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Thoughts on the Line : Day 12 (A diary of an actors strike) [1]

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Date: 2023-07-25

I crawl out of bed. This strike already feels like a job. I’m late. My goal of getting to Paramount by 9am sharp has morphed over the last week into getting to Paramount anytime the little hand is still on the nine. I pull on my strike T-shirt and notice a thin sweat stain across the belly. I sniff the black cotton under my armpits. It’s fine. It’s going to be damp and sweaty in a half hour anyway.

I’ve already cheated once on, what I’ve decided is my home studio, Paramount. Last Friday, I snuck over to Netflix at Sunset and Bronson, aptly named Sunset Bronson Studios. I got off the 2 bus and walked down Van Ness to check in. The paper sign-in sheets have already been replaced with phones scanning your SAG card. We want this to be as green a strike as possible.

I grabbed a picket sign and looked down the street to the crosswalk. But there weren’t any cars moving along Van Ness, so I decided to just cross (yes, after looking both ways) and head straight for the ICON gate where the picket line began. Big mistake. Halfway across, two guys with bullhorns, one SAG the other WGA, let me know I had messed up. “Use the crosswalk. Jaywalking is bad optics,” one of them let me know in that metallic voice a bullhorn produces.

I joined the line with my ego bruised and once again wondered what we were doing here. Optics? Is my jaywalking going to make the news over an interview with Jack Black? Was I being rude to the people working at Netflix? And if I was being rude to them what should I be, kind?

Is kindness even a thing any more? Lets face it, capitalism was not founded on kindness. Is kindness going to get our demands met? It hasn’t even restarted negotiations. I was kind this past weekend and went and saw Barbie. Was that a mistake? Does the biggest box office weekend since the end of the pandemic prove our worth, or does it just give the studios more money and time to wait us out?

The picket vibe over at Netfilx was a little more Hollywood then that of Paramount. A group of rappers had set up on the easement halfway down Sunset, composing lyrics on the fly about corporate greed. There were brightly colored homemade strike shirts throughout the line. It felt a little more like a street festival with picket signs waving in the air.

After a few loops at Sunset Bronson, I heard that the studio over at Sunset and Gower known as… you know, needed more picketers, so I walked three blocks west and helped out. While at Gower, I started to hear chatter between the strike captains about special guests and something about a police escort. Was some studio big wig coming into work? Then I heard a drum.

UNITE HERE local 11 came marching up Sunset dressed in red. They are a union of hotel workers who, on June 8th, voted to authorize a strike and may walkout any day. They had decided to show us actors and writers some support. They marched on the blacktop, taking up two lanes of east-bound Sunset for about a block. As they slowly advanced toward Van Ness the cops shut down all the cross streets from Vine to the 101. A major thorough fair of Los Angeles was basically closed.

After seeing some WGA members jump in, I joined the march. I’m not one to participate in chants. It feels a little too much like a high school football game, but walking with local 11, the drummer egging us on, I answered all the call and responses. They went something like, LA is a union town. Mess with us, we’ll shut you down. I believed them. Eventually they turned down Van Ness and stopped at the ICON gate. They took over the street for about thirty minutes. A number of their leaders stood on what I can only hope was a soap box and gave speeches. The picket line got a little thin as a crowd gathered and listened.

Eventually we dissipated and went back to the sidewalk. Some of the members of local 11 got on a bus to get back to their cars, others joined our picket. Someone from SAG brought a big cooler of ice cream tubs and was handing out cups of the stuff to any picketer who wanted one.

All I can say is, thank you kindly, local 11, and thank you to all those who honk in support as they drive by a picket line.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/25/2183215/-Thoughts-on-the-Line-Day-12-A-diary-of-an-actors-strike

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