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Vol. 72/No. 3      January 21, 2008

 
On the Picket Line
 
Writers Guild strike
enters 10th week
A strike by members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) against television network and film studio owners entered its 10th week January 8. Since November 5 when the strike began, production has been affected in more than 60 dramas and sitcoms produced in Hollywood. It was the first strike since 1988 for the movie and television writers organized by the guild, which has 10,000 members.

Negotiations broke off December 7, when representatives for the television networks insisted that the union take off the negotiating table its demand for royalties for films and shows distributed by the entertainment companies through the Internet, DVDs, and cell phones.

The Writers Guild filed a complaint against the companies with the National Labor Relations Board for not bargaining “in good faith” and for ending negotiations.

To step up the pressure on the entertainment moguls, the Writers Guild announced that striking writers would picket the January 13 Golden Globe Awards ceremony for motion pictures and television programs. Organizers of the ceremony cancelled it following an announcement by the Screen Actors Guild advising its members to not cross the writers’ picket line and not appear on programs using nonunion writers. Golden Globe Awards producers had hoped to convince guild officials to allow writers to work temporarily on the show.

NBC network, which airs the Golden Globes every year, announced that instead it would fill the slot with an awards news conference, along with programs devoted to film clips, interviews, and Golden Globe parties, reported the Los Angeles Times.

“If they do an awards show, no matter what they call it, and it’s produced by a struck company, we will picket,” said Jeff Hermanson, of the WGA.

—Róger Calero

Contract miners in Chile
fight for permanent jobs
Contract workers at the state-owned Codelco copper mines in Chile staged protests January 3 at almost all of the company’s mines to demand that the company take onto its payroll nearly 5,000 contract workers, as ordered by the country’s labor department in December.

The company is appealing the labor department’s ruling, saying that it should be able to decide who it hires, and that it will hire a lower number of contract workers, and do so at “its own pace.”

Miners stopped production temporarily blocking entrances to the mines, until they were removed by the cops.

“This is a warning protest,” said Cristian Cuevas, president of the Confederation of Copper Workers, which organized the protests.

Last July, some 28,000 contract workers at Codelco went out on strike for 25 days to demand the payment of benefits won during a strike the year before.

Codelco is the world’s largest copper producer. It produces 11 percent of the world’s mined cooper.

—Róger Calero  
 
 
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