Workers try to flip the script

STRIKE A BARGAIN: The barista at your local Starbucks has a lot in common with the members of the Writers Guild who went on strike today – and not just because they are working on a screenplay.

They’re now both on the frontlines of a nationwide labor movement that has exploded over the last two years, fueled by the market upheaval of a global pandemic, and what economists say is a distinct shift in worker expectations about wages and benefits.

Thousands of television and movie screenwriters have walked off the job and taken to the streets of Los Angeles, pushing back against a studio system and streaming giants that have seen their profits soar over the last decade, even as weekly wages have faced double-digit declines over that time period, according to an industry survey.

The Writers Guild of America’s move comes after negotiations that began in March fell apart, halting production on scores of projects and threatening to disrupt an ecosystem of businesses that services Hollywood.

“It has profound consequences, direct and indirect,” Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters today while in Los Angeles for a conference. “We’re very concerned about what’s going on because both sides are dug in and the stakes are high, and, I have to say, I’m sensitive to the concerns of the writers.”

The shutdown of California’s most iconic industry has captured national attention, drawing support from figures like Congressman Adam Schiff, who is campaigning for a Senate seat. It offers the highest-profile example of a workers’ rights push that’s spread from coffee shops and grocery stores, to cavernous Amazon warehouses and the marbled halls of the California Legislature.

The flare-up in labor activity extends a months-long hot streak for California’s labor unions, which have been galvanized by rising inflation, skyrocketing housing prices and the looming threat of a recession.

The 11,500 screenwriters aren’t the only workers to form picket lines in California today.

Shasta County employees went on strike this morning, closing some county offices. And Oakland teachers last night announced their plans to walk out Thursday, a move that could keep 34,000 students out of school.

University of California student workers and postdocs led the largest campus strike in U.S. history last fall, and Los Angeles school support staff and teachers closed the nation’s second-largest school district for three days in March, eventually extracting more than 20 percent raises from the district.

“We also know that being priced out is real – priced out of the housing market. People cannot afford to live where they work. They’re having two and three jobs to do a job that they love.” United Teachers Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz told POLITICO last month, just after the union and district averted a strike with an agreement boosting teachers’ pay by 21 percent.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

BACK TO WORK: Sen. Dianne Feinstein hopes to return to Washington D.C. next week after a prolonged illness — a revelation captured in a photograph of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s notes today. POLITICO’s Katherine Tully-McManus and Nicholas Wu report that Schumer and Feinstein spoke Monday about her recovery from shingles, which has kept her out of the Capitol since March and prompted calls for her resignation.

Schumer did not address his conversation with Feinstein during a press conference, but a spokesperson for his office said he was prepared to if prompted. “It was in his notes, and he would have said if someone asked,” Schumer’s spokesperson told POLITICO.

On The Beats

POOLS OF MONEY: Profiteering off water rights — yes, it’s a thing — could be banned in California under a bill that’s moving through the Legislature. Assembly Bill 1205 by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) would declare that it’s an “unreasonable” use of water to profit off water rights attached to land used for farming. Bauer-Kahan called the increasing number of water deals struck by investment funds across the West a “gold rush” that could end up threatening a public, life-sustaining resource. Opponents, including the Western Growers Association, argued the bill is arbitrary and unclear and could upend the development of key projects to provide a sustainable water supply. — Camille von Kaenel

BEVERLY HILLBILLIES: Newsom swung by the Milken Institute’s 2023 Global Conference on Tuesday for a chat with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle. He spent the 20-minute conversation reiterating familiar rhetoric on three issues plaguing California: homelessness, affordability and fentanyl. The governor also took jabs at familiar enemies, lambasting Republican politicians like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for refusing to restrict firearm access after persistent, successive mass shootings.

“How do these guys keep getting elected?” Newsom told the crowd. “How can they lay claim to family values? How can they really lay claim to loving their kids?” — Lara Korte

AROUND CALIFORNIA

– “Oakland teachers are officially striking again. Could San Francisco be next?” by the San Francisco Standard’s Ida Mojadad: “California’s educators seem to have gotten the memo. Teachers in Los Angeles backed a three-day strike by support staff that shut down schools in March. In Marin County, the San Rafael Teachers Association has been stuck in negotiations since November and nearly all members authorized a strike in a March 31 vote. In February, a strike was averted among West Contra Costa Unified School District teachers after the local educators’ union — armed with a strike vote approved by nearly all its members — reached an agreement with officials.

This week’s action isn’t even the only episode of labor unrest in the East Bay’s biggest school district. Oakland teachers went on a one-day strike in April 2022 over school closures, in addition to a weeklong strike in 2019 over pay increases in their last contract.

San Francisco teachers, meanwhile, haven’t gone on strike since 1979. The last time they voted to authorize a strike was in 2014, coming close again in 2017. Two votes by members are required for the United Educators of San Francisco to go on strike.”

– “Most of California’s colossal snowpack has yet to melt,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Hayley Smith: “A Department of Water Resources crew conducted its fifth snow survey of the year Monday and determined that statewide snowpack was 254% of normal for the date, with the equivalent of 49.2 inches of water contained in the snow.

The survey, conducted at Phillips Station near south Lake Tahoe, marked the first time there was measurable snow on May 1 at Phillips Station since 2020. That year, there was only 1.5 inches of snow on the ground, with a snow water equivalent of 0.5 inches.

“No matter how you look at the data, only a handful of years in the historical record compare to this year’s results,” said Sean de Guzman, DWR’s manager of snow surveys. Last month, 2023 joined 1952, 1969 and 1983 as the only years with snowpack above 200% on April 1, the date when it is typically at its deepest.

Snowpack in the southern Sierra Nevada remains even higher, measuring 326% of average on Monday, with 51.2 inches of snow water equivalent.”

MIXTAPE

– “Top Hollywood showrunners explain the writers’ strike,” by the Los Angeles Times’ Yyvonne Villarreal, Sonaiya Kelley and Nicholas Ducassi.

– “Gun advocates sue to overturn California’s 10-day waiting period,” by the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bob Egelko.

– “Bay Area tech layoffs in 2023 already top the total for all of 2022,” by The Mercury News’ George Avalos.

Compiled by Matthew Brown