labor
How the Hollywood Strikes Hit U.K. Film, TV Production Spend in 2023
The film and TV production boom in the U.K. came to a grinding halt in 2023 amid the Hollywood writers and actors strikes. According to the British Film Institute, the total spend on film and high-end TV production last year reached £4.23 billion ($5.37 billion) from 394 productions, down 35 percent from £6.27 billion ($7.72 […]
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The Onion Union Reaches Tentative Deal With Management, Averting Strike
A strike has been averted at The Onion and several of its sister publications, at least for now. Hours before their current labor agreement was set to expire, The Onion union — representing staffers at The Onion, Onion Labs, The A.V. Club, Deadspin and The Takeout — reached a tentative deal on a new contract with owners G/O Media. […]
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The Next Labor Battle: IATSE and Teamsters to Begin Negotiations in Early March, Starting With Benefits
Hollywood’s top crew unions have announced that they will be bargaining their health and pension benefits together at the outset of their 2024 labor negotiations with studios and streamers. IATSE and the Hollywood Basic Crafts coalition (which includes Teamsters Local 399) announced on Wednesday that they will jointly negotiate their Motion Picture Pension and Health […]
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U.S. ‘Avatar’ Workers Vote to Unionize In Boost for VFX Organizing Effort
U.S.-based visual effects artists who help bring James Cameron’s Avatar epics to life have voted to unionize in a National Labor Relations Board election. Of an eligible 88 workers at Walt Disney Studios subsidiary TCF US Productions 27, Inc. who assist with productions for Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, 57 voted to join the union and 19 […]
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Writers Guild East Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against G/O Media Amid Fraught Negotiations
The Writers Guild of America East has filed an unfair labor practice charge against G/O Media, alleging that the media holding company has been “bargaining in bad faith” in ongoing negotiations over a new labor contract for creative staffers. On Thursday the writers’ union alleged in the complaint to the National Labor Relations Board that […]
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The Media Is Melting Down, and Neither Billionaires Nor Journalists Can Seem to Stop It
It wasn’t all that long ago that a billionaire buying a storied news publication was a sign of hope and optimism. After all, they had money to lose, and they earned their fortunes by creating something new. Maybe they could figure out how to make media work? And what about private equity? It’s an industry […]
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In Major Deal, Directors Guild Retroactively Secures Writers’ Streaming Success Bonus
Nearly seven months after it ratified its latest labor contract with Hollywood studios and streamers, the Directors Guild of America has improved upon some of that deal’s terms — and gained a cornerstone achievement of the 2023 writers strike. The union informed members Thursday that it had secured the same streaming success bonus and access […]
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Condé Nast Union Members Launch 24-Hour Walkout Amid Layoff Talks
Union members who work at Condé Nast brands including Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ will be walking off the job on Tuesday to protest negotiations conduct that they claim violates labor law. More than 400 Condé Nast Union members at those three publications as well as Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious, […]
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As Musicians Start Talks With Studios, Hollywood Labor Leaders Lend Support In Picket
The leader of the American Federation of Musicians proclaimed that Hollywood labor is “in a new era” as dozens of members of various entertainment unions came to the doorstep of studio labor negotiators in support of the start of his union’s contract negotiations on Monday. As an early drizzle that morning turned into driving rain, […]
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Sports Illustrated Hit With “Mass Layoffs,” Union Says
On Friday the storied publication Sports Illustrated began laying off staffers en masse as the outlet’s union warned that “possibly all” of its guild-represented staffers could be affected. “Earlier today the workers of Sports Illustrated were notified that The Arena Group is planning to lay off a significant number, possibly all, of the Guild-represented workers […]
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Unionized ‘Ridiculousness’ Staffers Leaflet Production In Effort to Start Negotiating First Contract
Early on Friday morning, 10 unionized creative consultants on the MTV comedy show Ridiculousness distributed leaflets at the show’s production location in Van Nuys in an effort to start negotiating a first contract. The staffers unionized with the Writers Guild of America West after a National Labor Relations Board vote in September, but according to […]
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Los Angeles Times Staffers Plan First Newsroom Union Walkout in Paper’s History
In response to “significant” planned layoffs, unionized staffers at the Los Angeles Times are launching a one-day strike on Friday. The walkout — which the Los Angeles Times Guild is calling the first newsroom union strike in the paper’s history — is taking place in response to layoffs that management announced on Thursday as a […]
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