Posts tagged Netflix
Predawn Picket Lines Help Writers Disrupt Studio Productions
May 30, 2023 // But production shutdowns are affecting not only the studios. Crews and other workers — like drivers, set designers, caterers — lose paychecks. And if the shutdowns accumulate and more people are unable to work, some wonder whether the writers will begin to erode the current good will from other workers. Lindsay Dougherty is the lead organizer of Local 399, the Teamsters’ Los Angeles division, which represents more than 6,000 movie workers, from the truck drivers the writers are trying to turn away to casting directors, location managers and animal trainers. A second-generation Teamster, Ms. Dougherty is one of the union’s few female leaders. Her copious tattoos, including one of the former Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, and her frequently profane speech have made her a bit of a celebrity to the writers during the strike. And she said the solidarity with the writers remained strong. “I think collectively, we’re all on the same page in that streaming has dramatically changed the industry,” Ms. Dougherty said in an interview. “And these tech companies that we’re bargaining with, during the last writers’ strike — Amazon, Apple, Netflix — they weren’t even part of the conversation.”
WGA Strike: Disney Using “Union-Busting Tactics,” Guild Says; Mouse House, HBO, CBS Demand Showrunners Work Despite Labor Action – Update
May 8, 2023 // “Under the National Labor Relations Act, the WGA is not permitted to interfere with an employer’s right to designate employees to perform certain supervisory functions,” the correspondence, with accompanying dos and dont’s, added. “If you fail to provide contracted services due to the strike, HBO/HBO Max will not be obliged to continue your salary,” it went on to say in the FAQ portion of the letter. And then, perhaps even more so that calling guild contract interpretations “misleading,” there was the kicker: “Further, if production is interrupted by the strike, even if you offer to continue to work, HBO/HBO Max will not be obliged to continue your salary, nor the salary of the cast and crew.” Disney shot out a similar letter with the same iron fist in a velvet-glove tone.
WGA Strike Shuts Down ‘Billions’ Amid Skirmishes, Cries Of “Scabs” Outside NYC Studio; Teamsters Refuse To Cross Pickets At ‘American Horror Story’ Filming
May 8, 2023 // Back in New York City, there also were smaller skirmishes in Brooklyn, with handfuls of picketers briefly surrounding and blocking production workers as they wheeled plastic bins filled with pieces of furniture across a cobbled street. “This is the point of a picket line,” one protestor pleaded with a middle-age woman trying to steer a bin around him with help from a private security guard. She eventually slipped through, with grudging assent from the picketers and the same “scab” refrain following her. The WGA said Wednesday that stagehands and truckers represented by IATSE and the Teamsters did not cross a picket line at another production facility, Silvercup Studios, in Queens, while protesters were on site there. It added that traffic in and out resumed once the protestors departed, in what union representatives called a work slowdown, not a full shutdown, at the site.
Hollywood writers vote on whether to give negotiators power to call strike
April 17, 2023 // The strike authorization vote is meant to turn up the heat on companies such as Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) and Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) and convince them to raise the pay for writers, who say their compensation has suffered because of the streaming revolution, which resulted in shorter TV seasons and smaller residual payments.
Could Netflix be the next big tech company to unionize?
May 20, 2022 // Netflix’s updated dictum is a clear message that it doesn’t plan to change its content menu to cater to the tastes of its workforce. But as the Netflix worker demand list indicates, some employees are simply looking to influence company culture, which may, as a byproduct, influence the choices the company makes.
25 companies where workers went on strike during a season of labor unrest and worker activism
November 20, 2021 // From September to November, workers at more than 25 companies manned picket lines, banged on upturned buckets, and chanted during campaigns for everything from higher wages to safer working conditions.