Revival of class struggle in hollywood
On July 18, 2024, nearly 80,000 film and TV workers of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) voted overwhelmingly to ratify a contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) after months of bargaining.
IATSE represents the behind-the-scenes entertainment workers like camera assistants, painters, costumers, hair and makeup stylists, and editors, often referred to as the “film crew.” Despite Hollywood’s image of glitz and glamor, fame and fortune, the reality is that this industry is propped up by an entire class of freelance employees who are exploited and abused by the wealthiest media conglomerates in the world.
This agreement follows Hollywood’s historic double-strike last year when over 160,000 members of Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and 11,000 members of Writers Guild of America (WGA) walked off the job for six-months. Those workers not only secured serious gains around the usage of Artificial Intelligence, but their fight represented a new shift in the balance of forces in the entertainment industry. The blow these unions dealt to the studios undoubtedly gave leverage to IATSE members in their negotiations, making the studios eager to reach a deal and avoid another major Hollywood strike this year.
As a result, IATSE workers won a substantial 14.5% wage increase matching what SAG-AFTRA won last fall, protections from AI displacing their jobs, $700 million in streaming residuals to cover the massive healthcare and pension funding gap, and greater overtime protections. In 2021, IATSE workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a nationwide strike; it was the first time in the union’s 128-year history. While that contract was narrowly ratified and a strike averted, this year was absolutely the most consequential negotiations to date.
In the aftermath of 2023’s Hot Labor Summer, nearly 25,000 workers lost their jobs in Hollywood in what has become known as “the great contraction” as studios aggressively cut costs for the sake of endless profit. Studio executives continue to see multi-million dollar pay increases yearly, while many Hollywood workers are in a state of crisis, fighting crushing unemployment, losing their healthcare, savings, or leaving the industry altogether. With OpenAI’s 2024 release of its new text-to-video product SORA, these workers also found themselves at the forefront of a high-stakes existential labor battle over the regulation of artificial intelligence.
Despite these setbacks, the walkouts of the writers and actors suggest one thing: we are witnessing a revival of class struggle in Hollywood. One that is part of a century’s long tradition in the entertainment industry. A tradition and history driven by IATSE workers.
The “open shop” era
Between 1890 and the mid-1930s, the “open shop” system dominated the labor scene in Los Angeles. This meant that joining a union or paying union dues was not a condition of employment. The “open shop” campaign was a coordinated effort by industry associations to reduce workers’ collective bargaining power, suppress wages, break workers’ organizing efforts, and ultimately make Los Angeles a non-union city. However, during this period, IATSE was determined to resist and began organizing workers in the rapidly expanding film industry.
At the time, film workers worked very long hours, often twelve hours without breaks. Work was irregular and in no way guaranteed. And if you objected to these conditions, unemployment was your alternative. For a majority of film workers, lay-offs were simply a part of their working life. It was not uncommon for thousands of workers to be lined up outside the studio gates every morning in hopes of securing a job for that day. However, the insecurity of this industry played a major role in the growth of IATSE. In 1917, the studios formed an open shop organization – the Motion Picture Producers Association – later renamed Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). The MPPDA later established a labor relations branch called the Association of Motion Picture Producers (AMPP) to present a united front in their dealings with the unions and prevent the unionization of “the talent” like writers, actors, and directors. This studio cartel is currently referred to as the AMPTP.
Divide and conquer tactics
From the outset, IATSE organized along industrial rather than craft lines. The nature of film production naturally facilitated a division of labor representing a variety of crafts, all working in unison. However, these early organizing efforts clashed with the craft strategy dominant with unions represented by the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The AFL’s 1901 Scranton Declaration mandated craft-specific unionism as the cornerstone of its organizational efforts. Between 1914-1926, this created numerous jurisdictional conflicts with the IBEW and the Carpenters for the right to organize film workers that proved extremely detrimental for building working class power. Both the AFL craft unions and IATSE were willing to cut rates in order to gain a foothold in the industry and get studio jobs for their members. In 1918, IATSE launched a general strike against the studios demanding union recognition, a closed shop, and wage increases, but they were ultimately undermined by the Carpenters and IBEW who supplied strike-breakers. As a result, the MPPDA managed to repeatedly pit one union against another to hold down wages, undermine strikes, and thwart unionization in general.
Between 1925-1926, IATSE signed new jurisdictional agreements with both the IBEW and Carpenters that both parties found agreeable, putting an end to the MPPDA’s divide and conquer strategy. On November 29, 1926, IATSE won the first Studio Basic Agreement (SBA), which gave the union some measure of recognition from Hollywood studio bosses to negotiate wages, benefits, and working conditions. The SBA was not a contract but an agreement to negotiate and a foundation for IATSE to build upon in years to come.
However, the tranquility that followed the signing of the SBA was shattered and soon followed by fifteen years of continuous labor strife in Hollywood. The introduction of new technology coupled with the transition from silent films to “talkies” created further jurisdictional disputes.
This came to a head in October 1945. Between 1945-1946, the US saw the largest strike wave in American labor history, and it began when 10,500 Confederation of Studio Unions (CSU) workers went on strike for 8 months. CSU was a federation of craft locals that wanted to remain independent of IATSE, which at the time had been taken over by organized crime syndicates as a result of the Great Depression and studio collusion. Under mob leadership, bad working conditions became worse for film workers. Studio executives paid mobsters tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for “labor peace” and low wage contracts. Any union dissidents or progressive forces were crushed under the muscle of the mob out of fear of losing control. This corruption was not lost on members and set the stage for the rise of the CSU and its leader and organizer Herb Sorrell in 1941.
CSU’s militance leads to wins for Hollywood workers
The CSU represented a militant progressive alternative to IATSE that was consistently on the cutting edge of the labor movement and set the standard for wage negotiations. Both unions encompassed a similar mix of members including set decorators, painters, and carpenters. This created major jurisdictional disputes, which the studios ultimately encouraged to maintain the open shop and hold down wages. Their main tactic for achieving this was accusing CSU of being led and dominated by members of the Communist Party. Even though these accusations were not true, it was enough to divert attention from the studios’ actual mob ties as well as to crush their militant unionism stance for future generations.
It all began in 1943 as CSU continued to grow and expand to include set decorators. During contract negotiations, producers stalled for nine months, at which point IATSE intervened, claiming they had jurisdiction over 77 set decorators who they originally had rejected. An appointed arbitrator ruled against the producers and requested them to recognize CSU as the legitimate bargaining agent for these set decorators until the National Labor Relations Board election could be conducted. But the producers refused, citing this as a dispute solely between unions and their refusal to bargain, which allegedly is what extended the fight and led to the strike of 1945.
Nearly 10,500 CSU workers went on strike, picketing at all major studios including movie theaters. Despite the studios already having a nine-month film supply, the workers were undeterred and the picket lines continued to grow with thousands of IATSE workers refusing to cross the picket lines in solidarity despite threats of having their union cards revoked. Six months into the strike on October 5, 1945, CSU began a mass picket outside the gates of Warner Bros, which was met by armed strikebreakers and county police who attacked hundreds of picketers. This is often referred to as “Hollywood Bloody Friday.” As Sorrell recalled it, “they drove through the picket lines at a high rate of speed, several cars” and “they turned [a fire hose] on the people’s feet and just swept them right out from under [...] it was a slaughter.”
The violence tarnished the public’s opinion of the studios. Several progressive stars now refused to cross the lines in solidarity with the striking workers. More than 4,000 attended a mass rally condemning police violence. Police had arrested hundreds of picketers, and when the buses arrived to transport detainees to Burbank jail, the Teamsters refused to drive the buses in solidarity. At this point, the public began to side with the demands of CSU and questioned the anti-communist accusations against it. This created significant pressure on the studios until a deal was finally reached on October 29.
Anti-communist hysteria sweeps Hollywood
This truce was short-lived. In 1946, studio executives met with IATSE leaders to devise a lockout of CSU over another jurisdictional dispute. Roy Brewer, an International representative of IATSE, was a fervent anti-communist and a member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA), a right-wing organization. Studios used his influence to purge the film industry of CSU members and those who supported them. As the lockout dragged on into 1947, CSU lost power and eventually fell apart. Thousands of workers were forced out of their jobs and made unemployable outside of the film industry. The militant, progressive trade unionism of this period came to an end. These anti-communist attacks on CSU were essential to establishing capital’s greater control over production, its profits, and the battle of ideas.
During this period, the congressional committee that formulated the Taft-Hartley Act had a direct line to movie moguls like Cecil B. DeMille, who was a staunch opponent of unions and smuggled workers across the picket line during the strike. They saw this labor dispute not only as a threat to the flow of capital but also a threat over who shapes mass consciousness. As a result, this labor battle and ensuing anti-communist hysteria set the stage for the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to hold its infamous nine-day hearings in 1947, investigating the alleged “red menace” in Hollywood. This led to the well-known Hollywood Blacklist, destroying countless lives as it purged hundreds of workers and class-conscious union leaders from the industry.
Discovering a new era of worker poweR
The labor militancy of CSU is often lost and forgotten. Maybe even intentionally repressed. But it is crucial for us to study this history to chart the path forward for Hollywood labor. Today, IATSE represents over 170,000 workers in television, motion pictures, live theater, concerts, etc. making it the largest union representing entertainment workers in the US and worldwide. IATSE workers lead the way in combating the studio’s decades-long assault on union density with historic new organizing campaigns including unionizing VFX artists, AMC theater workers, and many more. The bold unity demonstrated in IATSE’s historic 2021 strike authorization vote ignited momentum towards a more militant Hollywood labor movement that we are witnessing today. But there is still a long fight ahead of us. As IATSE members it is our responsibility to uncover this rich history and the long legacies of class struggle that our ancestors have fought and died for. We can no longer allow the pessimists among us to cry out about how the good ol’ days are behind us, or that having given away too many concessions in our contracts over the years means we can never get them back.
Facing numerous existential crises, from studio mergers and runaway productions to the rise of artificial intelligence, our livelihoods and futures seem increasingly grim. We must harness the lessons learned from these historic battles against studio greed to ensure victory; we must not allow the bosses to divide us like they did in the past. After decades of assault by the rich, we cannot allow our movement to once again be hobbled by infighting or interlocal jurisdictional disputes. During the 2023 double strikes, Deadline leaked the AMPTP bargaining strategy to “allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses” as “a cruel but necessary evil.” While the studios may have a new facade, their intentions are just as clear and cutthroat as they were in 1945. The upcoming fights require unprecedented unity and solidarity if we dare to shift the balance of forces, achieve lasting victory, and step into a new era of worker power.
REFERENCES
Horne, Gerald. Class Struggle in Hollywood: 1930-1950: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds, and Trade Unionists. University of Texas Press, 2001.
Laslett, John H. M. Sunshine Was Never Enough: Los Angeles Workers, 1880-2010. University of California Press, 2014.
Neilsen, Mike, and Gene Mailes. Hollywood’s Other Blacklist: Union Struggles in the Studio System. British Film Institute, 1995.
