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SAG-AFTRA members and others supporting a WGA picket line outside NBCUniversal headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York, on May 23, 2023. (Stephanie Keith / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
It was never a sure thing that the Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) would hold a strike authorization vote, a move that would grant the union’s board of directors the ability to call a strike should negotiations with the studios over a new three-year contract fall apart. The possibility has been a frequent topic of discussion on Writers Guild of America (WGA) picket lines since the writers walked off the job on May 2, but there were reasons for uncertainty.
In comments made to Deadline at a Paramount Pictures WGA picket line last month, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher seemed to downplay the similarities of the issues facing writers and actors, stating, “I don’t think that what’s very important to writers . . . is the kind of stuff that we’re going after.”
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher on a possible actors strike: “It’s a very big, complicated conversation,” she tells Deadline outside Paramount Pictures in LA today #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/lK3QXnY69b
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) May 9, 2023
The cautious tone alarmed some SAG-AFTRA members, and they responded by building pressure within the union to hold a strike authorization vote, which would give the union’s leadership the ability to call for its roughly 160,000 members to walk off the job. They noticeably increased their presence on WGA picket lines, and on May 17, the union’s board unanimously voted to recommend holding the vote.
Unlike the WGA, which is now in its second month of a strike, the actors are not particularly prone to strike. While the union struck the video game industry in 2016 and commercial producers in 2000, the union has not struck the film and television industry since a ninety-five-day walkout in 1980 (SAG and AFTRA struck separately at the time, as they only merged in 2012). The union hadn’t even held a strike authorization vote for its TV/Theatricals contract since 1986; that year, membership voted 86.8 percent in favor of authorizing a strike, but an agreement was reached without a work stoppage.
That may not happen this time. As SAG-AFTRA’s bargaining committee enters negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) today over their contract, which expires on June 30, their members have given them an overwhelming mandate to fight. The strike authorization vote returned 97.91 percent of ballots in favor of authorizing a strike, one-upping the nearly unanimous strike authorization vote held by WGA members in April (97.85 percent in favor). Turnout in the SAG-AFTRA vote was 47.69 percent; for perspective, SAG turnout to ratify the last contract in 2020 was 27 percent, with 74 percent of those ballots favoring ratification.
In other words, this is an unprecedented message to the studios: actors are willing to fight and even strike for a fair contract, and they see this as the moment to join with their coworkers in the WGA to win a future better than that which the studios have been pushing.
“The strike authorization votes have been tabulated and the membership joined their elected leadership and negotiating committee in favor of strength and solidarity,” said Drescher in a statement announcing the strike authorization results. “Together we lock elbows and in unity we build a new contract that honors our contributions in this remarkable industry, reflects the new digital and streaming business model and brings ALL our concerns for protections and benefits into the now!”
“As we enter what may be one of the most consequential negotiations in the union’s history, inflation, dwindling residuals due to streaming, and generative AI all threaten actors’ ability to earn a livelihood if our contracts are not adapted to reflect the new realities,” added SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. “This strike authorization means we enter our negotiations from a position of strength, so that we can deliver the deal our members want and deserve.”
The issues mentioned by Crabtree-Ireland sound similar to those at stake in the WGA strike. The shorter seasons that characterize streaming television have hit WGA members hard, as have streaming’s paltry residual payments compared to those enjoyed before new media came to dominate the industry. Concerns about AI echo those voiced by the WGA, and the members want regulations on the technology’s use in writing. There are also the standard needs: higher rates and improvements to the union’s health, retirement, and pension benefits.
At least one actor-specific issue is the matter of self-tapes, in which actors record their own audition tapes rather than audition in-person for a casting director. The practice has become standard in the pandemic years, and it has saved the studios an estimated $250 million just from not having to pay people to read scenes with an actor during the audition; now actors must enlist their families and friends (often meaning other actors) to do that work for free. It is hard to calculate how much more producers have saved in other costs, from renting space for auditions to assembling lighting and camera equipment. The shift is a boon to the producers, and SAG-AFTRA wants additional regulations on the practice.
Not all of Hollywood is lining up to strike simultaneously: the Directors Guild of America (DGA) is negotiating its own new contract with the AMPTP, and the two sides have just reached a tentative agreement, quashing hopes among WGA members that the directors would break from their past and unite in solidarity with them. Still, this show of unity between SAG-AFTRA and the WGA ratchets up the actors’ leverage at the bargaining table. The prospect of some of the most famous union members in the United States appearing on picket lines beside WGA members, criticizing the studios and shutting down the entire industry, is the stuff of producers’ nightmares. Come July 1, it may be their reality.
Marcus Garvin, 33, was sentenced to 45 years in prison last week for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, 30-year-old Christie Holt. Garvin’s crime was sparked by the discovery of texts between Holt and another man in which they were making fun of the suspect for his lack of a job and prospects. In a fit of rage, Garvin woke Holt up and confronted her with the texts, and after she denied their accuracy, he stabbed her 51 times with a knife.
The shocking brutality of the attack was followed by an insane attempt to hide the evidence, as Garvin spent the next six days trying to dispose of Holt’s body. He attempted to dismember it in the bathtub using a small knife but was unsuccessful.
He also used a grocery cart and a dolly to try and move the body but was unable to fit it in either. Garvin eventually dragged Holt in a motel sheet and comforter across the parking lot to a creek but was spotted by a passing clerk who immediately called the police.
When the police arrived, they found the suspect in the bathroom of room 210 and also discovered two knives on the floor near the bathtub and a cut-off GPS tracking device which Garvin was wearing following his December 2020 arrest for battery. Surprisingly, he was only granted bail of $1,500 and released free of charge by a non-profit bail program.
Garvin initially denied any knowledge of Holt’s death when interviewed by police, but once confronted with the facts, he admitted to dragging her body from his room. He explained that he still loved her and regretted his actions but said she deserved it.
Tragically, Holt’s mother, Lisa Fox, blames the justice system for her daughter’s senseless death, citing her case as a warning of the dangers of a legal system that fails to adequately protect the public from convicted criminals.
Garvin’s case is a reminder of the importance of caution towards those on pretrial release and a demand for an improved justice system that properly evaluates the risk of danger posed by offenders.
Lawfare Project turns to New York Supreme Court in bid to prevent anti-Jewish law school graduate from CUNY, Fatimah Mohammed, from being accepted to the New York State Bar.
By World Israel News Staff
A New York-based human rights group is petitioning the New York State Supreme Court to bar a law school graduate with a history of making anti-Zionist and antisemitic public statements from practicing law.
On Wednesday, The Lawfare Project urged the Character and Fitness Committees of the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division to reject any future application by Fatimah Mousa Mohammed — a recent graduate of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law — to practice law in the state.
In order to enter the legal profession, in addition to graduating from law school and passing the bar examination, the state bar requires certification of a candidate’s good moral character and fitness. According to The Lawfare Project’s petition, Mohammed’s actions – including her anti-Jewish rhetoric – make clear that she does not meet these requirements.
On May 12, 2023, at the CUNY Law School graduation ceremony, Mohammed delivered an inflammatory speech in which she used her platform to repeatedly vilified “Zionists,” “Zionism,” and the State of Israel. Expressions of hatred and prejudice towards “Zionists” are widely understood as being directed towards Jews.
Mohammed has previously published highly anti-Jewish remarks on social media and reportedly spoke at a rally held in New York City by Within Our Lifetime (WOL), an anti-Jewish hate group, during which a WOL member violently assaulted a Jewish bystander (and client of The Lawfare Project) and is currently serving an 18-month federal prison sentence. Rally participants were instructed by WOL to refer to targets as “Zionists” rather than “Jews” — just as Mohammed did during her graduation speech.
In its letter to the Character and Fitness Committees, The Lawfare Project wrote: “The legal profession plays a pivotal role in upholding the rule of law and protecting the rights of all individuals, irrespective of their religious or ethnic background.
“Lawyers must maintain impartiality and treat all clients, colleagues, and members of the public with dignity and respect. Indeed, the Application for Admission to Practice as an Attorney and Counselor-at-Law in the State of New York specifically asks applicants if they have engaged in behavior that would call into question their ability to practice law in a competent, ethical, and professional manner. Ms. Mohammed’s expression of hostile and discriminatory views leaves no doubt that she is incapable of adhering to these tenets and fulfilling her responsibilities as a legal professional.”
Benjamin Ryberg, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Research at The Lawfare Project, said Mohammed “has a history of publicly expressing prejudiced and discriminatory views, specifically demonstrating a profound animosity towards the Jewish community. These views are fundamentally incompatible with the ethical obligations and principles upheld by the legal profession and leave no question that Ms. Mohammed lacks the character and fitness to practice law.”
Anti-Israel propaganda was not the most alarming part of Mohammed’s speech, which included “rage” against American institutions and values and encouraged “revolution.”
The post Activists petition NY Supreme Court to block antisemitic CUNY Law grad from working as an attorney appeared first on World Israel News.
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Iran is known to cooperate with North Korea in the development of missile technologies, thus giving Israel and South Korea common enemies.
By TPS
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen made a quick visit to South Korea on Wednesday for discussions with the country’s leaders on the threat posed by Tehran.
“Korea understands very well the danger of a nuclear threat, and I intend to talk with my foreign minister colleagues [in various nations] about the fight against Iran,” Cohen said.
“As minister of economy [in 2017-2020], I signed a free trade agreement with Korea, and now I will work to increase trade between the countries and realize the potential of cooperation,” he added.
Iran on Tuesday revealed what it claimed was its first hypersonic missile. Iran is known to cooperate with North Korea in the development of missile technologies, thus giving Israel and South Korea common enemies.
The Fattah missile was presented at a ceremony attended by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander-in-Chief Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami and other top officials, Iran’s state-run IRNA news service reported.
According to the report, the weapon has a range of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) and a maximum speed of Mach 13-15 (9,974.5-11,509 mph).
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant appeared to address the development during a visit to the Israel Defense Forces’ Northern Command on Tuesday in the context of the “Firm Hand” multi-front exercise.
“I hear our enemies boasting about weapons they are developing. To any such development, we have an even better response, whether it be on land, in the air or in the maritime arena, including both defensive and offensive means,” he said.
Cohen arrived in Seoul following a visit to Manila, marking the first time in 56 years that an Israeli foreign minister has visited the Philippines’ capital. The Israeli foreign minister met on Monday with the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo, holding a bilateral meeting with the latter to expand business and trade relations.
Cohen’s trip comes on the heels of his tour of Central European nations Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovakia last week.
The post Israeli foreign minister talks ‘fight against Iran’ during visit to Korea appeared first on World Israel News.
UPS workers and Teamsters members during a rally outside a UPS hub in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on April 21, 2023. (Paul Frangipane / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
With the largest private sector labor contract in the United States set to expire on July 31 at midnight, the eyes of the American labor movement are on United Parcel Services (UPS) and the nearly 350,000 Teamsters like us that work there. Talk is coming from all corners of a potential strike. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) general president Sean O’Brien made it clear on day one of his presidency: if UPS does not meet the demands of the Teamsters, picket lines will go up on August 1. If this happens, the strike will be one of the largest in American history.
As the contract expiration looms less than two months away, other workers across the economy are also standing up to demand more. From a wave of successful union elections at Starbucks, Trader Joes, and other retail stores, to walkouts from Amazon to Hollywood, American workers fighting for dignity and fair compensation through collective action have momentum on their side. In return, employers have intensified their union busting.
The UPS contract fight therefore comes at a pivotal moment for US labor. What happens here could shape the direction of the movement for years to come — not only because this contract covers several hundred thousand workers who move 6 percent of US GDP daily, but also because the issues at stake in this fight are representative of those faced by workers across the economy.
This contract fight is about two visions of work in the twenty-first century. One is promoted by workers: equal pay for equal work, dignity and autonomy on the job, and a stable work-life balance. The other is promoted by Wall Street: hypersurveillance, low pay, subcontracting, gig work, and “flexible” scheduling practices that hurt workers and benefit bosses.
At UPS, the first vision of work comes from rank-and-file Teamsters. As Alex Press and other labor journalists have detailed, the roots of this contract fight go back decades.
UPS was once a hallmark of secure union jobs. Now, 60 percent of the workforce is part-time, making around the minimum wage in many regions. Drivers in many locations are forced to work six days a week and up to fourteen hours a day in forced overtime. Managers follow drivers in personal vehicles and relentlessly harass workers to scare them into working faster. In 2018, former Teamsters president James P. Hoffa forced a contract upon members, despite a majority no vote, that kept part-time wages low and established the second-tier “22.4” driver position (named for the section of the contract that establishes the position), which resulted in new drivers making less money than existing drivers despite doing the same work, and giving them fewer overtime protections.
The rank and file responded to this onslaught by organizing through the reform caucus Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and fought concessions the whole way, building a movement in the process. TDU activists organized a “vote no” campaign in 2013 and again in 2018 against concessionary contracts. Then in 2021, TDU led the successful charge to elect a coalition slate of reformers to the union’s top leadership, on a platform of taking on employers like UPS more aggressively to reverse these concessions.
Teamsters rally for the contract campaign in New York City. (Elliot Lewis)
Now, UPS Teamsters are demanding a significant pay increase for part-timers to $25 an hour, the elimination of 22.4’s two-tier wages for package-car drivers, the end to forced sixth days of work, raising pension payouts for sixty thousand workers so they’re more equal across the country, no driver-facing cameras, more holidays, and an end to subcontracting and the use of gig workers.
The expectations of rank-and-file Teamsters are high. If the two-tier wage structure of drivers is not eliminated on day one of this contract, it is a strike issue. If part-time workers do not get a significant pay increase, it is a strike issue. If all workdays beyond the five-day workweek are not totally voluntary, it is a strike issue.
The Teamsters rank and file will not accept a half-deal, trade-offs, or ‘sharing the burden’ with UPS.
Some of these demands are about regaining ground that was lost by past union administrations. For example, the two-tier driver wages were only implemented in the last contract under Hoffa Jr. But for many workers, especially those hired since the last contract, this is about fighting for more. They kept the economy running throughout the COVID-19 pandemic without a penny of hazard pay and watched UPS make record profits off their backs while working forced overtime. Of course they now want their fair share.
The widespread support of these demands through the union’s ranks and the willingness to fight for them point to a simple truth: the Teamsters rank and file will not accept a half-deal, trade-offs, or “sharing the burden” with UPS. Teamsters are demanding more.
The other vision of work comes from Wall Street, which is the real force that the Teamsters are fighting against at UPS. Seventy-two percent of UPS stocks are owned by Wall Street firms; the two largest shareholders are Vanguard Capital and BlackRock. These firms and others own and control most of the rest of our economy, meaning not just UPS but its main competitors, including FedEx and the railroads.
What does Wall Street want out of the UPS contract? Steady and massive profits.
From their perspective, UPS is one of the great success stories of the pandemic. From 2012 to 2019, UPS yearly profits ranged from $7.1 billion to $8.2 billion. In 2020, when the rest of the economy was suffering from the pandemic, UPS made over $8.7 billion in profits. In the years since, it reported the largest profits in its history: $13.1 billion in 2021 and $13.9 billion in 2022.
UPS will try to further increase these profits in the 2023 contract by asking for “flexibility” to schedule employees to work any of the seven days in a week, the installation of driver-facing cameras to further harass workers, and the continued use of gig workers to deliver packages.
The biggest impediment to Wall Street dictating terms for the entire logistics industry is the Teamsters’ UPS contract. Simply look to the competitors to see what corporations would do without an unionized counterforce at UPS: Amazon drivers paid nearly minimum wage and having their hours cut next week if they do not meet inhumane production standards this week; FedEx moving to eliminate all direct hires and switching to a 100 percent subcontractor model; workers forced to eke out a living in their cars, delivering packages, people, and food until enough money is made to pay off the car expenses and cover that month’s rent — if they’re lucky.
The biggest impediment to Wall Street dictating terms for the entire logistics industry is the Teamsters’ UPS contract.
But Wall Street does not just want profits. They want power — hoarded for themselves and as far away from us as possible. They are constantly working to create the best possible economic conditions for profit-making, and there is no better condition for that than demobilizing and dividing the working class.
For that reason, far more important than any particular concession, Wall Street wants a deal at UPS without a strike, and they will be willing to give up a few of those concessions to get it.
A two-week strike could cost UPS approximately $3.2 billion. But more important, a strike at UPS would be the largest demonstration of working-class power seen in the post-COVID-19 economy. Every worker across the economy would learn that they have the power to win better conditions through the collective action of simply withholding their labor. That result is what Wall Street fears the most.
Unfortunately for UPS, the Teamsters will not be shaken. A strike authorization vote for UPS Teamsters is set to begin this week; IBT general president Sean O’Brien has urged all members to vote yes. TDU will work to ensure that the national negotiating committee receives the largest “yes” vote possible.
The UPS contract fight matters for the entire working class. If we want workers at Amazon, FedEx, and throughout the country to know that organizing a union leads to better pay and working conditions, greater control over their working lives, and opens the door to a better world, then there is no better opportunity to show what we mean than a strike victory against UPS and Wall Street this summer. A national, high-visibility strike led by a newly reformed union could point the way forward for many workers across the economy and reinvigorate the labor movement as a whole, by demonstrating that our collective power does not come from leaders at the bargaining table, but from the essential labor that rank-and-file workers perform to keep society running, and our power to withhold it.
A UPS Teamster contract rally in New York City. (Elliot Lewis)
The contract fight at UPS started nearly a year ago. Last August, Teamsters had contract kickoff rallies around the country. In the fall, UPS workers around the country filled out contract surveys, affirming the popularity of ambitious demands. Over the winter, thousands of Teamsters stood at gates and in break rooms handing out contract unity pledge cards, to educate each other and build support for the major contract demands they are willing to strike over.
UPS Teamsters have been holding rallies across the country to demand a fair contract. (Elliot Lewis)
In the spring, they held contract action team trainings around the country to map their workplaces, select picket captains, and develop organizing plans to engage their coworkers. And in the last month, rank-and-file TDU activists began petitioning at dozens of UPS “barns” to demand the company accept a higher national pension plan and raise part-time pay to $25 an hour. They remain firm in their high expectations. They want to win the best contract in Teamster history, and they’ll be willing to hit the streets in a walkoff on August 1 to do it if they have to.
While UPS will do everything it can to negotiate a settlement before August 1, ultimately, the decision to strike will come down to the 340,000 UPS Teamsters who have fought concessions for decades and now have the wind at their backs. At the 2021 IBT Convention, TDU activists led the successful charge to end the hated rule that allowed Hoffa Jr to force the last contract on UPSers in 2018. Now a simple majority vote will rule on a contract vote.
Will a majority of UPS Teamsters even accept a tentative agreement without striking, given the immense power they know they have, the ground they need to recover, the public support they enjoy, and how much they have to gain? Thanks to decades-long reform efforts, that will be their decision to make.
This article was copublished with Labor Notes.
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