The SAG-AFTRA building on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile district. Victor Decolongon/Getty Images Hollywood has more union staffer organizing on its hands.
Amid an ongoing Writers Guild of America West staff strike, communications and marketing workers at the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA announced on Thursday their intention to unionize with the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, Unite Auto Workers Local 2320.
According to the the national union, which already represents organizers at SAG-AFTRA, the majority of staffers have signed union authorization cards.
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The NOLSW is attempting to organize a group of around 16 people including writers, magazine staffers, social media workers, audio and video producers, event planners, publicists and others.
“SAG-AFTRA’s award-winning Communications and Marketing staff create the messaging, media, audio and images that establish SAG-AFTRA as the world’s most powerful institution for improving the lives of media artists,” said NOLSW president Rachel Thomas in a statement. “NOLSW is proud to stand with this team as they seek the wages, working conditions and A.I. guardrails they deserve.”
The announcement comes as SAG-AFTRA takes a break from negotiations with studios and streamers over its next three-year film and television deal, with talks set to resume later this spring. Given that so many staffers in the union touch some part of these negotiations, that timing could improve the leverage of the workers, who are seeking voluntary recognition from their employer rather than an election at the National Labor Relations Board.
The WGA West provides an example of what can happen if both parties don’t come to an agreement. Its weeks-long staff union strike has coincided with its ongoing negotiations with the AMPTP, leaving the union without the full staffing that it would ordinarily enjoy during the bargaining period. Staffers have protested the building where negotiations are taking place — which is, ironically, the SAG-AFTRA building — for more than a week.
More to come.
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