Industry & Labor

DPs Hoyte van Hoytema ('Oppenheimer'), Rodrigo Prieto ('Barbie' and 'Killers of the Flower Moon'), Cristina Dunlap ('American Fiction'), Shabier Kirchner ('Past Lives'), Dan Laustsen ('The Color Purple' and 'John Wick: Chapter 4') and Lukasz Zal ('The Zone of Interest') discuss their “happy accidents,” cinematic shorthand and the Barbenheimer phenomenon.

The United Auto Workers have scored a major victory. And it could be a sign of more to come for workers – unless the Fed undermines them again

DETROIT (AP) — Facing the loss of another $200 million this week to a lengthy strike, General Motors CEO Mary Barra wrapped up her weekend by going to the United Auto Workers’ Detroit headquarters intent on getting a new contract.

The Writers Guild of America has voted overwhelmingly to ratify its new contract, formally ending one of the longest labor disputes in Hollywood history.

The 148-day writers’ strike, the second longest in Writers Guild of America history, will conclude on 12:01 am PT Wednesday thanks to a vote from guild leadership that officially authorized some 11,500 members to return to work. Tasks that for months were prohibited by strike rules — pitching, selling scripts, taking meetings, responding to notes — will then be sanctioned, while writers’ rooms can reconvene.

SAG-AFTRA members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against 10 of the major video game companies. The vote was 98.32% in favor.  A total of 34,687 members cast ballots, representing a voting 27.47% of eligible voters. The guild’s last strike against the gaming companies, in 2016-17, lasted 183 days. The guild, meanwhile, has been on strike against the film and TV industry since July 14.

Hollywood heaves a sigh of relief. The WGA and major studios and streamers have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract that promises to end the 146-day strike that has taken a heavy toll across the content industry.

Members of IATSE, as well their brethren in the Teamsters, have become fixtures on New York and Los Angeles picket lines, fighting a war that isn’t theirs. 

Visual effects workers at Marvel Studios and seven of its subsidiaries have voted 32-0 to unionize with IATSE in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. The union called the unanimous vote an “historic first” for the industry’s VFX workforce.

Visual effects workers at Walt Disney Pictures are seeking to unionize with IATSE, which says that a supermajority of the 18 in-house VFX crewmembers employed there have signed cards with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to be represented by the union. Walt Disney Pictures is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios.

Just hours after the studios and streamers made public their latest “comprehensive package” towards a deal with the striking WGA, the guild has responded – and its seems the AMPTP and top CEOs may have strategically overplayed their hand.