UNITE HERE tastes power striking alongside Hollywood actors, writers

The separate organized strikes that are gripping the Los Angeles area have begun to coalesce, The Hollywood Reporter writes, as they hope to feed off each other’s exposure and force their respective industries’ leaders to capitulate to their demands through civil disobedience and disruption of daily public life.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are coming together with workers from various sectors across the city to demonstrate their solidarity for improved wages and working conditions.

One of those unions is UNITE HERE Local 11, which has been on strike since June 30. They organized a solidarity rally Friday in Hollywood, where hundreds of its members joined forces with entertainment industry workers. The march commenced at the W Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, passed by the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, and concluded at the Netflix offices at Sunset Bronson Studios. Writers and actors on daily picket lines greeted them with cheers.

UNITE HERE’s co-president Susan Minato emphasized the deep-rooted relationship between her union and Hollywood labor, noting that many people have been members of both unions. This includes Ben Keller, a production assistant, COVID compliance officer, and SAG-AFTRA member, who spoke at the rally. Keller, who was previously a UH11 member for four years, stressed the shared experiences between UNITE HERE the entertainment unions.

UNITE HERE 11 is pushing for a significant increase in the minimum hourly wage for its members, advocating for an immediate $5/hour raise and additional $3/hour annual increases for each of the three years of its contract. UNITE HERE has 300,000 due-paying members across the United States and Canada, according to their website.

The solidarity between UNITE HERE 11 and Hollywood unions has been evident since the start of the WGA strike in May. They have marched together in numerous events, and other unions, such as SEIU, AFSCME, and Teamsters Local 396, have also joined in these shows of support.

The writers and actors from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have learned about these solidarity marches through social media posts and memos from their respective guild leaders. They continue to be in close contact with UNITE HERE 11 and other unions through the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. More solidarity marches are being planned for as long as the strikes continue.

The financial impact of Hollywood’s first shutdown in over six decades is already being keenly felt. The simultaneous strikes by SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are expected to result in a significant weekly loss of around $150 million, which includes production delays, increased expenditure post-strike, and a potential decline in the quality of output. If the strike persists into 2024 or beyond, the cumulative impact could be even more substantial.

The scale of the economic fallout is vast, with nearly 160,000 actors and approximately 11,500 screenwriters participating in the strikes simultaneously. To provide context, the 100-day strike 16 years ago, which involved only writers, resulted in losses exceeding $2.1 billion.

The current Hollywood shutdown is expected to be twice as damaging financially due to the contentious issues of AI and residual pay for streaming, with both sides being far apart on these matters. The Milken Institute’s report following the 2007 strike estimated a loss of 37,700 jobs, and the number is likely higher now.