The union representing the New York Times newsroom filed a grievance Thursday challenging the company’s announcement that it plans to shutter its standalone sports desk and rely on the Athletic for its sports coverage in print and online. The grievance, sent from the NewsGuild to Times executives, accused the company of violating the union contract by “unilaterally removing bargaining unit work and by assigning such work to non-bargaining unit employees, namely the employees of The Athletic, a company owned by the New York Times.”
Writers Guild members at Sesame Workshop have reached a tentative deal with management to avoid a threatened strike. A ratification vote on the new five-year collective bargaining agreement will be held in the coming days. The writers had voted earlier to authorize a strike against the nonprofit organization, and picketing would have begun April 24 outside Sesame Workshop’s offices in New York City, had a deal not been struck.
IATSE leadership told members on Friday that they’re gaining “momentum” in negotiations with the studios, as another local union reached a tentative agreement. IATSE Local 871, which represents script supervisors, writers’ assistants, accountants and others, reached an agreement on its craft-specific issues on Wednesday. That makes seven of the 13 West Coast locals that have reached tentative deals.
SAG-AFTRA members on Friday ratified the 2023 Television Animation Agreement and the 2023 Basic Cable Animation Agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The new three-year contracts were overwhelmingly approved by a vote of 95.52% to 4.48%.
Back at the bargaining table with the studios this week after several days of caucusing, IATSE on Tuesday laid out its plans for the next phase of talks as a contract-expiration date inched closer for a tense Hollywood. The current IATSE contracts expire July 31.
IATSE resumed negotiations with the major studios on Monday, with a day spent focused on items relevant to the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. IATSE began talks earlier this month, as it seeks to address artificial intelligence, see wage increases to make up for inflation, and close a significant shortfall in its pension and health fund.
Exclusives
The crew union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are tentatively scheduled to discuss the specific concerns of the cinematographers’ and editors’ unions, among others, after nearly a week of internal discussions.
The Guild is negotiating jointly with Teamsters and Basic Crafts unions for a new studio pension and health plan. (IATSE/MPTF/Teamsters photo)
The “Many Crafts, One Fight” event brought the industry labor movement together just months after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes ended as below-the-line unions threatened yet another paralyzing work stoppage. (Gary Baum photo)
CBS News Digital writers and editors unionized with the Writers Guild of America East in a move to ensure collective bargaining with management. The 46-member bargaining unit has called on CBS News management to voluntarily recognize their union without delay. A majority of guild members signed union cards and requested management recognize the union on Monday.
The newsroom, which is working under an expired labor contract, will strike for a day and hold a “Rally to Save Local Journalism” in downtown Los Angeles.
The L.A. Times Guild called an emergency meeting on Thursday after leadership was told that the newspaper intends to “imminently execute another major round of layoffs,” according to a memo. The Bargaining Committee told members that it can’t say exactly how many staffers the company is intending to lay off, however, in the memo obtained by the New York Times, the union says “This is the Big One.”
IATSE President Matthew Loeb did not mince words Tuesday when asked if his local unions were willing to strike if this spring’s contract negotiations with the AMPTP did not go well. “Nothing’s off the table, and we’re not going to give up our strength and our ability because they sapped us,” said Loeb to cheers at a CES panel of Hollywood labor leaders. “Everybody’s bank account got sapped because they were unreasonable for months and months. My folks aren’t going to just settle.”
The AFL-CIO is pushing for Disney and Apple to explain how they use artificial intelligence.
The Labor Innovation and Technology Summit will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 9-10, alongside CES 2024, focusing on how the tech innovation revolution affects the American workforce. The unions will […]
The tentative agreement would end 18 months of negotiations that included a one-day work stoppage.
A petition additionally asks news outlets to bargain over the technology with workers outside of contract negotiations and to commit to never replacing a human with an AI tool.
A midshow spat between comedian Dave Chappelle and a fan. Division within the writers’ union after months of solidarity. Private discussions among Hollywood executives and stars about antisemitism. The entertainment industry is grappling with the same debates over Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks and Israel’s response that are playing out on college campuses, in offices and among friends.
Several subsidiaries of the crew union are bolstering their internal communications strategies before their labor contract with studios expires on July 31, 2024.
The NewsGuild is seeking to compel a journalist to give up his communications with his sources, as well as his correspondence with a former New York Times columnist. The move is part of an ongoing legal battle between the guild, the largest journalism union in the country, and Mike Elk, a former member and independent labor reporter.
Lowell Peterson‘s tenure as executive director of the Writers Guild of America East was destined to be bookended by strikes. After 15 years at the helm, Peterson will step down from his post as of Nov. 15 when his current three-year contract expires. WGA East leaders credited Peterson with nearly doubling the size of its membership and rebuilding the union’s staff and infrastructure since he took the helm in May 2008. That was three months after the Writers Guild of America concluded a 100-day strike against Hollywood’s largest employers.
Walt Disney Pictures visual effects workers voted to unionize under the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. IATSE International President Matthew D. Loeb, in a statement, said the workers’ collective action “represents a seismic shift in this critical moment in our industry.” “This unanimous vote sends a clear message that the demands of VFX workers for dignity, respect, and fairness must be heard,” Loeb said. VFX workers have historically been nonunionized, despite working alongside crew members who have long been organized under IATSE. Earlier this year, VFX workers at Disney’s Marvel Studios voted to join the union.
“At some point you have to say no more,” Drescher, the former Nanny star who is now president of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, said in an interview at the union’s headquarters Wednesday. “I think that it’s taken on a bigger scope, it’s greater than the sum of its parts. I think it’s a conversation now about the culture of big business, and how it treats everybody up and down the ladder in the name of profit.”
Actors guild says it is in contact with Frankel’s attorney and seeks to “engage in a new path to union coverage.”
It’s the latest evolution for scrappy nonprofit Mississippi Today, founded seven years ago by former NBC News executive Andy Lack. Pictured: Mississippi Today reporter Anna Wolfe (center), with her parents, Bethel and Chris Wolfe, celebrating the news that she had won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in Jackson, Miss., in May. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
The Screen Actors Guild -American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said early Thursday that its decision on whether to join already striking screenwriters will be considered by leadership at a meeting later Thursday. If the actors go on strike, it will be the first time since 1960 that actors and writers picket film and television productions.
