LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood writers have voted almost unanimously to approve the contract agreement reached by their union leaders that ended a strike after nearly five months, while actors remain in negotiations to find a way out of their own strike.

The Writers Guild of America announced Monday that 99% of the 8,525 members who cast ballots voted to ratify the deal.

The agreement was widely touted as a win by leaders, and widely praised by members, with major gains in payment, size of show staffs and control of artificial intelligence in scripts. The result of the vote taken over the past week was never really in doubt.

“Together we were able to accomplish what many said was impossible only six months ago,” Meredith Stiehm, president of the WGA-East, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, nearly three months after their strike began, leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were back in contract negotiations with studios on Monday, a week after talks restarted.

Unlike the marathon night-and-weekend sessions that brought an end to the writers strike, the actors and their employers are moving more methodically in their talks, and it was not clear how much progress was being made.

Writers guild leaders urged studios to grant actors’ demands and said their members would picket alongside them until a deal was reached.

The writers’ new contract runs thorough May 1, 2026, three years after their previous contract expired and they went on strike. After negotiations that saw direct involvement from the chiefs of Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery, a tentative deal was struck on Sept. 24. Two days later, when the board members voted to approve the agreement and send it to members, the strike was declared over and writers were released to work.

They began almost immediately, with late-night talk shows back on the air within a week and other shows, including “Saturday Night Live,” soon to follow.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and production companies in strike talks, congratulated writers for their vote, saying in a statement that the contract “represents meaningful gains and protections for writers” and that it “is important progress for our industry that writers are back to work.”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Hollywood writers vote to approve contract deal that ended strike as actors negotiate appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jason Kravits gets a lot of this: People recognize him – they’re just not sure how. “I’m that guy who looks like the guy you went to high school with,” says Kravits. “People think they’ve just seen me somewhere.”

Actually, they have — on TV, usually as a lawyer, or a doctor. “I’ve had enough roles that I’ve been in your living room on any given night,” the veteran actor says. “But mostly people don’t know my name.”

Kravits is one of those actors union leaders refer to as “journeymen” — who tend to work for scale pay, and spend at least as much time lining up work as working. They can have a great year, then a bad one, without much rhyme or reason. “We’re always on the verge of struggling,” says Kravits.

And they, not the big Hollywood names joining the picket lines, are the heart of the actors’ strike.

Many say they fear the general public thinks all actors get paid handsomely and are doing it for love of the craft, almost as a hobby. Yet in most cases it’s their only job, and they need to qualify for health insurance, pay rents or mortgages, pay for school and college for their kids.

“All of us aren’t Tom Cruise,” says Amari Dejoie, 30, who studies acting, does background jobs (as an extra) and modeling to keep afloat, and is considering waitressing during the strike. “We have to pay rent and bills, and they’re due on the first. And your apartment does not care that your check wasn’t as high as you expected it to be.”

In interviews, a few journeyman actors at different stages of their careers discussed their lives and their reasons for striking:

THAT ONE-PENNY CHECK

Recently Jennifer Van Dyck got a couple residual checks in the mail — one for 60 cents, one for 72 cents. But she’s seen worse. “The joke is when you get the one-cent check that cost 44 cents to be mailed to you,” says the veteran New York actor.

Still, Van Dyck counts herself lucky. With many appearances on network shows like “The Blacklist,” “Madam Secretary” and especially ”Law & Order,” where she’s appeared as a guest star 13 times, plus voiceover work, she’s been able to make a living for more than 30 years without having to take a job outside the industry.

“You just keep jumping around,” she says. “When things get dry in one area you move to the next. It’s keeping all the balls in the air: theater, film, television, voiceover, audiobooks. Call us journeypeople: Half the job requirement is looking for work.”

Van Dyck says the emergence of streaming has cut into an actor’s income alarmingly, because streamers give tiny residuals, if that. And when it comes to negotiating a rate to appear on a show, the studios don’t seem to care if you have 37 years of experience. “They say, “This is what we’re offering, take it or leave it.’”

.She’s still struck by the common misperception that actors must be rich and famous. “The majority of us aren’t,” she says. “But all those other parts (in a hit show), and all those other shows that get sidelined or disappear — that’s work, too. And those stories can’t be told without (us).”

“No one wants to strike,” Van Dyck adds. But she feels the industry is at an inflection point. And, “at a certain point you have to say, ‘No Mas.’”

___

THIS IS NOT A HOBBY

Growing up in the Washington, D.C., area, Kravits was bitten by the theater bug early, performing in community theater by the time he was 10 or 11. He studied theater in college, and eventually made his way to New York and then Los Angeles.

In LA, he got lucky, winning a recurring role on David E. Kelley’s “The Practice.”

Kravits quips he’d make a lot more money as an actual lawyer, but enjoys playing them. “I like to say I play a lot of lawyers, but never the same lawyer. I play a mean lawyer, a dumb lawyer, a funny lawyer, a hateful lawyer, an incompetent lawyer. Every role is different to me.” Most of the time, he’s on a show for one or two episodes.

Kravits says there used to be room for negotiation on everything, including billing and dressing rooms, but no longer: “You’re negotiating with Wall Street. And Wall Street is all bottom line.”

The toughest change has been with the all-important residuals. “I don’t think people realize outside the business how important residuals are to being able to afford being an actor,” he says.

And because of how meager streaming residuals are, Kravits says he has network shows he did 10, 15 even 20 years ago that still yield more residuals than buzzy shows he’s done for streamers the last few years — like HBO’s “The Undoing” or Netflix’s “Halston.”

“I didn’t get into this as a hobby,” Kravits says. “I can’t afford to do it as a hobby.”

___

PUTTING OUR MONEY WHERE OUR MOUTHS ARE

The series finale of the show that transformed actor Diany Rodriguez’s career – NBC’s “The Blacklist” – aired the same day Hollywood came to a standstill.

Rodriguez, who played Weecha, bodyguard of star James Spader’s character, would have loved to take to social media and celebrate her character’s final appearance, but the strike made that impossible. She had several new projects booked, but is now throwing herself into her duties as a strike captain.

She sees the strike as part of a larger labor movement in the country: “I’m so in favor of this because it feels overwhelmingly (like) we are ready to put our money where our mouths are for the greater good.”

Rodriguez, 41, was born in Puerto Rico, grew up in Alabama, and moved from New York to Atlanta in 2009 for theater work. Around that time, Georgia lawmakers passed generous film tax credits — incentives that brought in business but ensured a lengthy strike would be acutely felt there.

“Atlanta’s economy is funded in large part based on the film and TV tax breaks,” she says.

Rodriguez feels financially secure, thanks largely to her two-season stint on “The Blacklist,” the network residuals and the roles the show has helped her book since then.

But she says she could easily have been in the same situation as so many of her fellow actors who are on the verge of losing their health coverage, unable to earn enough in recent months to be eligible for SAG-AFTRA insurance plans.

—-

WHAT WILL THIS MEAN FOR ACTING?

Amari Dejoie’s father didn’t want her to follow him into the entertainment business. “They never do,” she quips.

But Dejoie, growing up in Los Angeles, got the bug, and started pursuing acting and modeling at 17. Now 30, she studies acting, paying $400 a month for classes, and takes whatever side jobs she can, including working as an extra on sets. She’s appeared in music videos, and at events as a booth model. She’s considering a waitress job to tide her over during the strike.

“My dad was part of SAG back in the day and his residuals paid for a home,” says Dejoie, who was manning the picket lines in Los Angeles last week. “It’s the same business, and (yet) it’s completely different now.”

Her father, Vincent Cook, was a boxing double for Will Smith on “Ali,” and had a role in “B.A.P.S.,” with Halle Berry. “He was not a main character, but his residuals were great and they still are,” Dejoie says, nothing that recently, after undergoing a medical issue, he discovered that SAG had a check waiting for him. “If it’s up to the studio, they’re not going to hunt you down to pay you. SAG will,” Dejoie says.

Dejoie also is concerned about how artificial intelligence will affect the industry and her work as an extra, where she makes about $150 a day to be available for background shots. Actors fear studios want to scan their images and use them repeatedly after paying for just one day of work.

“Also, if I’m not present on the set, I’m not there making connections for other jobs,” Dejoie says.

More broadly, the idea of actors’ images being replicated artificially makes her afraid for the future of the industry she is just getting started in.

“What will this mean for acting?” she says. “Did I just spend all this time and money for a craft that will one day be obsolete?”

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post They’re the names you don’t know. Hollywood’s ‘journeyman’ actors explain why they are striking appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist is ramping up.

Last month, members of Unite Here Local 11 voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike. The union is seeking better wages, improved health care benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.

In addition, the union wants to create a “hospitality workforce housing fund” to help workers deal with the soaring costs of living in greater Los Angeles. Many employees report commuting hours to work because they can’t afford to live near their jobs.

“Our members were devastated first by the pandemic, and now by the greed of their bosses,” union co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement. “The industry got bailouts while we got cuts.”

Contracts expired midnight on Friday at more than 60 hotels, including properties owned by major chains such as Marriott and Hilton. The strike affects about half of the 32,000 hospitality workers the union represents across Southern California and Arizona.

Last week, a deal was reached with its biggest employer, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles, which has more than 600 union workers. Union officials described the tentative agreement, which provides higher pay and increased staffing levels, as a major win for workers.

Talks with other hotels were at a stalemate. A coalition of more than 40 hotels involved in talks accused union leaders of canceling a scheduled bargaining session and refusing to come to the table. The hotels have offered wage increases of $2.50 per hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years, the group said.

“From the outset, the Union has shown no desire to engage in productive, good faith negotiations with this group,” the hotel coalition said in a statement Sunday. “The Union has not budged from its opening demand two months ago of up to a 40% wage increase and an over 28% increase in benefit costs.”

The work stoppage was expected, and the properties are “fully prepared to continue to operate these hotels and to take care of our guests as long as this disruption lasts,” said Keith Grossman, a spokesperson for the coalition.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California are on strike, demanding better pay and benefits appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of service workers backed by teachers began a three-day strike against the Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday, shutting down education for a half-million students in the nation’s second-largest school system.

Local 99 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents about 30,000 teachers’ aides, special education assistants, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other support staff, walked out amid stalled contract talks.

Teachers joined rain-soaked picket lines early Tuesday as workers demanded better wages and increased staffing before heading to a huge rally outside the district’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Some held signs that read “We keep schools safe, Respect Us!” The district has more than 500,000 students from Los Angeles and all or part of 25 other cities and unincorporated county areas. Nearly three-quarters are Latino.

Bus driver Mike Cervantes began his day of protest with a 4 a.m. rally at a bus yard before joining a demonstration at a school and then heading downtown.

“I’m going to be here, rain or shine,” he said. “This is historic.”

Lydia Vasquez searched for her husband in the crowd as demonstrators chanted “we are the future.” He works as a school custodian and she couldn’t remember the last time he got a raise. “We really need to be out here having our voices heard,” she said.

Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing 35,000 educators, counselors and other staff, earlier pledged solidarity with the strikers.

“These are the co-workers that are the lowest-paid workers in our schools and we cannot stand idly by as we consistently see them disrespected and mistreated by this district,” UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz told a news conference.

Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho accused the union of refusing to negotiate and said that he was prepared to meet at any time day or night.

“We remain ready to return to negotiations with SEIU Local 99 so we can provide an equitable contract to our hardworking employees and get our students back in classrooms,” the superintendent said in a statement Tuesday.

Liev Kaplan, 6, marched with his mom, Tiffany, an adaptive physical education teacher. “We want to fight for everyone so they can have fair pay,” the first-grader said. His dad teaches math. “We are an education family,” Tiffany Kaplan said. “But we can’t educate if the kids are not fed, if they’re not feeling safe. We have to support our support staff.”

During the strike, about 150 of the district’s more than 1,000 schools remained open with adult supervision but no instruction, to give students somewhere to go. Dozens of libraries and parks, plus some “grab and go” spots for students to get lunches also planned to be open to kids to lessen the strain on parents now scrambling to find care.

“I will make sure the wellbeing of L.A. students always comes first as I continue to work with all parties to reach an agreement to reopen the schools and guarantee fair treatment of all LAUSD workers,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

Jerilyn Lopez Mendoza said she supports the walkout because she wants staff to be compensated fairly, but she worried how missing three days of school might affect her 15-year-old daughter, who is autistic. For the sophomore it means three days away from her social circle and the routine that school provides, her mom said.

“I’m obviously in favor of the strike and want to be supportive of the workers and their requests for fair pay and working conditions, but it also does affect my family negatively,” Lopez Mendoza said.

Workers, meanwhile, said striking was their only remaining option.

Instructional aide Marlee Ostrow, who planned to join picket lines, said she’s long overdue for a raise. The 67-year-old was hired two decades ago at $11.75 an hour, and today she makes about $16. That isn’t enough to keep pace with inflation and rising housing prices, she said, and meanwhile her duties have expanded from two classrooms to five.

Ostrow blames the district’s low wages for job vacancies that have piled up in recent years.

“There’s not even anybody applying because you can make more money starting at Burger King,” she said. “A lot of people really want to help kids, and they shouldn’t be penalized for wanting that to be their life’s work.”

The union says district support staffers earn, on average, about $25,000 per year and many live in poverty because of low pay or limited work hours while struggling with inflation and the high cost of housing in Los Angeles County. The union is asking for a 30% raise. Teachers want a 20% pay hike over two years.

The district has offered a cumulative 23% raise, starting with 2% retroactive as of the 2020-21 school year and ending with 5% in 2024-25. The package would also include a one-time 3% bonus for those who have been on the job more than a year, along with more full-time positions and an expansion of healthcare benefits.

“This offer addresses the needs and concerns from the union, while also remaining fiscally responsible and keeping the District in a financially stable position,” Carvalho’s statement said.

The White House said President Joe Biden supports workers’ right to strike and the collective bargaining process.

“We urge both sides to work in good faith toward a mutually acceptable solution so that there can be a quick resolution and the kids, and school employees, can get back to where they want to be, which is in school, especially the kids,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.

The strike has wide support among union members.

SEIU members have been working without a contract since June 2020, while the contract for teachers expired in June 2022. The unions decided last week to stop accepting extensions to their contracts.

Teachers waged a six-day strike in 2019 over pay and contract issues but schools remained open.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

The post Los Angeles schools shut down as staff strike for better pay appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Friday that 34 U.S. troops were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries suffered in this month’s Iranian missile strike on an Iraqi air base, and that half of the troops have returned to their military duties.

Seventeen of the 34 are still under medical observation or treatment, according to Jonathan Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman.

President Donald Trump had initially said he was told that no troops had been injured in the Jan. 8 strike. The military said symptoms were not immediately reported after the strike and in some cases became known days later. Many were in bunkers before nearly a dozen Iranian ballistic missiles exploded, damaging several parts of the base.

After the first reports that some soldiers had been hurt, Trump referred to them as “headaches” and said the cases were not as serious as injuries involving the loss of limbs.

Hoffman’s disclosure that 34 had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI, was the first update on the number injured in Iran’s missile attack on Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq since the Pentagon said on Jan. 17 that 11 service members had been flown out of Iraq with concussion-like symptoms. Days later, officials said more had been sent out of Iraq for further diagnosis and treatment, but the Pentagon did not provide firm figures on the total or say whether any had been returned to duty.

Hoffman said that of the 34 with TBI, 18 were evacuated from Iraq to U.S. medical facilities in Germany and Kuwait, and 16 stayed in Iraq. Seventeen of the 18 evacuees were sent to Germany, and nine remain there; the other eight have been transported to the United States for continued observation or treatment.

The one American sent to Kuwait has since returned to duty in Iraq. All 16 of those who were diagnosed with TBI and remained in Iraq have since returned to duty there, Hoffman said.

The eight who were sent to the United States arrived Friday and will receive treatment either at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, or at their home bases, Hoffman said.

No one was killed in the attack on Ain al-Asad. The strike was launched in retaliation for a U.S. drone missile strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the most powerful military general in Iran, on Jan. 3 at Baghdad International Airport.

The U.S. had no missile defense systems protecting Ain al-Asad from potential missile attack. Hoffman said Friday that deploying one or more Patriot anti-missile systems to Iraq is among options now being weighted by military commanders. The U.S. had deployed numerous Patriot systems to other countries in the region as protection against Iranian missile attack, including in Saudi Arabia, but a strike on Iraq was seen as less likely.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that no Americans were harmed in the missile strikes, an outcome that he said drove his decision not to retaliate further and risk a broader war with Iran. He credited the minimized damage to an early warning system “that worked very well” and said Americans should be “extremely grateful and happy” with the outcome.

Some members of Congress this week pressed the Pentagon for more clarity on the scope of the TBI cases resulting from the Iranian attack. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., wrote senior Pentagon officials on Thursday requesting additional details on casualties from the attack.

On Friday morning, Defense Secretary Mark Esper directed the Pentagon’s acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, Matthew Donovan, to begin working with the staff of the Joint Chiefs to review how military injuries are tracked and reported — not just TBI cases but battlefield injuries of all kinds, Hoffman told reporters.

“The goal is to be as transparent, accurate, and to provide the American people and our service members with the best information about the tremendous sacrifices our warfighters make,” Hoffman said.

Traumatic brain injury is a type of casualty that the U.S. military began to understand and deal with during the height of the Iraq war, where roadside bombs — including particularly effective ones produced by Iran — caused severe injuries and death to thousands of U.S. troops.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

Search: 34 US troops had brain injuries

The post Pentagon: 34 US troops had brain injuries from Iran’s strike appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.