Chapter 4: EPIDEMIC AND RESURGING LABOR MOVEMENT

This section will go into the effects of the 2006 Writers Guild Association strike on Local 161’s contract negotiations during that year and beyond. The section will also go into the local’s fight to maintain the film tax credit in both Massachusetts and Louisiana. Finally, the discussion ends by analyzing the COVID-19 epidemic’s effects on the local’s organizing efforts in the 2020s.

 The Writer’s Strike of 2006

In 2006, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) initiated a strike over residuals. Residuals are compensations paid for the reuse of a credited writer's work. In the context of a looming economic recession, they striked for 100 days and won important wage bumps, and a slight increase in their residuals in DVDs and news media.^[1][2] Yet, with WGA’s partial victory, the AMPTP and other companies felt pressured to give better contracts to other unions. IATSE Local 16 under President Lynn Twentyman’s leadership, took advantage of this strike to successfully negotiate the expansion of the majors contract to include digital media in the form of computers, DVDs, and websites, as well as wage increases for local members.

Unlike other contracts the AMPTP negotiated with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and DGA, 161 was able to avoid self pay portions. Self pay was a way to make workers pay for part of their coverage in their Motion Picture Industry and Health Plan. However, they made a concession on the number of work hours required for healthcare coverage. Overall during the 2000s, the Local made steady gains without having to engage in long arduous battles over its jurisdiction. The 2006 Writers Guild strike’s impact on the local was positive, paving the way for expanded coverage in the contract for members working in digital media.

Organizing Around Tax Credits:

After the contract negotiations, the biggest challenge for the Local’s existence in the 2000s came from the government, not the business community. On July 1st 2015, it was reported that the state governments of Louisiana and Massachusetts were considering removing their tax credits. In April, Florida and North Carolina had already lost their film tax incentive programs and several other states had reduced or eliminated theirs.^[3] For the entertainment industry and for workers this was interpreted as a threat to their employment. The profits generated from tax credits arguably stabilized employment in the industry. 161 mobilized with the film and business community to stop this and at least in Massachusetts the film credit tax incentive stayed. After securing this tax credit, the fears of destabilization of employment was reduced.  

  Labor and the COVID-19 Pandemic:

No one expected that COVID-19 was going to shift the industry which caused untold amounts of suffering for entertainment workers, as well as contributing to a steady organizing push within the industry. The ability for the Locals to gain more in the contract came as the Union movement became more active during COVID-19 epidemic. There was a decrease in the supply of available workers for film for the first time in recent history; many industries were looking for workers during the Great Resignation because millions of workers were changing professions due to workplace inequalities and finding new opportunities elsewhere.^[4] In the context of the Entertainment industry, many workers perceived  the television and film industry as uncompassionate. Workers thought that the industry did not not care about their lives and only focused on profit margins. This spurred organizing all across the country and in Local 161. As Kate Brofenbrenner, a Cornell University Labor historian, said,

Covid was a wake-up call, because it wasn't just you could get injured on the job, but going to work could kill you. Workers are feeling like they're working harder than ever and they put themselves out there during Covid and risked their lives for what? ^[5]

In 2021, over 100,000 workers went out on strike or engaged in work stoppages. In 2022, there were an estimated 417 strikes and seven lockouts involving 224,000 workers. This was an increase from the 140,000 workers on strike in 2021. Even though this was, and continues to be a tough time for many members, it transformed the television and film industry by encouraging workers to organize.

The COVID-19 pandemic deeply impacted the entertainment industry’s profits; this loss in profits generated a strong interest from corporate executives to get back to production despite the continued mortality of the disease. Ibisworld, a company that provides industry research on thousands of industries worldwide, estimated that global movie production and distribution revenues plummeted 11.7 percent in 2020 or 113.31 billion dollars. Between 2016 and 2021, global revenues had declined at an annualized rate of 1.6 percent.^[6] For entertainment corporations there was a necessity to reverse this trend even in the face of a growing pandemic. Thus, in coordination with unions, mixed hybrid workspaces were created that combined work at home, social distancing, masks, and mandatory vaccination mandates.^[7] Yet, even with these measures, workers continued to suffer. They suffered a loss of income due to the lack of work. When they did get work, they had to face the same long hours, irregular schedule, and lack of control of their workplace. These conditions, the tight labor market, and the callousness of the entertainment industry executives were all important factors that drove workers to start to organize. As Laura Fearon,  a production accountant and the most recent president of Local 161 described.:

Prior to 2021 there was general chatter and gripes about the industry, working conditions in accounting, etc- but in 2020 when we returned to work during the pandemic the entirety of the work process for accountants was changed and that really frustrated a lot of accountants. I could see the convos brewing in union meetings, but also online on social media (facebook especially) where people wanted change but had no place to talk about it. So I purchased a zoom account so I could hold bigger meetings, emailed every accountant I knew (whether they were in the union or not) and asked them if they wanted to start talking about stuff and trying to make it better.

This process mirrors many workers in other industries. Frustrated by the current conditions, workers decided either spontaneously, or with the help of organizers, to begin fighting to change their workplace. Fearon along with fellow Production Accountants organized the In two years, Production Accountants across the industry organized the Accounting Alliance with Laura Fearon as its President. This alliance provided industry training to Production Accountants. The Alliance also became an important force towards jump starting organizing campaigns to get accountants a contract with the AMPTP. Many of its members contributed to getting Laura Fearon elected to the Local 161 presidency. Finally this alliance spurred the development of organizing committees of Production Accountants across the industry with the purpose of getting the AMPTP to recognize their bargaining rights in 2023. Before the Accounting Alliance, IATSE Local 161 under President Jill Reurs set up an ad hoc accounting committee with Josh Dease as the chair on March 31, 2016. This was set up to serve as a place for accountants to share and get information. But, the tough work of organizing accountants and winning bargaining rights did not happen until the Accounting alliance emerged.

        The official links between SAG-AFTRA’s strike in 2023 and IATSE Local 161’s organizing of Production Accountants were informal; but what they did share was a steady growth in the organizing efforts of all entertainment unions. According to the Harvard Business Review the number of unionized workers in internet publishing has grown twenty-fold since 2010.^[8] The international IATSE union in the 2020s organized thousands of freelance workers in a campaign called “Stand with Production”.^[9] What these campaigns and victories represented was not a revival of the labor movement however, but reveal the current state of it. As of 2024, the most active sections of the labor movement are white collar workers. In fact in 2023, 191,000 workers joined unions. At the same time, the percentage of workers represented by a union decreased from 11.3% to 11.2% as unions were unable to keep pace with job growth.^[10] Many of these new union members came from the entertainment, education sector rather than low wage blue collar workers. Despite this limitation, the growth of these new unions in sectors of the economy like acting, entertainment, education, and retail these visible struggles do have an ability to change public perception of unions.^[11] In an economy that advocates college education over technical prowess for individual advancement perhaps it makes sense that the new face of the union is an educated white collar worker?

A criticism of the piece is that it leaves out the effects that this then had on the  wider implications on the social justice movement.