Organizing Update

Deadline featured an article about the New York City parking production assistants who clear and secure sets, lots, and streets for movie and commercial productions who are organizing to gain representation with CWA:

"Anytime we clear a street, we put our lives on the line," [Holmes Rollins] continued. "At 3 o'clock in the morning when me or one of my brothers or sisters walk up to a car, we don't know what we're walking into. Many times, we are assaulted and spit on; cars try to run us over while we just do our jobs. We're asking for what Martin Luther King was fighting for those sanitation workers. What they were fighting for years ago, we are still fighting for today: a living wage and our right to be treated like humanity."

The parking production assistants, who number about 1,000 mostly African-American and Latino workers in New York, were given approval by the National Labor Relations Board to vote on whether they wish to be represented in labor negotiations by the Communications Workers of America. Ballots are expected to go out this week. A spokesman for the group said the workers get no medical or other benefits, earn minimum wages and typically work 12-hour shifts through the night to secure locations for filming.

Read the full piece here.