Arts, media unions announce new collaboration

Ten unions in the arts, entertainment, media and telecommunications industries will create a new Industry Coordinating Committee to build power for workers in these industries in the face of rapid media consolidation and massive technological shifts.

The announcement came at the national AFL-CIO’s Executive Council meeting in Washington, D.C., Thursday, its first since the federation’s July convention.

The creation of the new committee is subject to the approval of the leadership groups of each of the 10 individual unions. The collaboration is the first announced since the AFL-CIO convention, which drew up plans for industry coordinating committees to bring together unions that represent workers in an industry, employer, occupation, or region and develop an organizing plan as well as contract standards.

“Those professionals who work in the arts, entertainment, media and telecommunications industries need a strong, united effort to address their issues in the face of ownership consolidation and unprecedented changes — and today, they’re one big step closer to winning more power,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “The AFL-CIO is 100 percent committed to supporting efforts to help the millions of workers in these industries improve their lives through unions.”

“For the first time, all of the major AFL-CIO unions in these sectors will work together to devise joint organizing and collective bargaining strategies in conjunction with their long-standing collaborative work on legislation and public policy,” said Paul Almeida, president of the federation’s Department for Professional Employees.

The Arts, Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Industry Coordinating Committee will build power for working people in this industry by undertaking collaborative initiatives in four principal areas — organizing, collective bargaining, contract standards and public policy.

The 10 unions that are part of the new collaboration are: Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), American Federation of Musicians (AFM), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Communications Workers of America (CWA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), The Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA) and the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE). Combined, these unions represent nearly one million workers in these sectors.

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