AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler will join striking actors and writers on the picket line Thursday morning at Fox Studios in Los Angeles. On Tuesday, she joined picketers outside Netflix offices in New York City. “When we fight together, we win together. And we won’t stop fighting until workers have a fair contract!” she tweeted the other day.
SAG-AFTRA noted that she’ll be joining “striking women writers, performers on picket line in Century City,” including Meredith Stiehm, president of the WGA West, and SAG-AFTRA national board members Frances Fisher and Shari Belafonte. SAG-AFTRA is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, as is the WGA East. But the WGA West is not.
The WGA East affiliated with the AFL-CIO in 1989 following a strike against the news divisions of ABC and CBS. The WGA West considered joining then too, but despite the recommendation of its board of directors, members voted it down 30 years ago this month.
Local labor leaders who will be on hand include Yvonne Wheeler, newly elected president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, executive secretary treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
“The entire labor movement, locally and nationally, is squarely behind the writers and performers seeking a fair deal and joins them in calling on the studios and streamers to get back to the table immediately to negotiate a fair contract in good faith,” SAG-AFTRA said today, noting that the guilds are demanding “a fair contract that delivers a fair share of the massive profits from streaming and other entertainment services to the writers and performers who are the lifeblood of the industry.”
Picketing begins at 9 AM and the program will start at 10:30 AM.
