#local 11

[thefirsthogokage]

(Link to Tweet)

[Image ID: A tweet from Jenny Klein that reads:

Now 100 days into the strike, here is a roundup of places you can donate to help entertainment worker relief (all workers not just WGA) - [Click this sentence to go to the Google document] #WGAstrong #unionstrong

/End ID]

In case you can't open the link:

We are more than 75 days into the WGA strike, and now SAG-AFTRA has joined us too. Unite Here 11 hotel workers have been out all month. Teamsters and IATSE have been out of work. Here's some funds you can donate to to support everyone. I will update this often as more funds pop up!

WORKER SUPPORT

THE UNION SOLIDARITY COALITION FUND

TUSC is raising money for direct aid to IATSE and Teamsters crew -- they are notably covering people’s health insurance premiums while they’re out of work. Donate here. [501c3 - tax deductible]

ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNITY FUND

Most importantly, EntertainmentCommunityFund.org gives financial aid to entertainment workers all over the industry, both WGA and non-WGA. It's a big source of assistance for IATSE people especially. [501c3 - tax deductible]

SAG-AFTRA FOUNDATION

The SAG-AFTRA Foundation provides financial assistance to members of their union in need. https://members.sagfoundation.org/donate [501c3 - tax deductible]

HUMANITAS GROCERIES

Humanitas Groceries For Writers. This helps staff writers and other early career WGA members with $100 grocery gift cards. Donate here (and select Groceries For Writers from the dropdown): https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=AVJ6TL2YYPX2A

INEVITABLE FOUNDATION

Inevitable Foundation has a financial aid fund for WGA writers with disabilities. [501c3 - tax deductible] You can donate to support here: https://www.inevitable.foundation/emergency-relief-fund-donate?form=webdonate

GREEN ENVELOPE GROCERY AID

WGA captain Joelle Garfinkel helps run a grocery aid fund for entertainment workers. You can learn more about it here: https://twitter.com/msjoellegarf/status/1678522919780069377 Donate by sending money on venmo to @ Joelle-Garfinkel and if you need aid you can apply by emailing greenenvelopegroceryaid@gmail.com

FOOD BANK GROCERIES FOR ACTORS/WRITERS

World Harvest Food Bank in Mid City LA is giving away free groceries to writers and actors on strike. You can donate to support those efforts here: https://www.worldharvestla.org/donate-now [501c3 - tax deductible]

UNITE HERE 11 MUTUAL AID STRIKE FUND

Unite Here 11 hotel workers, who staff many of the hotels used by the major studios for production, are on strike. If you would like to donate to their strike fund, you can do so here: https://www.unitehere11.org/donate-to-the-unite-here-local-11-strike-mutual-aid-fund/

MOTION PICTURE TELEVISION FUND

MPTF (formerly known as the Actors Fund) provides a variety of services including grants for people on strike. You can donate to MPTF here: https://mptf.com/donate/ [501c3 - tax deductible]

HOLLYWOOD SUPPORT STAFF RELIEF FUND

This is an MPTF fund specifically for Hollywood assistants impacted by the strike. https://secure2.convio.net/afa/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app20023a?8217.donation=form1&8217_donation=form1&NONCE_TOKEN=12A38B8E80F6E4250888E4E44BE1190D&df_id=8217&idb=182923308&mfc_pref=T [501c3 - tax deductible]

PICKET LINE SUPPORT

PIZZA FUND - ALL LA LOTS

Comedy writer Jess Morse maintains a pizza fund that delivers to all of the Valley pickets. You can send money to @ Jess-Morse on Venmo or paypal.me/pizzastrikefund on Paypal ($10.97 buys one pizza)

FOX LOT FOOD FUND (LA)

I run a food fund to help feed our picket line at Fox, where I am an assistant coordinator. My Venmo is @ OlgaLexell and we love to use this money on catering from local businesses so we can support them while their business is down too.

SONY LOT FOOD FUND (LA)

The folks coordinating the Sony lot started a food fund via GiveButter. https://givebutter.com/sonypicketlines

NETFLIX LOT FOOD FUND (LA)

Lot coordinator Danny Tolli runs a Venmo fund for food and beverages at Netflix. You can Venmo him @ dctolli to contribute.

DISNEY LOT FUND (LA)

Lot coordinator Carlos Cisco started a Venmo fund for supplies like water at Disney, which has extremely high temperatures in the summer. Venmo him at @ Carlos-Cisco to contribute.

COMMUNITY SOLIDARITY PROJECT (LA)

CSP has been delivering hot meals like breakfast burritos to all of the LA lots. Donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-entertainment-workers-on-the-strike-line

TARGET REGISTRY - ALL LA LOTS

Official Target registry run by the WGA West Lot Coordinators. This is to get supplies for our check-in stations, ranging from snacks to first aid to garbage bags and beyond. https://www.target.com/gift-registry/gift-giver?registryId=079d5420-f35e-11ed-989e-f9022739cfe2&type=CUSTOM

NYC STRIKE SUPPLIES

NY Strike captain Steph Deluca offered to receive incoming funds to buy picket line supplies, which is something the WGAe needs help with. They are fundraising via her venmo @steph_deluca

FEEDING THE NYC STRIKERS

A group sending food and water to NYC strikers has set up a Cashapp and Paypal fund. You can send the money at $NYCStrikeFund via Cashapp or feednycstrikers@hotmail.com via Paypal.

[kifaprokumiv]

gay people

[thesadboisguidetolife]

Help us lift the floor in the Tourism Industry here in LA by letting them know that we should be making a living wage!!!!!

[wrightfamily]

happy aai2 LOCALIZATION ANNOUNCEMENT. i will add image ids later but i wanted to get these out!!!

!!!!!!AAI2 SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!!!!!!

[ghostbsuter]

Danny had everything under control! He did!

It's dark out, time ticking to zero, and he's desperately trying to hide the baby yeti along the shadows of the alleys.

He's so so dead. Even more than he is right now. Turning full ghost even.

When Frostbite finds out that he'd taken his eyes off Snowdrift for five seconds and ended up in the living realm with no preparation, very short notice, or plan, he will never trust Danny with babysitting again!

Oh ancients.

"Hey there— is that a yeti?"

Great, a hero.

Swirling around, Danny stands in front of Snowdrift, hiding their form barely, their fluff and form peeking from behind the legs.

"No—"

"Greetings! My name is Snowdrift!"

Danny glances at the yeti cub as they stand next to him.

"Snowdrift, this is a stranger danger situation, remember what I told you about those?"

The cub peers up at him, confused. "Name no name and call for Dad?"

The teen nods.

Snowdrift looks at the hero, and a light bulb goes off. They quickly slide back behind Danny's form, simply peeking from the side now, curious.

"You saw nothing." The halfa turns to the hero, grinning nervous yet threatening.

"I'm not sure this is how it goes—"

[jerichoes]

She is the one who brought me to Moonrise and into the presence of her so-called god—the Absolute.

[blueberrysimsam]

Eons outside of time in therapy doesn’t prepare you to see the damage you’ve caused with your own eye.

[shamedumpster]

He's doing his best (inspired by this post)

[jedi-starbird]

Qui-Gon: C'mon, where's your sense of whimsy padawan? Obi-Wan: I don't know! I guess maybe one of the people actively shooting at us hit it!

[thefirsthogokage]

Ok, so if anyone, like me, has been wondering when other contracts are up, here ya go:

In the tweet (Which QTs a shot of a large group of people from different unions in LA who's contracts are up soon that came together yesterday (I think)), Justine Bateman says these are the expiration dates:

SAG (Screen Actors Guild) June 30

DGA (Directors Guild of America) June 30

Local 11 (hotel, event, sports arenas, conventions workers) June 30

UPS (United Postal Service, not the same as USPS which is the government mail delivery service) July 31

So, yeah. I'm hoping the DGA woke up with that MAX bullshit about lumping in all writers and directors under the label of "creators". Apparently, that went against the WGA and DGA contracts which have explicit rules about crediting writers in directors (which I'm pretty sure it says in one or two of those tweets in the post I linked in the last sentence).

I fully anticipate with how active Local 11 has been walking with WGA, and other unions, that they are certainly prepared to strike too.

(link to first tweet) (link to second tweet)

And in the video in this tweet, and this tweet, you can see them flying two different flags of their union while marching with a whole of various union members. They are at least 20k members strong. That would do so much damage to the hotels there, and could effect actors, crew, and creative team members that come from out of town for work. Not to mention a whole lot of other people, of course.

Apparently, a hotel housekeeper has to work 17 hours a day to afford a two bedroom apartment in the city. Geezus.

Also, I would think UPS has been poised to strike for a while, considering how bad they have it on their trucks alone, from what I remember.

[conceptofjoy]

[totallyboatless]

Yeah a show that touched a deep place in our hearts that reawoke a passion for life in many of us is over, but you fuckers forgot one very important thing

It’s Calypso’s motherfucking birthday

I’m gonna need everyone to reblog this and raise a glass (metaphorically or not) to something you love about this show or this weird little corner of the internet.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When the app tries to make you robo-scab

When we talk about the abusive nature of gig work, there’s some obvious targets, like algorithmic wage discrimination, where two workers are paid different rates for the same job, in order to trick occasional gig-workers to give up their other sources of income and become entirely dependent on the app:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Then there’s the opacity — imagine if your boss refused to tell you how much you’ll get paid for a job until after you’ve completed it, claimed that this was done in order to “protect privacy” — and then threatened anyone who helped you figure out the true wage on offer:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/07/hr-4193/#boss-app

Opacity is wage theft’s handmaiden: every gig worker producing content for a social media algorithm is subject to having their reach — and hence their pay — cut based on the unaccountable, inscrutable decisions of a content moderation system:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

Making content for an algorithm is like having a boss that docks every paycheck because you broke rules that you are not allowed to know, because if you knew the rules, you’d figure out how to cheat without your boss catching you. Content moderation is the last place where security through obscurity is considered good practice:

https://doctorow.medium.com/como-is-infosec-307f87004563

When workers seize the means of computation, amazing things happen. In Indonesia, gig workers create and trade tuyul apps that let them unilaterally modify the way that their bosses’ systems see them — everything from GPS spoofing to accessibility mods:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek

So the tech and labor story isn’t wholly grim: there are lots of ways that tech can enhance labor struggles, letting workers collaborate and coordinate. Without digital systems, we wouldn’t have the Hot Strike Summer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/02/not-what-it-does/#who-it-does-it-to

As the historic writer/actor strike shows us, the resurgent labor movement and the senescent forces of crapulent capitalism are locked in a death-struggle over not just what digital tools do, but who they do it for and who they do it to:

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

When it comes to the epic fight over who technology acts for and against, we need a diversity of tactics, backstopped by tech operated by and for its users — and by laws that protect workers and the public. That dynamic is in sharp focus in UNITE Here Local 11’s strike against Orange County’s Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa.

The UNITE Here strike turns on the usual issues like a living wage (hotel staff are paid so little they have to rent rooming-house beds by the shift, paying for the right to sleep in a room for a few hours at a time, without any permanent accommodation). They’re also seeking health-care and pensions, so they can be healthy at work and retire after long service. Finally, they’re seeking their employer’s support for LA’s Responsible Hotels Ordinance, which would levy a tax on hotel rooms to help pay for hotel workers’ housing costs (a hotel worker who can’t afford a bed is the equivalent of a fast food worker who has to apply for food stamps):

https://www.unitehere11.org/responsible-hotels-ordinance/

But the Marriott — which is owned by the University of California and managed by Aimbridge Hospitality — has refused to bargain, walking out negotiations.

But the employer didn’t walk out over wages, benefits or support for a housing subsidy. They walked out when workers demanded that the scabs that the company was trying to hire to break the strike be given full time, union jobs.

These aren’t just any scabs, either. They’re predominantly Black workers who rely on the $700m Instawork app for gigs. These workers are being dispatched to cross the picket line without any warning that they’re being contracted as strikebreakers. When workers refuse the cross the picket and join the strike, Instawork cancels all their shifts and permanently blocks them from new jobs.

This is a new, technologically supercharged form of illegal strikebreaking. It’s one thing for a single boss to punish a worker who refuses to scab, but Instawork acts as a plausible-deniability filter for all the major employers in the region. Like the landlord apps that allow landlords to illegally fix rents by coordinating hikes, Instawork lets bosses illegally collude to rig wages by coordinating a blocklist of workers who refuse to scab:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/10/company-that-makes-rent-setting-software-for-landlords-sued-for-collusion/?comments=1

The racial dimension is really important here: the Marriott has a longstanding de facto policy of refusing to hire Black workers, and whenever they are confronted with this, they insist that there are no qualified Black workers in the labor pool. But as soon as the predominantly Latino workforce struck, Marriott discovered a vast Black workforce that it could coerce into scabbing, in collusion with Instawork.

Now, all of this isn’t just sleazy, it’s illegal, a violation of Section 7 of the NLRB Act. Historically, that wouldn’t have mattered, because a string of presidents, R and D, have appointed useless do-nothing ghouls to run the NLRB. But the Biden admin, pushed by the party’s left wing, made a string of historic, excellent appointments, including NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has set her sights on punishing gig work companies for flouting labor law:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/10/see-you-in-the-funny-papers/#bidens-legacy

UNITE HERE 11 has brought a case to the NLRB, charging the Instawork, the UC system, Marriott, and Aimbridge with violating labor law by blackmailing gig workers into crossing the picket line. The union is also asking the NLRB to punish the companies for failing to protect workers from violent retaliation from the wealthy hotel guests who have punched them and screamed epithets at them. The hotel has refused to identify these thug guests so that the workers they assaulted can swear out complaints against them.

Writing about the strike for Jacobin, Alex N Press tells the story of Thomas Bradley, a Black worker who was struck off all Instawork shifts for refusing to cross the picket line and joining it instead:

https://jacobin.com/2023/07/southern-california-hotel-workers-strike-automated-management-unite-here

Bradley’s case is exhibit A in the UNITE HERE 11 case before the NLRB. He has a degree in culinary arts, but racial discrimination in the industry has kept him stuck in gig and temp jobs ever since he graduated, nearly a quarter century ago. Bradley lived out of his car, but that was repossessed while he slept in a hotel room that UNITE HERE 11 fundraised for him, leaving him homeless and bereft of all his worldly possessions.

With UNITE HERE 11’s help, Bradley’s secured a job at the downtown LA Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites, a hotel that has bargained with the workers. Bradley is using his newfound secure position to campaign among other Instawork workers to convince them not to cross picket lines. In these group chats, Jacobin saw workers worrying “that joining the strike would jeopardize their standing on the app.”

Today (July 30) at 1530h, I’m appearing on a panel at Midsummer Scream in Long Beach, CA, to discuss the wonderful, award-winning “Ghost Post” Haunted Mansion project I worked on for Disney Imagineering.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

[Image ID: An old photo of strikers before a struck factory, with tear-gas plumes rising above them. The image has been modified to add a Marriott sign to the factory, and the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' to the sky over the factory. The workers have been colorized to a yellow-green shade and the factory has been colorized to a sepia tone.]

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[relicsongmel]

Thinking about Iris being blindsided by her love for Phoenix.

Iris feeling nothing for him at first, only dating him to prevent yet another needless death and even more blood on her sister's hands.

Iris seeing his earnestness and dedication to becoming a lawyer for his friend and being profoundly moved by it.

Iris asking Phoenix to return the bottle necklace less and less often because him doing so would mean her losing the greatest joy she had ever felt outside of her love for her sister.

Iris overthinking her own happiness when she's with Phoenix because this wasn't supposed to happen.

Iris stifling her love for Phoenix because she feels guilty for it.

Iris knowing her love is doomed to fail.

Iris feeling sick to her stomach when Dahlia expresses to her exactly how much of a nuisance she thinks Phoenix is and how things would be so much easier for her if she just got rid of him.

Iris debating if her love for Phoenix is worth dismantling the lie she's created.

Iris debating if her love for Phoenix is worth more than her own life.

Iris debating if her love for Phoenix is worth more than her sister's life.

Iris thinking her love will forever remain unsaid after Dahlia frames Phoenix for murder.

Iris seeing Phoenix again five years later in a cruel twist of fate and fearing her love will be discovered...and soundly rejected.

Iris seeing Phoenix again five years later in a cruel twist of fate and fearing her love will be discovered...but not rejected.

Iris fearing that she will be loved despite her love.

Iris fearing she will be seen for all she is, in all her unmasked, cowardly, selfish glory...and accepted.

Iris being unable to imagine a fate more cruel than being loved after all she's done.

Iris being doomed by her love.

[holyfreaks]

it's about leaving the door open with sam's back turned against it. it's about dean slipping in quietly and taking the key. it's about the darkness of the room sam is sitting in. it's about the implications

[art-is-kayos]

'I... they're going to... I'm going to jail...?'