Labor flexes solidarity: Protestors join SAG-AFTRA, Writers Guild of America, East rally
Hollywood’s unionized actors and writers rallied outside the Manhattan offices of Amazon and HBO on Tuesday, Aug. 22, with a few hundred of their unionized friends, in an effort to show their labor muscle.
Picketing members of SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGA) completely covered two long blocks—between 31st and 33rd Streets on 10th Avenue—with posters, placards, horn-honking trucks, whistles, megaphones, drums, and enthusiasm. A serious and determined group, they chanted “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Corporate greed has got to go” and “Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? Union power!” and marched while calling for attention to their ongoing strike.
SAG-AFTRA and WGA leaders had called on other unions to join them in this “National Day of Solidarity” in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In New York, several other unions were quick to join the rally. Members of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council (HTC), New York State Nurses Association, American Federation of Musicians, LIUNA (Laborer’s International Union––Laborers Local 79), NewsGuild of New York, and Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) were among the more prominent picketers taking part in the rally.
“This contract is about healthcare,” said SAG-AFTRA member Alphonso Walker Jr. “I want to be sure I’ll be able to take care of myself when I’m not at work. Most times as an actor, you’re not on set all the time—you have what I call survival jobs. Acting is not necessarily what everyone is able to do full time. People are trying to make a living at this, trying to support their families.”
WGA members began their strike on May 2 and SAG-AFTRA members stopped work on Hollywood projects on July 14. Negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have remained stalled over issues such as fair compensation for work that ends up on streaming video services like Netflix, Amazon, and HBO; how artificial intelligence will be used; and sustainable health and retirement funds.
Jose Cruz, who is now retired but still a supporter of his LiUNA Laborers Local 79, said he knew it was important to come out and support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA workers after coming to New York in the 1980s and working here for decades. He said it’s important for union workers to show their strength in situations like this. “We have to show that we are fighting for the city,” he said. “If we want to keep it, help it to grow, we have to support unions, or we’ll be in very bad conditions.”
Alphonso Walker Jr. said the day of protest was energizing, but not working has been tough. “What I’ve been trying to do is stay my course, keep my faith, remembering who I am outside of what I do. Because it gets lonely and it gets confusing; you have to think about ‘how am I going to eat, how am I going to put food on my table?’
“Listen,” he added, “I’ve been praying a lot, I’ve been praying a lot! God is good; God is good all the time. And look, when they see us out here, all these numbers of all these people out here, they have to concede and give us what we need.”
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