I keep hoping any day now there'll be a news release from AMPTP announcing a "March Of The Moguls" down Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu -- but no.
Instead, WGA West has the assistants strike happening today. There's a central picket between 12 Noon until 2 PM at the Main Gate (Pico & Motor) of the Fox lot. Invited are assistants and other “below-the-line” employees ("particularly those who have been laid-off by the media conglomerates")
Tuesday is the big March Of The Writers down Hollywood Boulevard. This so-called "Labor Solidarity with Writers" rally is intended to "write a new chapter in Hollywood history". Invited are film and TV writers, actors, musicians, Teamsters, Service Employees International Union, California Nurses Association employees and other unions. It kicks off at 1 PM at the corner of Ivar Ave and Hollywood Blvd and at 1:30 PM heads west to Orange Drive. (I'd been originally told it was from 9:30 AM to 12 Noon, but now it looks as if the time has been changed.)
WGA East on Tuesday keeps taking their protest to the Big Media conglomerates, this time Sony Plaza at 56th and Madison Avenue in NYC.
Meanwhile, photographer Jim Stevenson snapped this arty pic of the John Edwards rally Friday outside NBC:
Hey all,
I pulled an early, early (5am-7am) picketing shift at the Fox truck gate (on Pico, just south of Motor). I wanted to share the good news that in the 2 hours that I was there this morning, 7 different Teamster trucks honored our picket lines! 4 of ‘em (by my count) sat in the median for a bit less than an hour, then eventually drove away, refusing to cross. 1 of the trucks was idling in the median for about an hour, refusing to cross, ‘til Fox found a manager willing to drive it on the lot in the Teamster’s place. 1 of the trucks was idling in the median for about a half hour or so ‘til they found a manager willing to unload the trailer (bearing two small tractors) right there in the middle of the street. And another 1 of the trucks was still idling in the Pico median as I left, with the Teamster driver still sitting inside, smoking a cigarette, refusing to cross our line.
This marks the best showing yet (at least that I’ve personally seen) of Teamsters choosing to honor the Fox lot picket line.
As to why it’s happening, folks on the line floated two theories. Theory #1 is that, given the fact that there’s a multi-union solidarity rally in the offing tomorrow, perhaps any Teamsters planning on attending would like to be able to point to something that they, themselves, have done to advance the cause.
It also is the sad case that a Teamster was fired on Friday morning at Fox for refusing to cross our line (he sat in his truck, in the Pico median, for 2 and a half hours ‘til a Fox manager finally came out, took his truck, and fired him!). That’s a story I will post a bit more about later, just as soon as I get clearance from the Guild that it’d be copasetic to do so. Anyway, given this fact, Theory #2 about this morning’s response (by some Teamsters) to today’s picket at the Fox Gate is that the Teamsters (or at least a few of them) are righteously pissed that one of their own was fired on Friday for exercising his legal, contractual right to honor a picket line, and are demonstrating that anger the most meaningful way possible: by refusing to work.
Personally, I almost hope that theory #2 is the correct one, ‘cause it’d reveal the Alliance as having made yet another strategic blunder in this fight: effing, unnecessarily, with the Teamsters.
In any event, obviously, the studios aren’t gonna be shaken to their knees by a total of 7 trucks delayed or turned around. This is, of course, a blip on the radar to them. Cumulatively, though, I think days like this can make a difference. And, in any event, the morale boost on the line this morning was a real one. Any time you see 5 or 6 trucks huge lined up in a street median (going back two blocks), just sitting there, for huge stretches of time, as an expression of solidarity with you and your fight, well, it’s a heartening and comforting feeling of support and solidarity… a feeling that the folks on other side of this fight are incapable of experiencing, themselves. I almost pity them for that.
Best,
Patrick Meighan
Culver City, CA
p.s.: In case anyone’s wondering why I only picketed 2 hours this morning, it’s ‘cause I’ll be going back to the Fox Lot at noon for the Assistants’ Picket. If yer goin’ too, I’ll see you there!
Comment by Patrick Meighan — November 19, 2007 @ 9:32 am
Spago’s every night at 9, I suppose.
Comment by mla28 — November 19, 2007 @ 4:30 pm