300 Join Labor College Fundraising Gala
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Lara Manzione of the National Labor College reports on last night’s “Time to Build” fundraising gala at the college.
Following the first day of the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting held at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md., the college hosted a “A Time to Build” gala last night. The gala honored Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), and the presidents of five entertainment unions: Ray Hair, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM); Ken Howard, Screen Actors (SAG); Matthew Loeb, Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE); Roberta Reardon, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA); and Nick Wyman, Actors’ Equity (AEA).
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says he selected the NLC as the location for this Executive Council meeting because “education is such an important part of the future of the labor movement, and a key way for us to transmit labor’s values during a time of change in our economy and our society.”
Digital Theft Agreements a Good Start
The next time you download music, a TV program or a video game from the Internet, you may get an alert that you are about to steal copyrighted material.
Internet service providers, payment system operators and motion picture and recording industry officials reached two voluntary agreements last week that will help curb digital theft, copyright infringement and product counterfeiting on the Web.
Using materials produced for the Internet by the actors, writers, musicians and others without these safeguards cheats the creative artists who should be paid for their work, just like any other worker. It is estimated that downloading copyrighted material from the Internet costs 140,000 jobs and more than $5.5 billion in sales each year.
Executive Council: Piracy Costs Good Jobs
The AFL-CIO Executive Council unanimously endorsed the entertainment industry unions’ campaign to stop the theft of intellectual property, often called piracy.
The council noted that each year, digital theft of sound recordings costs the U.S. economy $12.5 billion in total output and costs U.S. workers 71,060 jobs. Feature film piracy results in an estimated $5.5 billion in lost wages annually, and the loss of an estimated 141,030 jobs that would otherwise have been created.
The council statement said, in part:
Motion pictures, television, sound recordings and other entertainment are a vibrant part of the U.S. economy. They yield one of its few remaining trade surpluses. The online theft of copyrighted works and the sale of illegal CDs and DVDs threaten the vitality of U.S. entertainment and thus its working people.
AFTRA, IATSE Working to Rebuild Middle Class
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In the midst of an economic downturn, two entertainment unions reaffirmed their commitments to rebuild the middle class by organizing and fighting for their members’ hard-earned benefits.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told delegates to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) convention, which ended over the weekend, that now is the time to focus on organizing. He quoted economist John Maynard Keynes, who wrote in a 1938 letter to then-President Franklin Roosevelt that, to achieve a real recovery—a lasting recovery—the federal government had to invest in employment, production and purchasing power.
And that meant building the labor movement.
He didn’t mince any words about it: “I regard the growth of collective bargaining rights as essential.”
IATSE Signs Deal with NETworks Touring Productions
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Five highly popular touring shows are now a part of the union family. In a significant organizing win, the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) recently negotiated an agreement covering the backstage workers traveling with touring shows produced by NETworks.
NETworks previously was the most active nonunion company for touring legitimate theater productions. The five NETworks shows currently touring were nonunion, but will now be covered under a collective bargaining agreement that provides for good wages, working conditions and health and retirement benefits for stagehands, wardrobe and hair and makeup workers.
The agreement extends to current NETworks productions of “Sweeney Todd,” “The Drowsy Chaperone,” “Hairspray,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “Annie,” and into the 2009-2010 season. Additionally, there are currently seven productions planned that will be covered the following season.
