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The Writers Guild of America (WGA) began a work
stoppage on May 2 after failing to reach an agreement for higher
wages with media companies including Walt Disney Co, Netflix Inc
and Warner Bros Discovery Inc.
On Friday, a few hundred members of unions in the tourism and
hospitality industries, teachers, logistics workers and public
employees rallied in downtown Los Angeles in a show of unity.
The participating unions represented more than 200,000 workers
with collective bargaining agreements also due to expire in
2023, organizers said.
"It's going to be a hot labor summer," Lorena Gonzalez,
executive secretary of the California Labor Federation, told the
crowd. "It's your strength in standing together that's going to
ensure the next generation of workers have the ability to live."
Organizers said the unions had universal demands for livable
wages amid rising food, housing and transportation costs.
Writer Danielle Roderick said she hoped the writers would lead a
movement of "everybody not taking it."
"Everybody feels like they are getting eaten alive in some way,"
said Roderick, who attended the rally with her husband, also a
writer, and two children.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP),
which represents major studios, has said it offered "generous"
increases in compensation to writers. No new talks between the
two sides are scheduled.
(Reporting by Jorge Garcia and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Tom
Hogue)
(Photo: Union workers rally to fight alongside Writers Guild of
America for liveable wages and future contracts in Downtown Los
Angeles, California, U.S., May 26, 2023. REUTERS/Jorge Garcia)
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