(film reel clattering) - Welcome to today's Ethnic Media Service Zoom news briefing.

I'm Pilar Marrero, and I'm assistant editor of EMS.

Our panelists will provide the frontline view of striking workers and the point of view of labor experts on the larger issue at stake.

[background music] In the panel, we have California State Senator Maria Elena Durazo from the 26th District.

She's a former labor leader.

Ada Briceño, co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11; Jorge Rivera, vice-chair of the Latinx Writers Committee.

Welcome, Senator.

What is your take about the hot summer of labor the multiple strikes and labor actions we are seeing and what they say about this country's ability to have a healthy and well-compensated working and middle class?

- [Maria] Well?

Buenos días, Pilar!

And, I really appreciate you bringing it together.

I just wanna say my whole life's work-- my whole lifetime has been in the labor movement and not just with titles, [background music fades] but as a working-class person.

And, I think that's really important because when we worked as migrant farmworkers from town to town to town, we did not have shelter.

So, we were homeless much of the time.

We didn't have health care, access to health care.

And, of course, we lived in poverty for poverty wages for a very, very powerful, very wealthy industry.

So, it wasn't that the industry couldn't afford it or it wasn't that there was some economic downturn.

It was simply that the workers didn't have the power of collective bargaining.

And now, we have different issues.

But, I just wanna remind us too, Pilar, that a couple of decades ago in the '80s and '90s we had a massive resurgence of the labor movement.

And, it was very, very important as you look at California today.

And, our progressive policies was based on the labor movement of the '80s and '90s as it continued.

And, that labor movement was led by Latinos primarily, but it was led by immigrant workers.

And, they had a vision.

These immigrant workers had a vision not only to address poverty wages and exploitation and no access to health care, but they also had a vision of changing the system.

So, as we look now to the rise in the activism and all these extraordinary courageous positions that the labor movement is taking, we also should measure the power that will be gained as a result of those strikes as to what it means to the rest of working-class people.

So that's, I think, really important to stand back and get that perspective.

California would not be what it is today, by far the most progressive state in the country, if we had not had a labor movement in the '80s and '90s, again, led by Latinos and immigrants, if that hadn't happened.

So, as we look at this, I obviously give great...applause and respect to the Writers Guild.

I mean, we had just a few months ago, we had 60,000-?

was it 60,000 of the UC workers?

40,000 of the UC workers, right?

Who went out on strike.

Now, that didn't happen overnight.

That didn't happen just 'cause they were angry about something.

It took many years to get there.

So, the most powerful parts of our labor movement, like this-- it's not gonna be the summer of 2023.

It's gonna be what happens as a result of the summer of 2023 and what it does not only for those individual unions, but what it does for all of the working-class people.

So, I would challenge us to look at it in a deeper way.

- [Pilar] Senator, thank you.

Just one question.

What are the next steps for labor?

And, are you and your colleagues in California legislature offering any policy solutions to this issue?

- [Maria] We're always looking at the policy issues.

One of the biggest economic drivers I think to these strikes, maybe not every individual person, is the cost of housing.

That is a major issue that is pushing for such militancy in the-- through the strikes.

And, that points to people not having enough.

They don't make enough to pay the rent or to pay the mortgage.

And so, we look at all the impact that is pushing towards the militancy that is taking place right now.

So, we have to look at, as legislators, what are our policies on housing?

That's not the solution.

That's merely being a partner, being an ally to the kinds of issues that are being taken on.

The gig economy.

The gig economy was welcomed; it was a progressive thing to do.

Look at us-- anybody who didn't know how to use the internet was seen as a, you know?

"You're a dinosaur.

You're past your time."

And, look at what the gig economy is doing to our economy overall.

You know why?

Because they didn't take workers into account.

Because they didn't think about what it was going to do to destroy working families and our ability to support ourselves.

We have to look at, and we have taken a look at, pieces of the gig economy, Uber, and Lyft, and those companies.

We took on-- Back then, Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez took on that issue in a big way, in a significant way.

It was a real fight.

It was a real battle.

So, we tried to take on from big issues like that to things like, "okay, how about sick leave?"

Sick pay, right?

So, there's a proposal right now to increase paid sick leave to seven days.

We were also, in certain policies, helped the minor league baseball players win their fight for recognition.

So, there are pieces and there are ways in which we are allies in passing.

And then, I don't have time right now, Pilar, but looking to the future and not just right now is our green economy.

And, the state is investing-- tens of billions will result in maybe hundreds of billions together with federal funding.

What is our future economy?

How are we preparing for that green manufacturing?

So then, we're not told, "Well, sorry.

You gotta do it "somewhere else in the rest of the world.

We can't do it in California."

We have to have an aggressive position on those new green jobs being more than minimum wage, 'cause if we don't put that on the table right now they will be minimum wage just like in the '30s and '40s of the past.

So, those are kind of the pieces, and the vision that many of us in the legislature have.

- [Pilar] So, we are going to invite Ada Briceño.

She's co-president of UNITE HERE Local 11, which is the union that represents these workers.

- Pilar, I just wanna start by saying thank you so much for lifting our voices.

And, to Senator Durazo: thank you for uplifting workers, but especially hotel workers.

And, you know what a contribution, we know what a contribution you've made to our local and to workers across the nation.

This is the largest strike in the hotel industry and what they've seen.

The hotel industry is making profit records beyond pandemic levels while our workers are struggling.

They're struggling with a high number of inflation, and the unbearable cost of housing.

We see them couch surfing, taking shifts and renting rooms.

If you work in the AM, you rent the room in the PM, and vice versa.

We see them sleeping in their cars and they're one paycheck away from being houseless.

We know that they have to travel two or three hours to make it to work and that this is a burden in their lives.

But, this is what leaving the backbone of the hospitality out means, and what it creates.

This is corporate greed at its best.

Our members have voted to strike.

This contract includes about 15,000 of our workers, and in 43 hotels we have struck already.

We have had strikes in Pasadena, in downtown LA, in Santa Monica, in Anaheim, in Irvine and Dana Point, LAX, Beverly Hills, and many, many other cities.

In case you haven't had a chance to visit yet, our picket lines have been magnificent.

We've often been joined by the writers and SAG-AFTRA.

To get our message across loud and clear, we have drums, pots, pans, bullhorns, speakers, highly visible signs, and massive banners.

You can hear-- you can really feel the courage of our members in the air.

That's why many more will come out in future days.

The company has come to the table and has made no movement, so we are gonna keep pushing.

Our demands are very simple.

We wanna keep hotel workers with a roof over their heads.

Wages, pension, health care, and workload issues are our top key issues.

We have tons of supporters who have pulled conventions and groups since our strike.

We have folks like the Democratic Governor's Association; Vice President Harris pulled out from staying in one of those hotel; the WK Kellogg Foundation, "Vanderpump Rules" canceled their filming, Japanese American Citizens League and many, many more.

Snoop Dogg has canceled his show in light of all the strikes.

And now, we ask Taylor Swift who's coming to Los Angeles with all- you know the folks that love her to come to the local area- we're asking them to postpone, to postpone her concert until we can get a contract.

We know that they're doubling the prices of the rooms as we speak.

We say, "Taylor, let's make this an era of solidarity."

We ask everyone to join us in honoring the picket lines, not to cross them, and to donate towards our strike fund and to hear the voices of our hotel workers.

And, I know you'll hear from one of them pretty soon.

Thank you so much.

- [Pilar] Thank you, Ms. Briceño.

We have a question from Araceli Martinez from La Opinión.

[on phone] - [Araceli] Hello.

Hello, Ada.

I would like to know if you can please give us a profile of who are these workers?

Are most of them Latinos, or from which minorities?

And, how many hotel workers do we have on the strike right now?

And, who is working on behalf of them and the workers now?

- Yes, thank you.

That's a wonderful question.

So, the profile of our workers are room attendants, dishwashers who are women of color.

Many of them are women of color, Latinas who really make the hotel industry profitable.

We have had thousands of workers out on strike.

And, as we speak, the corporations have tried to hire people to break the strike, but we know they're struggling inside the hotels.

We know they're closing down restaurants.

We know that they can't give the service that the guests are paying for.

We hear that there are a lot of managers who are trying to make rooms, and they are unsuccessful in trying to get the work that our-- the backbone of the hospitality industry, our workers, are able to create the experience.

Yet, they're charging the hundreds and hundreds of dollars without giving the service that the guests deserve.

That's our expertise.

Nobody does it better than us.

That's why we have to be compensated for that work.

We've gotta be able to put a roof over our heads.

- We are thankful to have Jorge Rivera, vice-chair of the Latinx Writers Committee, WGA, who has been out there walking and striking.

Jorge, thanks for being with us.

Tell us about the ways in which your business has changed that is threatening the livelihood of so many people.

- Sure.

First of all, I wanna say thank you for having me amongst this esteemed panel.

I'm honored to be here.

And, secondly, I just want to convey a message of solidarity to my siblings in the hotel union.

You all deserve exactly what you're asking for.

You deserve a living wage.

You deserve enough income to put yourselves-- to have a decent life and take care of your families and pay your rent, and so on and so forth.

Everything that the American dream has promised to all of us.

You deserve it.

So, stay strong.

We're out there with you both on the picket lines and in spirit.

So, thank you for fighting that fight.

Yeah.

I think that the entertainment industry is experiencing many of the things that we've heard expressed this afternoon, this morning, largely due to the disruption that the tech economy has brought upon our industry.

I think to understand what we're experiencing we have to go back to 1960, which was the last time the actors and writers have gone on strike together.

So, it's been 60 years since then.

And, during that strike, we were able to win our points around residuals and health care, which really established a business model that's been working for the last 60 years.

Which, basically means that in the last 10 years or so, up until the last 10 years ago- between 1960 and maybe about 10 years ago- the majority of television was generated, the revenues were generated from ad sales.

Meaning, that most television was on broadcast and had areas within the program to sell ads.

So, we sell these gigantic ads and lots of money was brought in from those ads, from commercials, television commercials.

And then, when shows were going for a long run, they'd go into syndication.

They'd go into reruns.

And then, there'd be more opportunities to generate revenue.

And also, DVD sales came in, in the '90s.

So, there were all these opportunities that triggered revenue.

And our residuals, which basically was a formula that was won by the actors and the writers that said "for every broadcast of these-- "of our programs, of our work- "and in first run and in syndication "and in rerun, and in DVD sales- "we were afforded a very small portion of each of those sales and each of those reruns."

But, because of the formula, this resulted in residual checks that were quite-- they were quite substantial, in the tens of thousands.

And, when workers, when writers and actors were in between jobs-- It's a freelance economy.

So, sometimes workers might not work for a year or so, or six months.

Those residual checks made it very easy to have a sustainable career, continue working, and put yourself through those sort of times when you might not be employed.

And, you were able to afford health insurance.

So, it was a very sustainable model.

And then, what happened was in the early aughts entered the streaming platforms, which is basically the tech economy coming into Hollywood.

So, that model was very different.

It did not rely on ad sales.

It relied only on subscriptions.

So, there was no ad revenue from first runs.

There was no ad revenue from reruns.

There was no ad revenue from syndication.

And, there was no DVD sales, because who needs to buy DVDs when everything is available when you turn on your TV at a touch of a button?

So, that really decimated this business model that has been working for the last 60 years.

And, even though we won residuals in the 2007 strike for streaming, no one really anticipated how things were going to play out.

And so, what you have now among many different effects that, that business model has had on the business, the big one, one of the big ones, is that residual checks have greatly reduced in the amount.

So now, where actors and writers were getting a $10,000 check for their work, because the success of a show generated that kind of revenue, people are getting checks for, like, $3 and $4 for the same kind of activity around a show.

So, you could have a hit show-- you get paid for your time on the show when you're writing on the show, but six months later that residual check that you were expecting to be $5,000 or $10,000 is now $5 and $10.

And so, that's just one of the reasons why the new business model has sort of decimated the ability to have a sustainable career.

But, there are many other ones.

So, streaming companies have shrunk budgets.

And so, instead of 22 episodes a year, which kept writers and actors working almost the whole year, you have short orders of 8 and 10, which keeps people in work for maybe 20 weeks, tops.

And so, short orders and mini rooms and cutting the budgets, and combining jobs of support staff has really reduced the amount of possibility of having a sustainable career.

It has become a gig economy as opposed to a sustainable economy, a sustainable career that would keep you working all year round but also afford you health insurance and also have a path towards retirement with pensions.

All of that is gone.

So, now writers are working 10 weeks out of the year, if they're lucky, and actors are doing the same, and the checks that are coming in are not really a sustainable income.

I think that another big thing I think that I need to also express is that the fact that there's a big myth that everyone in Hollywood is a millionaire, right?

It's absolutely not true.

Certainly, there are the Harrison Fords and the Jennifer Lawrences who make millions of dollars, but if you look at the end credits of any television show or any feature film, there are hundreds of names there, literally hundreds.

And, out of those hundreds of names, there's a Jennifer Lawrence and a Harrison Ford who are making millions, and everyone else on that list, if they're lucky, are making a hundred grand a year if they're very lucky.

So, that's a thing we have to remember.

Hollywood is largely a blue collar industry.

The people that work on these shows are craftspeople.

There are carpenters and painters and builders, and teamsters who drive the trucks, and hairstylists and artists.

And, yes, there are background actors and there are writers involved, but those background actors are not making a lot of money.

The SAG membership is 160,000 members, right?

Out of those 160,000 the average income for an actor is $26,000 a year, which is barely enough to qual- Which is under $26,000 a year, which is barely enough to qualify for their health insurance.

So, you know?

That's the thing that I think people have to understand, that entertainment is a blue collar industry.

People's ability to have a sustainable career and pay their rent and put their children through school and have health insurance has been disrupted by the tech industry and by the tech economy.

And, that's basically what we're fighting for.

We're just fighting for fair wages, to be able to have a sustainable career.

And, again, another little factoid that I wanna put across is that the studios have made something like $200 billion last year in profits.

$200 billion.

And, it would cost- What the Guild is asking for the WJ, what we're asking for basically amounts to 2% of those profits to basically correct the financial economy for about 11,000 members.

So, that amounts to around $450 million.

That would cover basically all of our asks.

So, it's really obnoxious and unfathomable why the studios will not give in to those very reasonable demands that if they were met would correct the financial ecosystem for everybody.

Writers and actors will have a healthy financial life and they'd be more free to create the work that they make billions of dollars off of.

So, it doesn't make sense to any of us why the studios wouldn't pay 2% to keep everybody financially whole.

So, that's my basic rant!

(chuckles) - Thank you, Jorge.

And, I'm gonna go around the whole panel for final thoughts.

Senator Durazo, can you give us-?

What should we do?

How do we as journalists help?

- Well?

One thing that you know, Pilar, because you've done it so well, is to tell the stories like the way Jorge told the story of the writers, the way Lucero told the stories.

Because in the public, that's the best way to remind ourselves what's really at stake.

It's real people who work really hard, even if they are different careers and different jobs.

That's one thing.

The second thing is to look ahead as much as possible.

And, as I barely mentioned earlier, is that we're going-- we are investing at the state level, at the federal level tens of billions of dollars into a new green economy.

Well, those jobs?

If we don't right now, if we don't make sure that our investments are going towards, and requiring as a result of contracts with our tax dollars with companies, right?

If we don't require that those companies compete on the basis of a high bar, high level of wages and benefits, we're gonna end up with a whole economy that is made up of more minimum-wage jobs.

I've heard stories in the last couple of days about incarcerated people being used, their labor being used for work of factories like parts that go to EV, electric vehicles.

So, imagine that.

Incarcerated people, the child labor.

And, we get all excited about, "Oh, my God!

EV vehicle!"

Those vehicles and how progressive it is for the environment but we're not thinking enough about what's behind it.

And so, not only do we have to deal with the current crisis in these various industries, but more importantly, what's the future in those industries?

Otherwise, we find ourselves reacting.

We didn't do anything early on about homelessness.

Now, look how we're dealing with it.

Every time if we don't look ahead and fight for that future, we end up in a crisis.

So, I urge us to use our solidarity in that direction.

- Yes.

So, the bigger these corporations are, the harder it is to make-- to move forward.

So, I just wanna urge folks to be supportive of strikers and not cross picket lines.

[background music] So urgent, that if there's a picket line that you stop and march with us, but most importantly do not cross it.

But, we will keep fighting one day longer.

We feel very optimistic that our members are holding the line very strongly, that we are winning every day, but it's gonna take some time and a lot of us standing together.

Right, Jorge?

To make sure that we make the gains that our families deserve.

And, when you lift folks in the hotel industry, we lift others.

And, right now, as you heard, 6% of the private sector is unionized.

We are fighting for all hotel workers across the country.

When we lift them here in LA, we will open doors for others to be lifted across the United States.

- Thank you, everyone.

This has been an incredible panel.

I appreciate all of you coming together and putting up with me limiting the time!

(laughs) 'Cause we had a big panel!

Thank you to the journalists.

Have a good weekend, please, and we'll see you here next Friday with another briefing.

Bye!

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