Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm San Fr Screen Writer and Labor Act. Today I'm joined by screenwriter and labor activist Alex O'Keefe.

As you've probably seen in the news, the Writers Guild of America, which represents

writers in film, television, and radio, went on strike against the producers back in May.

Since then, O'Keefe has emerged as a leading voice in this fight against the studios, or more specifically the AMPTP, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Formally a staff writer on the hit show The Bear, O'Keefe has been outspoken about the union's demands

for increased wages, stronger protections against the development of artificial intelligence and most importantly

residuals which have all but vanished in this era of streaming

But this isn't just a Hollywood story.

Since the pandemic began back in 2020,

the US has seen an uptick in union activity.

The National Labor Relations Board

saw 2,510 Union Representations Petitions filed in fiscal year

2022, a 53% increase over the previous year. That includes more than 250 Starbucks stores

that have voted to unionize along with workers at Amazon warehouses and

Trader Joe's. In fact, a recent Gallup poll reported that 71% of Americans currently approve of

labor unions which is the highest rate recorded on this measure since 1965.

And yet, despite this resurgence,

were far from the heyday of organizing.

NPR reports that only one in 10 American workers are now in a union, down from nearly one in three workers back in the 1950s.

This striking disconnect between widespread public support and waning union jobs feels fitting for

2023, which has been full of confusion and contradictions,

especially in the film industry,

...