cold lemonade to protesters baking in the midday heat that reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius).

But the oppressive sun didn’t dampen the mood. Demonstrators spritzed each other with water and danced to reggaeton music as passersby in cars honked in support of signs like: “Honk if your boss is overpaid.”

Parents on the picket line hoisted their children over their shoulders and pushed toddlers in strollers, high-fiving one another with signs that reflected defiant lyrics from Olivia Rodrigo’s new single, “Vampire,” and were packing “Big Strike Energy.”

“The jig is up,” said Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and once the titular star of “The Nanny” at SAG’s press conference Thursday. “The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, A.I. If we don’t stand tall right now, we’re all going to be in trouble.”

The infusion of SAG members’ support was noted by comedian and writer Adam Conover, a member of SAG and WGA who serves on the latter’s negotiating committee.”

“If you are gaining momentum like we are 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win,” Conover said. “You know, the companies’ strategy with the writers guild when we go on strike is to starve us out and wait, not even talk to us for months because they expect us to bleed support. Yet, look at this — our picket lines are more full than ever and now have another union on strike with us.”

SAG and WGA last went on simultaneous strikes more than six decades ago.

“What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans, and the existence of residuals,” Conover said. Now, executives “are facing the fact that not only are they getting no new scripts, they cannot shoot anything until they come back and make a fair deal, not with one union but with both unions.”

Zora Bikangaga, also a member of both guilds, called Friday’s picket “invigorating,” and a testament to how the issues writers are facing are “pervasive across the entire industry.”

While the industry’s business model has undergone major changes in the decades since the last strike, actors say their rates and contracts haven’t evolved to match inflation and other changes.

“They use the gig economy as a way to say, ‘This is how you can be more independent,’ when in fact what it does it diminish the value and strength of organized labor,” said actor Ron Song, who appeared on Amazon Freevee’s “Jury Duty,” which was nominated this week for four Emmys.

Former co-stars and acquaintances alike reunited at demonstrations. Some hadn’t seen each other since the coronavirus pandemic started more than three years ago.

The first full day of the dual strike was marked by high energy — joy and unity mixed with anger and frustration.

For actor Stacey Travis, who has actively been involved in SAG-AFTRA for years, the decision to strike was not taken lightly.

“It feels extraordinary and it feels sad,” she said of the moment. “It’s very difficult on everyone, so we’ve always taken it incredibly seriously. So it’s only when we’re backed up against the wall and we have no options that we find ourselves here.”

“It’s all of it for me,” said actor Peter Carellini about the reason for striking. “It’s A.I. It’s residuals. It’s the fact that Bob Chapek, Bob Iger, David Zaslav are making untold millions in bonuses while writers and actors are going to the Emmys with negative bank accounts.”

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July 15, 2023
On the picket lines with Hollywood’s actors and writers, from LA to New York

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LOS ANGELES — It’s a “Strike Girl Summer.”

So read a picket sign as the sidewalks of Hollywood and midtown Manhattan teemed with actors on Day 1 of their strike, protesting alongside the writers who have been at it since May.

Together, the two guilds have ground the entertainment industry to a halt. On both coasts, though, there was a buoyant mood in the air as picket lines were reinvigorated by the support of some of the 65,000 actors who comprise SAG-AFTRA (98% of members voted to approve a strike back in June). This is Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in six decades, and the first dual strike since 1960, reigniting the fervor against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers just as a historic heat wave hits Southern California.

Outside the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California, throngs of protesters chanted: “Fists up, curtains down, LA is a union town.” Food trucks flanking organizers’ tents served churros, boba tea and cold lemonade to protesters baking in the midday heat that reached 98 degrees Fahrenheit (36.7 Celsius).

But the oppressive sun didn’t dampen the mood. Demonstrators spritzed each other with water and danced to reggaeton music as passersby in cars honked in support of signs like: “Honk if your boss is overpaid.”

Parents on the picket line hoisted their children over their shoulders and pushed toddlers in strollers, high-fiving one another with signs that reflected defiant lyrics from Olivia Rodrigo’s new single, “Vampire,” and were packing “Big Strike Energy.”

“The jig is up,” said Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA and once the titular star of “The Nanny” at SAG’s press conference Thursday. “The entire business model has been changed by streaming, digital, A.I. If we don’t stand tall right now, we’re all going to be in trouble.”

The infusion of SAG members’ support was noted by comedian and writer Adam Conover, a member of SAG and WGA who serves on the latter’s negotiating committee.”

“If you are gaining momentum like we are 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win,” Conover said. “You know, the companies’ strategy with the writers guild when we go on strike is to starve us out and wait, not even talk to us for months because they expect us to bleed support. Yet, look at this — our picket lines are more full than ever and now have another union on strike with us.”

SAG and WGA last went on simultaneous strikes more than six decades ago.

“What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans, and the existence of residuals,” Conover said. Now, executives “are facing the fact that not only are they getting no new scripts, they cannot shoot anything until they come back and make a fair deal, not with one union but with both unions.”

Zora Bikangaga, also a member of both guilds, called Friday’s picket “invigorating,” and a testament to how the issues writers are facing are “pervasive across the entire industry.”

While the industry’s business model has undergone major changes in the decades since the last strike, actors say their rates and contracts haven’t evolved to match inflation and other changes.

“They use the gig economy as a way to say, ‘This is how you can be more independent,’ when in fact what it does it diminish the value and strength of organized labor,” said actor Ron Song, who appeared on Amazon Freevee’s “Jury Duty,” which was nominated this week for four Emmys.

Former co-stars and acquaintances alike reunited at demonstrations. Some hadn’t seen each other since the coronavirus pandemic started more than three years ago.

The first full day of the dual strike was marked by high energy — joy and unity mixed with anger and frustration.

For actor Stacey Travis, who has actively been involved in SAG-AFTRA for years, the decision to strike was not taken lightly.

“It feels extraordinary and it feels sad,” she said of the moment. “It’s very difficult on everyone, so we’ve always taken it incredibly seriously. So it’s only when we’re backed up against the wall and we have no options that we find ourselves here.”

“It’s all of it for me,” said actor Peter Carellini about the reason for striking. “It’s A.I. It’s residuals. It’s the fact that Bob Chapek, Bob Iger, David Zaslav are making untold millions in bonuses while writers and actors are going to the Emmys with negative bank accounts.”

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July 14, 2023
Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

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LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson and other top movie and TV actors joined picket lines alongside screenwriters Friday on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades.

A day after the dispute brought production to a standstill across the entertainment industry, Sudeikis was among the picketers outside NBC in New York pressing for progress following the breakdown of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Dawson, star of the film “Rent” and the “Star Wars” TV series “Ahsoka,” joined picketers outside Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

“Lord of the Rings” star Sean Astin marched with chanting protesters outside Netflix’s offices in Hollywood. Also present at Netflix were “Titanic” and “Unforgiven” actor Frances Fisher and “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The actors’ arrival energized the picket lines outside Netflix, where music blared and the sidewalks were packed with demonstrators.

Elsewhere, “Once Upon a Time” actor Ginnifer Goodwin stood with protesters at Paramount Pictures.

The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will likely be seen with some regularity on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, adding star power to the demonstrations outside studios and corporate offices.

The walkout is the first double-barreled strike by actors and screenwriters in more than six decades.

In recent weeks, many actors made a show of solidarity with the 11,500 writers, who walked out in May. On Thursday, 65,000 members of the actors’ union formally joined them on strike.

The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services. The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

Many on the picket lines took aim at Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who said Wednesday that the damage the strikes will do to the entertainment economy is “a shame.”

“I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making,” actor Sean Gunn, who starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” said outside Netflix.

Now Iger “makes 400 times what his lowest worker is. And I think that’s a shame, Bob. And maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’”

No talks are planned, and no end is in sight for the work stoppage. It is the first time both guilds have walked off sets since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan was SAG’s leader.

“What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans and the existence of residuals. That was the most important strike in LA union history, and now we’re on strike together again, and honestly, this strike is even bigger,” Adam Conover, host of the TV series “Adam Ruins Everything” and member of the Writers Guild negotiating committee, said outside Netflix. “We’re going to win. If you are gaining momentum like we are, 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win.”

Conover was one of many picketers, including Sudeikis, who are members of both unions.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, has lamented the walkout, saying it will hurt thousands of workers in industries that support film and television production.

The actors’ strike will affect more than filming. Stars will no longer be allowed to promote their work through red carpet premieres or personal appearances. They cannot campaign for Emmy awards or take part in auditions or rehearsals.

The strike triggered cancellations of red carpet events scheduled for next week for “Special Ops: Lioness,” starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

A “Haunted Mansion” premiere event at Disneyland on Saturday was set to go on as planned, but with no actors in attendance to promote the film.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it was clear that the entertainment industry “is at a historic inflection point.” She urged all parties to work around the clock until an agreement is reached.

“This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,” Bass said in a statement.

The writers’ strike had already stopped much of television production, and the actors joining them immediately led to a shooting shutdown for many major films, including “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and the eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series. All are scheduled for release next year.

The writers’ strike also shut down late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as several scripted shows that have either had their writers’ rooms or production paused, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on Max and “Family Guy” on Fox. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers also have been pulled.

___

This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of Jason Sudeikis’ last name and Ginnifer Goodwin’s first name.

___

Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria contributed.

___

For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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July 14, 2023
Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

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LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson and other top movie and TV actors joined picket lines alongside screenwriters Friday on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades.

A day after the dispute brought production to a standstill across the entertainment industry, Sudeikis was among the picketers outside NBC in New York pressing for progress following the breakdown of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Dawson, star of the film “Rent” and the “Star Wars” TV series “Ahsoka,” joined picketers outside Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

“Lord of the Rings” star Sean Astin marched with chanting protesters outside Netflix’s offices in Hollywood. Also present at Netflix were “Titanic” and “Unforgiven” actor Frances Fisher and “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The actors’ arrival energized the picket lines outside Netflix, where music blared and the sidewalks were packed with demonstrators.

Elsewhere, “Once Upon a Time” actor Ginnifer Goodwin stood with protesters at Paramount Pictures.

The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will likely be seen with some regularity on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, adding star power to the demonstrations outside studios and corporate offices.

The walkout is the first double-barreled strike by actors and screenwriters in more than six decades.

In recent weeks, many actors made a show of solidarity with the 11,500 writers, who walked out in May. On Thursday, 65,000 members of the actors’ union formally joined them on strike.

The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services. The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

Many on the picket lines took aim at Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who said Wednesday that the damage the strikes will do to the entertainment economy is “a shame.”

“I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making,” actor Sean Gunn, who starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” said outside Netflix.

Now Iger “makes 400 times what his lowest worker is. And I think that’s a shame, Bob. And maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’”

No talks are planned, and no end is in sight for the work stoppage. It is the first time both guilds have walked off sets since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan was SAG’s leader.

“What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans and the existence of residuals. That was the most important strike in LA union history, and now we’re on strike together again, and honestly, this strike is even bigger,” Adam Conover, host of the TV series “Adam Ruins Everything” and member of the Writers Guild negotiating committee, said outside Netflix. “We’re going to win. If you are gaining momentum like we are, 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win.”

Conover was one of many picketers, including Sudeikis, who are members of both unions.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, has lamented the walkout, saying it will hurt thousands of workers in industries that support film and television production.

The actors’ strike will affect more than filming. Stars will no longer be allowed to promote their work through red carpet premieres or personal appearances. They cannot campaign for Emmy awards or take part in auditions or rehearsals.

The strike triggered cancellations of red carpet events scheduled for next week for “Special Ops: Lioness,” starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

A “Haunted Mansion” premiere event at Disneyland on Saturday was set to go on as planned, but with no actors in attendance to promote the film.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it was clear that the entertainment industry “is at a historic inflection point.” She urged all parties to work around the clock until an agreement is reached.

“This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,” Bass said in a statement.

The writers’ strike had already stopped much of television production, and the actors joining them immediately led to a shooting shutdown for many major films, including “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and the eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series. All are scheduled for release next year.

The writers’ strike also shut down late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as several scripted shows that have either had their writers’ rooms or production paused, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on Max and “Family Guy” on Fox. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers also have been pulled.

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This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of Jason Sudeikis’ last name and Ginnifer Goodwin’s first name.

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Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria contributed.

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For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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July 14, 2023
Ron Perlman Slams Studio Execs in NSFW Twitter Rant

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Newly striking members of SAG-AFTRA, the Hollywood actors union, joined picket lines this week with the already-striking Writers Guild of America, while some, like actor Ron Perlman, protested on Twitter.

The “Sons of Anarchy” actor didn’t mince words about what he thought of studio executives in the 55-second, expletive-laced video he posted Friday.

He was especially angry at an unnamed executive quoted in a recent Deadline article who spoke about the weekslong WGA strike and said the studios’ endgame “is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.”

Perlman addressed the unidentified executive in his Twitter rant and pointed out that there are many ways a person can lose their house besides a foreclosure caused by a long strike.

“Listen to me, motherfucker, there’s a lot of ways to lose your house,” he said. “Some of it is financial, some of it is karma, and some of it is just figuring out who the fuck said that — and we know who said that — and where he fucking lives.”

Perlman also warned against wishing “that families starve, while you’re making $27 fucking million a year for creating nothing.”

“Be careful, motherfucker. Be really careful, ’cause that’s the kind of shit that stirs shit up,” he added.

He then concluded his message with two words: “Peace out.”

Perlman speaks in the video below:

The actor struck a chord with his colleagues, many of whom warned fellow Twitter users that crossing the “Hellboy” actor probably isn’t a good idea.

TV and film writers and actors are on strike over fair pay and working conditions in the streaming era.

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July 14, 2023
Movie and TV stars join picket lines in fight over the future of Hollywood

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Ted Lasso” star Jason Sudeikis, Rosario Dawson and other top movie and TV actors joined picket lines alongside screenwriters Friday on the first full day of a walkout that has become Hollywood’s biggest labor fight in decades.

A day after the dispute brought production to a standstill across the entertainment industry, Sudeikis was among the picketers outside NBC in New York pressing for progress following the breakdown of contract talks with studios and streaming services. Dawson, star of the film “Rent” and the “Star Wars” TV series “Ahsoka,” joined picketers outside Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, California.

“Lord of the Rings” star Sean Astin marched with chanting protesters outside Netflix’s offices in Hollywood. Also present at Netflix were “Titanic” and “Unforgiven” actor Frances Fisher and “The Nanny” star Fran Drescher, who is president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

The actors’ arrival energized the picket lines outside Netflix, where music blared and the sidewalks were packed with demonstrators.

Hollywood productions and promotional tours around the world have been put on indefinite hold as actors join writers on the picket lines.

Hollywood actors are joining screenwriters in the first dual strike from the two unions in more than six decades, with huge consequences for the film and television industry.

A rocket being developed by the Japanese space agency has exploded during testing but there were no reports of injuries.

A sprawling, mighty galaxy was created in season one of “Foundation.” Now it’s time to rip it down. Season two of the ambitious Apple TV+ sci-fi series flashes forward some 140 years and it’s quickly clear that the clones who form the story’s authoritarian order are losing their grip.

Elsewhere, “Once Upon a Time” actor Ginnifer Goodwin stood with protesters at Paramount Pictures.

The famous faces of Oscar and Emmy winners will likely be seen with some regularity on picket lines in New York and Los Angeles, adding star power to the demonstrations outside studios and corporate offices.

The walkout is the first double-barreled strike by actors and screenwriters in more than six decades.

In recent weeks, many actors made a show of solidarity with the 11,500 writers, who walked out in May. On Thursday, 65,000 members of the actors’ union formally joined them on strike.

The two guilds have similar issues with studios and streaming services. They are concerned about contracts keeping up with inflation and about residual payments, which compensate creators and actors for use of their material beyond the original airing, such as in reruns or on streaming services. The unions also want to put up guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence mimicking their work on film and television.

Many on the picket lines took aim at Disney chief executive Bob Iger, who said Wednesday that the damage the strikes will do to the entertainment economy is “a shame.”

Justine Bateman, right, speaks outside Netflix during a Writers Guild rally as a strike by The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is announced in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

“I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest worker was making,” actor Sean Gunn, who starred in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” said outside Netflix.

Now Iger “makes 400 times what his lowest worker is. And I think that’s a shame, Bob. And maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘Why is that?’”

No talks are planned, and no end is in sight for the work stoppage. It is the first time both guilds have walked off sets since 1960, when then-actor Ronald Reagan was SAG’s leader.

“What we won in 1960 was our health and pension plans and the existence of residuals. That was the most important strike in LA union history, and now we’re on strike together again, and honestly, this strike is even bigger,” Adam Conover, host of the TV series “Adam Ruins Everything” and member of the Writers Guild negotiating committee, said outside Netflix. “We’re going to win. If you are gaining momentum like we are, 70-odd days into a strike, you are going to win.”

Conover was one of many picketers, including Sudeikis, who are members of both unions.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents employers including Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others, has lamented the walkout, saying it will hurt thousands of workers in industries that support film and television production.

The actors’ strike will affect more than filming. Stars will no longer be allowed to promote their work through red carpet premieres or personal appearances. They cannot campaign for Emmy awards or take part in auditions or rehearsals.

The strike triggered cancellations of red carpet events scheduled for next week for “Special Ops: Lioness,” starring Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman, and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”

A “Haunted Mansion” premiere event at Disneyland on Saturday was set to go on as planned, but with no actors in attendance to promote the film.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said it was clear that the entertainment industry “is at a historic inflection point.” She urged all parties to work around the clock until an agreement is reached.

“This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy,” Bass said in a statement.

The writers’ strike had already stopped much of television production, and the actors joining them immediately led to a shooting shutdown for many major films, including “Deadpool 3,” “Gladiator 2” and the eighth installment of Tom Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” series. All are scheduled for release next year.

The writers’ strike also shut down late-night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as several scripted shows that have either had their writers’ rooms or production paused, including “Stranger Things” on Netflix, “Hacks” on Max and “Family Guy” on Fox. Many more are sure to follow them now that performers also have been pulled.

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This story has been corrected to fix the misspelling of Jason Sudeikis’ last name and Ginnifer Goodwin’s first name.

___

Associated Press Writer Krysta Fauria contributed.

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For more on the Hollywood strikes, visit https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

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July 14, 2023
Italy rail strike strands commuters and tourists in sweltering weather at height of tourism season

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ROME — Commuters and tourists alike were stranded by a major train strike across Italy on a sweltering Thursday, with cancellations affecting even high-speed lines that are usually guaranteed during Italy’s frequent work stoppages.

Transport Minister Matteo Salvini signed a decree ordering the two-day strike be cut in half, but even that truncated stoppage forced the cancellation of service up and down the peninsula on a weekday, at the height of Italy’s booming high tourist season.

At Milan’s main rail station, for example, eight of 20 scheduled Trenitalia trains scheduled between 10:30-11:30 a.m. were canceled.

State-run Trenitalia warned of the likelihood of a “significant impact” on service that would involve the partial or total cancellation of service on the high-speed Frecce lines, Intercity and regional trains, and cause delays after the official end of the strike. Private Italo listed the trains that it guaranteed would be operational on its website.

Roberta Riccitiello was in Rome for work and was hoping for guaranteed high-speed train service back to her home in Naples.

“But actually we arrived this morning and they canceled all the trains,” Riccitiello said at a sweltering Termini train station, as Rome temperatures outside hit 34 degrees C (93F). She said she was considering a slower regional train service instead of the high-speed line she had originally booked, even though it would add nearly 3.5 hours onto the trip.

“Five hours to get home. I’m not on vacation, I was at work and I have to go back to work,” she said.

Italy’s main unions called for the strike of Trenitalia and Italo workers, complaining about staffing shortages and excessive overtime, minimum salaries and other work conditions.

“In general there’s a need to restart a serious and constructive confrontation within the rail transport sector to concretely improve work conditions and make them responsive to the needs of all the personnel,” said a statement from the UIL union.

Salvini said in a video statement early Thursday that he had just signed a decree cutting the strike in half, saying he took action “because leaving a million Italians — commuters and workers — stranded on a Thursday in July with temperatures of up to 35 degrees was unthinkable.”

He promised to facilitate a meeting between companies and unions “to give satisfaction to Italian railway workers, without, however, stranding hundreds of thousands of Italians who bear no blame.”

Philip Rially, visiting Rome from Scotland, was sanguine about the strike, saying work stoppages were “part of life” and would eventually end.

“And so, like all these other people from all over, we just have to wait patiently,” he said.

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Associated Press reporter Luca Bruno contributed from Milan.

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July 13, 2023