What's Needed Is A Union of Unions

Matt Stoller notes that IATSE's President is badmouthing the WGA. That's normal. This goes back to jurisdiction fights between IATSE and the WGA that go back years, mainly over animation writers, actually, which IATSE signed up first. The starkest example is the 2006 WGA strike of America's Next Top Model. The story staff walked out, but IATSE wouldn't pull its editors. The execs and the editors finished the show, and the story staff all got fired.

There's a lot of cross-union animosity in Hollywood. The AMPTP is counting on that right now by negotiating with the DGA, which never walks out, to try and set a baseline for the other unions that is friendlier.