AFL-CIO Moves to Create Entertainment Industry Panel

As part of a new strategic agenda to bring together unions working in common industries and regions, the AFL-CIO Executive Council on Oct. 6 announced plans to create its first Industry Coordinating Committee. The ICC will allow workers to negotiate with more strength in industries facing rapid media consolidation and massive technological shifts.

Ten unions representing nearly 1 million workers in the Arts, Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications industries requested the formation of the panel, which is now subject to the approval of the unions’ leadership groups. The first ICC announced since the AFL-CIO convention marks the beginning of sweeping reforms the labor federation has undertaken to infuse the national labor movement.

AFTRA National President John P. Connolly said the ICC will help organize thousands of new workers amid dramatic changes in the entertainment industry. AFTRA played a leading role in forming the first ICC of the AFL-CIO.

“The media is perhaps the fastest growing industry in the private sector, creating tens-of-thousands of jobs every year in every corner of our country. The rapid growth of the media has outstripped our unions' inidvidual ability to organize, so many of these new jobs are non-union. This incredible growth creates great opportunity and enormous challenge for the AEMI Unions to organize thousands of new members and provide union jobs for our current members,” Connolly said.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the new ICC also represents important changes within the national labor movement. “For the first time, all 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 ten unions forming the ICC 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 State 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).

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