The East Side Freedom Library, in collaboration with Twin Cities locals of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees invite you to an online conversation, Labor in the Media & Entertainment Industry: Pandemic, Risk, and Solidarity.

Register here to join this event on Zoom or watch it live streamed to ESFL’s Facebook page.

The pandemic has highlighted the challenges that workers face across this country. From hospitals and nursing homes to meat-packing plants and grocery stores, and more, workers have been put at risk, have experienced economic insecurity, and have developed enhanced appreciation for organizing. New groups of workers have unionized, at Half-Price Books, the Walker Art Center, and the Minnesota Historical Society, and already unionized workers have recognized the importance of solidarity.

We invite you to learn about a coalition of unions that is working to establish a Minnesota caucus of labor in entertainment and media. ESFL’s collaborators in SAG-AFTRA and IATSE invite workers in this industry to learn about coalition work in Chicago and elsewhere, get involved locally, and help shape an agenda to advance the cause of workers across the media and entertainment terrain. We also invite our community members who patronize the entertainment industry, or work in other industries, to learn about what is going on on the stage and backstage, to learn how we can help, and to learn what we might do to use organization and solidarity to improve our lives.

This first public conversation will explore how unions have impacted the lives of workers in the media and entertainment industry and discuss what might be possible with greater inter-union solidarity. The conveners of this first public conversation seek to establish a group where workers in entertainment and media industries can get acquainted and share their challenges and concerns, and as a group support each other in these efforts. They are working with Minnesota AFL-CIO and receiving their support and guidance.

We invite all—union members, workers in the industry who are, as yet, not in unions, workers and union members from all industries, and media and entertainment consumers—to join us for this conversation.

Free and open to all