The IATSE union warns that another strike in Hollywood could be looming

Although another Hollywood shutdown seems out of the question, the motorists’ union appears optimistic about a new strike if its demands are not met.

It will take a long time before the damage caused by last year’s Hollywood attacks is healed.

Cinemas are preparing for a very difficult year in the UK, with crews still suffering from the prolonged repercussions of the months-long closure. At this point, another Hollywood shutdown is unthinkable, but IATSE, the union that keeps the American film industry going, has warned its members to prepare to strike if an agreement is not reached with the studios when the current contract expires. It comes to an end this summer.

At a rally in Encino over the weekend, Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Truck Workers, told the 2,000 assembled union members that they should be prepared to withhold work if their demands are not met.

“We’re not afraid to hit,” O’Brien said. “If these greedy companies — whether it’s Amazon, Netflix, Sony… Disney — choose not to reward our members, they are putting themselves on strike. We will put them on their backs, on their knees, begging for mercy.”

It’s the kind of inflammatory language that no one really wants to hear, but if last year’s strikes proved anything, it’s that more often than not, inflammatory rhetoric and strikes are the only language studios understand.

However, the head of the truckers’ union pushed the provocative comments into hostile territory, adding: “We have a message to the white-collar crime gangs known as the Studios.” “When you’re (we think he said ‘gurgle’ at this point, but he couldn’t here) with the Teamsters, or any other union, it’s a full contact sport. Wear your helmets and fasten your chin straps.”

OK.

O’Brien also had something to say about artificial intelligence as well, a sticking point in deal making when both actors and writers went to the negotiating table.

On that front, O’Brien said, “Those benefits need to take the pressure off our jobs, so we can enjoy our families and live this life, and not have to work 80 hours a week,” Loeb said. “If that efficiency comes, it should come to us and our jobs. We will use that to do our jobs better. But we want some of the spoils of AI.”

The general consensus around Hollywood is that another strike will not happen with the feeling that after a prolonged shutdown that lasted several months last year, there is no appetite on either side to strike and that both sides will find a way to get an agreement reached. However, IATSE is certainly talking the talk… Let’s just hope it doesn’t get to the point where the union – cliche alert – has to walk the walk. Negotiations are scheduled to begin on Monday before a deadline expires in July.

diverse