On the picket line

End in sight for writers’ strike

After three long months on strike, the Writers Guild of America, East and West, announced a three-year contract on Feb. 9 that won almost all the payment terms they wanted for work shown on new electronic media. If the writers vote to end the strike before they ratify the contract, which will take several weeks, they will be at their computers on Feb. 13.

One of the precedent-setting new terms is that in the third year of the contract writers will be paid two percent of the distributors’ gross revenue rather than a fixed residual of $1,300 for Web-streamed television shows. Another major gain is that residuals for electronic downloads of movies and television will be calculated at nearly double the rate currently paid for DVDs, which will also be based on a percentage of the distributors’ revenue. The only concerns raised by writers at a membership meeting in Hollywood on Feb. 9 were 17- and 24-day windows for free content reuse on the Internet and relatively low fees for cable syndication. (unitedhollywood.com)

This strike proved, yet again, that when the bosses refuse to meet the workers’ just demands, the most powerful way they can show their strength is by withholding their labor power. Another entertainment industry contract is set to expire on June 30—that of the 120,000-member Screen Actors Guild. Will the actors benefit from the writers’ contract, or will they too be forced to strike? Stay tuned.

Day laborers sue Chicago

On Dec. 5, two day laborers, assisted by the Chicago Committee for the Right to Work and the Latino Union of Chicago, filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Chicago. They charged city police with systematically harassing and falsely arresting workers who gather on street corners in search of work. The workers, who are predominantly immigrants from Latin America, allege wrongful detention, violation of First Amendment rights, conspiracy to violate civil rights and malicious prosecution. In These Times reported in January that 150 such cases have been thrown out.

According to a 2006 report by UCLA’s Center for the Study of Urban Poverty, there are approximately 117,000 day laborers in the U.S., with about 800 in Chicago. The study showed that day laborers in the Midwest suffer the highest level of police abuse. Of the workers surveyed, 34 percent reported that police forced them to leave the area where they sought work, 27 percent had their immigration status checked, and 24 percent were photographed or videotaped. In one outrageous sting operation, undercover Chicago cops posing as contractors lured workers to a Home Depot to discuss employment terms and then arrested them for criminal trespass!

Grocery workers win contracts

Grocery workers represented by Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 in Eugene, Ore., signed a new contract in January with decent health care coverage and raises after a year of resisting the bosses’ demands for reduced benefits and bonuses instead of raises. Victories like this have been taking place all over the country thanks to workers’ strength and community solidarity. For instance, in November 2007, UFCW reported that 25,000 grocery workers at Save Mart (Lucky in the Bay Area), Raley’s and Bel Air Markets in Northern California won across-the-board raises, improved benefits and guarantees of the same contract expiration date for all locals. After threatening to strike, Local 1099 signed a contract providing affordable health care, secure retirement and wage increases for 11,000 Kroger workers in southwestern Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana. Meanwhile other locals from Memphis to Vancouver are still struggling for decent contracts.

S.F. Labor Council backs Gulf Coast housing act

On Jan. 15, the San Francisco Labor Council passed a unanimous resolution supporting the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act, pending in the Senate (S. 1668), “which calls for one-for-one affordable replacement of any public housing units demolished, and honors the right of return of New Orleans residents displaced by the floods of Katrina and Rita.” The resolution urged the California Labor Federation and the AFL-CIO to get behind the bill.