“Finally our family can have a future”, say in chorus to the New York Times Dave and Hedge Bailey, a young couple of Ford employees, who have just left the polling station set up by the Uaw to approve the new employment contract. “We have shown that persistence pays off,” she comments with satisfaction Jamie Lee Curtis, now Baroness Haden-Guest, unforgettable protagonist of "An Armchair for Two", in the unprecedented role of trade unionist alongside George Clooney. There is a common thread that unites the story of the renewals of US contracts for Detroit metalworkers and the 160 Hollywood actors who deserted the production studios for 118 days, putting Hollywood in crisis.
US contracts: metalworkers and actors, what unites them
For starters, in both cases the strike was completely successful. THE three big names in the US auto industry they bowed to all the demands of the blue suits. And the same happened to the big four of entertainment: the big bosses of Disney, Warner, Netflix and Universal in person sat down at the negotiating table on Wednesday for close a dispute which risked blowing up the accounts of the majors. Both the blue overalls of the car and the protagonists of the dramas (not only actors but also screenwriters and technicians) emerge from the challenge with consistent pay rises. The two workers from Detroit, husband and wife with two children, earn respectively 39 and 35 dollars an hour compared to 35 and only 20 dollars for Mrs Hedge. They will continue to work overtime “but we will indulge one weekend a month with the children” declares Dave proudly. “Finally – I'll be able to do homework with them,” adds Hedge. “Until now, to make ends meet we had to work 12 hours a day, including Saturdays. I can't wait to go to the pool with the kids." In a few months, "because now we need overtime to replenish our savings".
Actors are also celebrating the increase in wages, 8% gross. Walt Disney, however, licks his wounds: the releases of Superheroes and Captain America are postponed for the delays accumulated by the productions while Paramount, despite the success of Barbie, closed its accounts in the red due to the absence of new products with which to feed the cinema and TV chain.
US contracts: regulatory and artificial intelligence guarantees
But both can boast other even more important successes. The auto workers led by Shawn Fain forced Stellantis to reopen the Belvedere plant and Ford and GM to renegotiate the contracts for the electric car already reached with Asian manufacturers, with the aim of getting the union into the new factories as well as in Tesla. Hollywood's conquests were even more revolutionary: the houses had to guarantee a salary in the case of characters replicated via Artificial Intelligence and an additional pay for reruns of programs on streaming platforms, two heavy mortgages on the evolution of the entertainment industry.
The long wave of US contracts arrives in Las Vegas
Thus the wind of change is blowing in the US way of working. Just yesterday the long wave has hit Las Vegas: the chain of hotels and casinos headed by Caesar accepted the union demands without a blow in order to avoid strikes during the holiday season. And the same happened for i California restaurants. The breach opened in the summer by the workers' strike 340 thousand UPS drivers which threatened to blow up American logistics chains in the absence of increases (and air conditioning in driving cabs) has thus spread to large sectors of the world of work. Forty years after the defeat of the air traffic controllers tamed by Ronald Reagan, the unions regain power also thanks to the support of the White House.
The US economy is running and is now distributing wealth
The change of pace is certainly linked to good health of the US economy. UPS, for example, tripled profits in 2021/22, paying shareholders $8 billion. The three Detroit houses did even better (more than 20 billion in profits), guaranteeing multi-million dollar salaries to the various CEOs. Hence the greater bargaining power of the workers, concise with the advent of new leaders and new methods of struggle with which the big names on Wall Street had to deal with it, defeated for once by Mrs. Hedge who, during the strike season, cleaned in a bar. It looks like a movie.
