Teamsters
Hollywood workers staged a united front last night at the Shrine Auditorium in support of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, now in its third day. This included Hollywood Teamsters Local 399, whose secretary-treasurer and chief negotiator Lindsay Dougherty had the biggest mic drop moment in front of the 1,800-member WGA West crowd.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland
SAG AFTRA
As Deadline reported yesterday, Jon Avnet, Chair of the Directors Guild Bargaining Committee, and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, National Executive Director of SAG-AFTRA and its Chief Negotiator, both called for union solidarity. and Hollywood guilds. It’s their respective groups’ turn in the bargaining barrel next: The DGA begins contract negotiations with the Alliance of Film and Television Producers on Wednesday, followed by SAG-AFTRA on June 7, and the Teamsters and IATSE l ‘next year.
Both Avnet and Crabtree-Ireland fired up the crowd, receiving enthusiastic cheers and waves of applause.
But it was Dougherty who commanded the biggest moments and was repeatedly applauded when she promised her members would not cross WGA picket lines.
“Our Teamster members will also be with you side by side,” she told the crowd. “We have a saying that we like to say to our members: ‘Teamsters don’t cross the picket line.’ “
RELATED: Hollywood Teamsters Leader Lindsay Dougherty on WGA Strike, Picket Lines, Union Solidarity & Studios ‘Bullsh*t’ – Deadline Q&A
“All the support you’ve seen so far is going to improve, and we’re excited to be in this fight with you,” she continued. “We are currently at a turning point in the labor movement. If we want to get what is ours, we will have to fight tooth and nail. So hang in there. Keep fighting. Keep hitting the sidewalk for just one day, because if you start a picket line, those fucking trucks will stop, I promise you.
RELATED: WGA strike arrests ‘billions’ amid skirmishes, cries of ‘scabs’ outside New York studio; The Teamsters refuse to cross the pickets during the filming of “American Horror Story”
After the cheering died down, she continued. “We’ve all seen what’s going on right now in Hollywood. They’re starving us all, not just you guys. So whatever they pay you now, they will pay us all later, with interest.
“And we promise you that next year, when IATSE and the Teamsters come into our fight, it will be the same. We have to fight. We must continue to fight together.
RELATED: Full coverage of Deadline’s strike
And then came the moment of the drop-mic. “And what I would like to say to the studios is, ‘If you want to fuck, you’re going to find out. She then left the stage to cheers and hugs from WGAW President Meredith Stiehm and several others on stage.
You can see a video of his remarks here:
All other union leaders speaking at the Los Angeles meeting, including representatives from IATSE, Labor Local 724, IBEW Local 40 and Plasterers Local 755, sang the same collection of solidarity hymns to the applause of the crowd.