Abstract
In an effort to increase labour power, trade unions representing communications and creative workers in North America have pursued a form of convergence, merging with each other and restructuring themselves along similar lines to their employers. This paper examines the issues surrounding labour convergence by taking up the failed merger between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. It finds that, although the leaders of both unions supported the merger, the particular characteristics of the unions, including their culture, sense of craft identity and the lived experience of members, derailed the effort.
Highlights
Research has demonstrated the importance of information and communication labour in the modern economy (Dyer-Witheford, 1999; Huws, 2003; Terranova, 2004)
This paper focuses on the issue of trade union convergence and takes up this question: why would two unions facing an increasingly concentrated set of employers in the film and media industries decide not to merge? To answer this question, we draw on interviews with key participants and access to primary documentation to provide a detailed case study of the failed merger between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
While a merger might help SAG and AFTRA deal with media conglomerates, it might mean that members would have to give up some of their influence over union decisions because the union has grown larger
Summary
After the merger was defeated, each union had to chart a new course based on maintaining the status quo of two unions rather than the synergy of one. ‘If we could present a united front with the WGA and the DGA, we’d be a lot stronger...Since late 2005, for example, the writers’ and actors’ guilds have been campaigning together for tougher rules on product placement, which the unions see as “stealth advertising”.’ (ibid) Following the failed merger, AFTRA undertook a major restructuring It plans to move its national headquarters from New York to Los Angeles, home of its largest local. Two unions that are each other’s best colleague find themselves having to devote resources to competing with each other, all the while knowing that those resources might better be spent promoting their joint interests For those opposed to the merger – a minority at SAG, but a large enough one to determine the outcome of the vote in 2003 – this is a small price to pay for retaining political and cultural independence. In the longer term, shoring up their mutual relationship while building strong bridges to other cultural worker organisations, in Hollywood and beyond, may be critical to whether they thrive or merely survive
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