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Jun 03, 2023

L.A.’s Summer of Solidarity

Reaching across diverse backgrounds and kinds of work, thousands of union

Reaching across diverse backgrounds and kinds of work, thousands of union members are sharing strategy and stories of the struggle to live and work in Los Angeles.

by Mark Kreidler

June 8, 2023

5:00 AM

Chris Pizzello/AP Photo

Crowd members listen to a speaker during the "Unions Strike Back" rally, May 26, 2023, near Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

This article was produced by Capital & Main, an award-winning publication that reports from California on economic, political, and social issues. It is co-published here with permission.

Viewed at a distance, the gathering on Friday, May 26, in downtown Los Angeles looked familiar. Union members hoisted signs, chanted messages of solidarity as they walked city blocks. Finally they arrived at their destination, the massive convention center, where the state's Democratic Party was staging its annual meeting.

But this was no ordinary rally, and the first giveaway was the makeup of that thousands-deep crowd. There were hotel workers, certainly, but also teachers and entertainment park employees. There were Teamsters, but also actors from SAG-AFTRA and members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

A dozen unions were represented, according to those who attended, and they cut across various kinds of work in L.A., from those who cook and clean rooms to those who create and deliver Hollywood productions.

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Their common thread: finding a way to continue to both work and live here.

It could be a summer-long theme.

"There's a crisis in trying to find a place to live in L.A. full-time," said Susan Minato, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11. It represents nearly 30,000 members in Southern California who are, for example, food service workers, hotel staff and stadium and convention center workers. "It affects families, children, educational opportunities—across the board." (Disclosure: UNITE HERE is a financial supporter of Capital & Main.)

That crisis also affects workers in wholly disparate professions. And the need to address it has led to the kind of coordinated, multigroup effort that union leaders say they haven't seen in some time.

THE ABILITY TO AFFORD L.A. was a major theme of the downtown rally, during which speakers urged the state's Democratic leaders to get behind the push for improved wages and benefits that might offset part of the area's runaway rents and home prices.

But it was also a show of force. The unions involved in the event collectively represent about 200,000 members, part of an estimated 800,000 union-represented workers in Los Angeles County alone. At least 100,000 of those are on contracts that expire this summer, said Minato, whose union has about 100 separate contracts up for renegotiation.

The unions are talking to each other, in some cases regularly. Just as several have supported the WGA's strike of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which is now in its fifth week, so did the WGA show up in numbers to the May 26 event. "We’re switching up the usual L.A. studio picket schedule so writers can turn out for a historic, multiunion rally," WGA leaders said in a message to members.

"Solidarity is everything within our unions and among our unions, and we have that. We feel that," WGA President Meredith Stiehm said during the rally.

But some unions are taking that solidarity to another level—not only supporting each other, but comparing notes.

AT THE MASSIVE UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD theme park, two unions representing roughly 5,000 workers with expiring contracts are collaborating to fight for their members, many of whom draw the unincorporated Los Angeles County minimum wage of $15.96 an hour.

"The idea originated when we began to look at how we would negotiate with Universal," said Minato, whose union represents about 2,000 of the theme park's food service workers. Another 3,000 workers on the entertainment/host side are represented by IATSE Local B-192, and the unions agreed to mutually support each other's goals.

"We now attend each other's negotiating sessions," Minato said. Although the unions have distinct and separate contracts, there's enough shared interest to warrant knowing everything possible about how Universal tries to negotiate, the union co-president added.

A similar spirit led to the downtown event. Sparked by interest in the United Teachers Los Angeles negotiation with the Los Angeles Unified School District earlier this year, several unions decided to meet and discuss ways to work together through the crucial summer of expiring contracts. The rally at the Democratic convention was one result.

The idea borrows a bit from the Hollywood unions: the WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America. Those three have contracts that expire on the same three-year cycle, and both the actors union and the DGA have closely followed and learned from the WGA's ongoing negotiation. Leaders at SAG-AFTRA have called for a strike authorization ahead of the June 30 expiration of their contract, while the DGA reached a tentative settlement on a new contract over the weekend, though it still must be approved by the guild's board and membership.

CHRIS LILLIAN, 36, WORKS AT Universal Studios Hollywood as a food stand attendant, a job he describes as "front of house," meaning theme park guests interact directly with him. Four years into his employment, he earns $15.96 an hour.

For years, Lillian was able to rent an apartment in Los Angeles. But when the cost zoomed from $745 a month to $1,200 within a couple of years, he found himself unable to remain. He currently rents a room from a friend in Glendale for $600—the best he can do, he said, while remaining within reasonable commute distance of his job.

"That's the theme—housing affordability—that resonates the most for all of these workers," said Lillian, who sits on the UNITE HERE negotiating committee with Universal. "It's about chipping away at that issue. We have to have livable wages, and that means something different in Los Angeles—especially over the past several years."

The drive to afford life in L.A. is at the heart of many of the summer's negotiations. The WGA is pressing on multiple fronts, among them its desire to put guardrails on the use of AI-generated content, but many of its pressing concerns center on how writers are paid—and under what working conditions.

Though it's impossible to predict the outcome of any individual deal, that shared concern is producing a new sort of union solidarity that cuts across job titles. "Los Angeles is a union town in many ways," Minato said. "Have we always acted like a union town? Not always. This is the first time in a while that the unions are really working together to succeed."

Mark Kreidler is a California-based writer and broadcaster, and the author of three books, including ‘Four Days to Glory.’

June 8, 2023

5:00 AM

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