AFM: Writers Guild Backs Resort Employees’ Boycott

The WGA has come out in favor of a boycott of lodges in Santa Monica affiliated with the American Movie Market.

Hospitalities union Unite Right here Native 11 is within the midst of a labor dispute with a number of lodges, together with the Le Meridien Delfina, the brand new headquarters of the AFM, which kicked off Oct. 31 and runs by Sunday, Nov. 5. On Wednesday, the union held protests exterior a number of AFM-affiliated lodges calling on market attendees to boycott them. The union, which has been holding rolling strikes for the reason that July 4th weekend, is looking for “a dwelling wage” for its members to permit them to afford to reside in Los Angeles amid rising inflation and hovering housing prices. Unite Right here has additionally referred to as out the Le Meridien Delfina and different lodges for allegedly utilizing unhoused refugees to interchange employees throughout the strikes.

The WGA, which final month signed a brand new take care of AMPTP, ending the second-longest strike in its historical past, despatched an open letter to Jean Prewitt, CEO of the Impartial Movie and Tv Affiliation (IFTA), which runs AFM, calling for them to honor the resort boycott.

“As writers who lately went on strike for 148 days, we name on AFM to do the fitting factor by honoring the employees’ boycott,” the letter, seen by The Hollywood Reporter, reads. “This implies don’t patronize, eat, collect, or sleep at these lodges till they’ve new contracts with dwelling wages, and the unhoused refugees exploited by these lodges have the first rate jobs and housing they want and deserve. Resort employees will probably be picketing and sure be on strike on the lodges concerned.”

The letter is signed by Meredith Stiehm, president of the Writers Guild of America West, WGA West vp Michele Mulroney and secretary-treasurer Betsy Thomas.

In a letter to Stiehm in response, Prewitt stated the AFM was “no manner a celebration to the Unite Right here Native 11 dispute with the lodges and has no data of the union’s allegations apart from what has been reported by information retailers.” She writes that “cancellation or relocation” of the AFM “shouldn’t be an possibility, as it might do critical monetary hurt to IFTA, AFM and our 1000’s of world constituents.” Prewitt famous that the AFM is “a long-standing occasion that helps the survival of the worldwide unbiased movie business, the economic system of the Metropolis and of its many residents and employees. The six-day occasion produced by business non-profit IFTA requires months of intricate group and funding by IFTA and the members themselves, who depend on the enterprise executed at AFM for his or her livelihood.”