Hollywood Picketers Rally In Support Of State Bill That Would Extend Unemployment To Strikers

Striking actors and writers rallied outside Amazon Studios in Culver City Thursday in support of SB 799, a proposed state bill that would extend unemployment benefits to workers who have been on strike for more than two weeks.

Calling the legislation "critical" Joely Fisher, SAG-AFTRA’s secretary-treasurer, pointed out that New York and New Jersey already have similar laws on the books.

“Withholding our labor from our exploitative employers is our right and we shouldn’t have to court financial ruin to exercise that right,” Fisher said.

Striking writer Kayla Westergard-Dobson told the crowd she’s going broke, with medical bills in collections. But she said she’s heartened by the mutual aid her community of writers provides.

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Striking writer Kayla Westergard-Dobson.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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“And that’s where our strength lies. It doesn’t matter how much these studios try to starve us out, they can never take that away,” Westergard-Dobson said.

She added that she feels like all strikers have put in the work to earn the unemployment benefits. A representative from the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), a health care worker with SEIU-UHW West and local unionized janitor Mario Marrufo joined the Hollywood strikers in support of the bill.

“This is unjust,” Marrufo said in Spanish. “If the rich keep getting richer, we the workers are going to have to go out and fight for better wages.”

The California Chamber of Commerce is leading a coalition of business groups that oppose the bill, calling it a “job killer.”

“By forcing employers to pay unemployment insurance (UI) payments to striking workers, SB 799 would also raise taxes on employers across California, overturn more than 70 years of precedent, and put California’s UI program at risk of violating federal law,” a statement in opposition to the bill from the Chamber reads.

The measure cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee Thursday and is headed to the Assembly floor.

Senator Anthony Portantino, the bill’s primary sponsor, said a similar measure was proposed three years ago and fell two votes short. He said this time around, things could be different, with California seizing a moment of unrest within the labor market.

“This is the appropriate time for workers to be advocating for their future of their crafts, of their livelihood, of their families. And this bill is going to provide the safety for them to do that,” Portantino told LAist.

As far as potential financial impact of the proposed measure, Portantino pointed out that only two strikes of the 56 strikes between 2012-2022 involving 1,000 workers or more went past two weeks.

If the bill passes and the governor signs it, the bill would go into effect Jan. 1, 2024.