Chapter 20: Internationalizing Labor Activism – Building Solidarity among Writers’ Guilds
- Page ID
- 175240
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- 20.1: Introduction
- Introduction to the goal of this chapter: to explore the efforts of professional/trade organizations to improve labor rights and conditions for writers in media, both within a country and internationally, using a case study of the Writers Guild of America.
- 20.2: Problems Facing Organized Labor in the Media Industries
- Some of the problems facing organized labor in the media industries, including differences in precarity between union and non-union members of media industries and tension between the concept of craft unions/guilds versus general unions.
- 20.3: The Writers Guild of America in the National Context
- Challenges faced by the WGA, including the tension between its status as a guild and the fact that it organizes union-like activities such as strikes and protests; the difficulty in collecting a group of individuals who normally work alone; and its need to jockey for concessions with other guilds and unions in the media industries.
- 20.4: Going Global – Guilds in an Era of Internationalization
- Examining international connections between writers’ guilds, in the contexts of both professional solidarity and limiting potential outsourcing.
- 20.5: Conclusion
- Summary of the tensions and contradictions involving writers’ guilds, including internationalization and competition between established, guild-member writers and aspirants.