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Should communists support the actor's strike? (self.communism101)

submitted 1 year ago by aloeha to c/[email protected]

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I support the writer's guild strike because they are not part of the bourgeoisie. The same can't be said of a lot of these rich actors who own a ton of capital themselves. So on the one hand, it kind of seems like the bourgeoisie is fighting the bourgeoisie on this one. On the other hand, not every actor in the guild is as successful as Tom Cruise, so some of those striking actors are working class.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yep. It's an issue within SAG too because some of the wealthier actors end up becoming producers as well. Like every org it's got a ton of things about it that the working-class members take issue with, but it's good that there's unity here in this moment.

SAG stands for Screen Actor's Guild. It's a trade guild. People and journalists calling it a labor union are incorrect and conflating the two terms. (Or maybe I'm incorrect? Guild is is the name but they call themselves a labor union? Idk what the government considers them.)

Now "spiritually" they may aspire to operate as a union, but because of the nature of the career, a national org representing actors can't really be considered a labor union. Not legally anyway.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is the difference? SAG-AFTRA themselves on their website says they’re a union, I’m not finding anything in the first page that calls them a guild, do you have any reading?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My mistake. Sorry about that. They call themselves a union on their website. But... it's confusing because of their name and the nature of the career. I'm having trouble finding any official federal classification other than just taking their word for it.

In America, the legal difference is that labor unions are founded under one employer (e.g. Starbucks employees). Trade unions represent a trade of laborers (e.g. Boilermakers). Guilds are similar to trade unions but they represent independent contractors.

Because actors don't just work for one employer but work by the gig, if SAG is classified as a union and not a guild, I would speculate they'd be classified as a trade union not a labor union. But I don't know.

I've been trying to parse through these definitions lately since I've been trying to organize my workplace. One huge barrier to laborers organizing is this new trend of blatantly misclassifying employees as independent contractors like where I work. Because of that, the government doesn't recognize us as a labor union even if we had the minimum votes for forming one. We'd have to become a guild.

These official categories really just feel like arbitrary barriers that are intended to nerf collective bargaining.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

All good, just wasn’t sure if I was searching right or needed to switch search engines