Interesting tid bit from Gallup:
On all measures of public attitudes toward unions, support is highest among Democrats and lowest among Republicans, with independents’ views somewhere in the middle. However, the trends for all three groups have increased since 2009, largely paralleling the national figures.
This is seen in overall approval of unions, where approval among Democrats, Republicans and independents all declined in 2009 and then gradually recovered. Currently, 88% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 47% of Republicans approve.
In addition, Democrats’ desire for unions to have more influence has reached a record high of 61% -- one point above the trend high previously measured in 2005 and 2018 -- after falling to 39% in 2009. Independents’ desire to see unions’ influence grow is at an all-time high of 45%. Republicans are much more likely to want unions to have less rather than more influence, but the 21% today who want them to have more influence roughly ties with last year’s 22% record high.
The trends in partisans’ predictions of how much power unions will have in the future have not aligned. Republicans are barely more likely today than in the prior two measures (in 2017 and 2018) to say unions will become stronger, while Democrats and independents have become much more likely to foresee this.
So much for the AMPTP’s efforts to try and win a PR they already lost:
Coming out of the public relations week from hell, the studios and streamers are looking for the firm that fought off Pizzagate to help them in the war of words against the striking Writers Guild.
After misreading the room with the release earlier this week of their August 11 proposal to the WGA and the subsequent blowback on August 22 and August 24, the AMPTP has hired crisis-management specialists the Levinson Group, a source close to events told Deadline.
“The studios need better coordination, better messaging in response to the writers and the media,” said an industry vet of the companies that literally own large swaths of the mainstream media. Contacted by Deadline, Levinson declined to comment on her firm’s new role with the AMPTP.
While current AMPTP PR consultants Scott Rowe and former UTA communications boss Chris Day remain in place for the Hollywood organization, the Molly Levinson-founded firm is now onboard to reframe the big picture for studio and streamer CEOs who have been characterized as greedy, imperious and out of touch in the over 115-day picket line battle with the scribes and now actors union SAG-AFTRA.
Even as long off-again and briefly on-again talks have been going on, writers and now actors have taken to the streets, social media and evening news with flair, passion and soundbites to promote their desire for new contracts that adequately address 21st century concerns about pay, residuals, AI, data transparency and more. With its top-tier membership of usually competing CEOs, the often heavy-handed Carol Lombardini-led AMPTP has lacked the speed, continuity and nimbleness to match the skillful scribes.
Yeah, people don’t like it corporations try to starve the workers:
Receiving positive feedback from Wall Street since the WGA went on strike May 2, Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others have become determined to “break the WGA,” as one studio exec blatantly put it.
To do so, the studios and the AMPTP believe that by October most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work.
“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”
President Biden has been supportive of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and he is not going to be turning to the greedy studio heads for support:
President Biden is gearing up for an epic battle to retain The White House, but we've learned he's put the brakes on going to a critical area to fill his campaign coffers -- Los Angeles.
Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Biden will not come to the L.A. area until the actors' and writers' strikes are resolved. There's still 15 months left before the election, but with strikes that seem to have no end in sight, it could become problematic.
Biden has a long history of supporting unions, and the Hollywood strikes are no different. He said back in May, "I sincerely hope the writers' strike in Hollywood gets resolved and the writers are given a fair deal they deserve as soon as possible."
Here's how significant L.A. and, California is to Biden's campaign. He raised more money in CA than any other state in 2020 -- $105.5 million -- and that represented 21% of money raised for the campaign.
Who knows when the negotiations will begin again but we need to help not only writers and actors win this war, we also need to help those the studios’ greed and egos are hurting as well:
Requests for emergency financial assistance continue to pour into the Entertainment Community Fund during the industry’s ongoing strikes. The Fund has distributed more than $5.4 million to more than 2,600 film and TV workers during the strikes – up from over $4.7 million granted to more than 2,300 workers just a week ago.
As of August 25, the Fund has raised more than $7.6 million from more than 9,500 donors — from over $7 million from 8,400-plus donors a week ago.
PREVIOUSLY, August 21: The Entertainment Community Fund has raised more than $7 million and distributed $4.7 million-plus to more than 2,300 film and TV workers as of Friday during the strikes by the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA. The WGA’s strike began May 2 and SAG-AFTRA’s started July 14.
“Given the heightened rate of requests for emergency financial assistance due to the work stoppage, the Fund is distributing about $400,000-$500,000 per week, compared to an average of $75,000 per week in the first half of 2023,” the ECF said in an update today. The greatest number of applications for financial assistance are from California, followed by Atlanta and New York.
I urge everyone to keep making their support for these strikes public and please do donate to the Entertainment Community Fund. Click here.
Also:
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