Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061972
140 CINEMONTAGE / Q4 2018 LABOR MAT TERS which has more than 10,000 members nationally. "There are a lot of attacks against the labor movement and it's a terrible time to be sending workers the message that union leaders can just ignore and override the voices of the members." TEAMSTERS RATIFY NEW HOLLYWOOD CONTRACT In other Teamsters news, on October 1 the union's Local 399 ratified its "Black Book" contract covering drivers and animal handlers, as well as four basic craft unions — IBEW Local 40 (electricians), Studio Plumbers Local 78, Studio Utility Employees Local 724 and Studio Plasterers Local 755 — with a "Yes" vote of 73 percent, according to the union's secretary-treasurer Steve Dayan as reported in The Hollywood Reporter by Jonathan Handel. Terms of the deal have not yet been released. The ratification percentage may have been influenced by opposition to a similar IATSE deal, writes Handel. The Teamsters contract was voted on during the same time the IA contract was debated by its membership. The IA contract was ratified later in October. Dayan said that the use of online voting, done for the first time ever, had led to greater participation. "More people voted," he said. "It was a seamless process and 15 percent more voted than last time." AMAZON GRANTS RAISES BUT DENIES WORKERS' RIGHTS In October, Sharan Burrow, International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary, wrote, "Amazon is a top-predator in the corporate greed stakes, and treats the men and women who work for it with no respect. From Jeff Bezos at the top, down to middle management, the company uses every trick in the book to stop its workers from organizing into unions to improve working conditions and bargain collectively for decent conditions and pay that reflects the full value of the work they do. "Amazon has an appalling record on workers' health and safety, and imposes work practices on them that would have been unacceptable 100 years ago, let alone today. Trade unions will keep up the pressure on this company until it changes its feudal corporate culture." While Amazon has announced wage increases for its US and UK workers, unions are calling for increases for its entire global workforce. NETFLIX TO OPEN US PRODUCTION HUB IN ALBUQUERQUE Netflix has big plans for production. The company announced in October it will site its new production hub in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which will bring in as much as $1 billion in production money over the next decade, and up to 1,000 production jobs each year, according to Todd Spangler in Variety. The announcement came after Netflix set plans for a significant expansion of its operations in Los Angeles, signing a lease through 2031 on a 13-story building in Hollywood set to be completed in 2020 that is adjacent to its facilities at the Sunset Bronson Studios lot. HUMAN TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR DESCRIBES FORCED LABOR IN US Evelyn Chumbow of Cameroon says she was nine years old when she was trafficked into forced labor in the Washington, DC, area, writes Alison Spann in The Hill. Chumbow, now in her mid-30s, says she was sold by her uncle to a woman from her native country who had a home in the United States. She said she came to the US with the expectation of a better life. But as soon as she arrived she was forced into domestic labor, working for eight years before she was able to escape with the help of Catholic Charities. She said her captor is now in prison. As many as 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year, according to the US State Department. TEACHERS UNION SUES NAVIENT The American Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit against Navient, one of the country's largest student loan servicing companies, alleging that it failed to guide eligible borrowers through a critical student loan forgiveness program, writes Ken Sweet in The Washington Post. At the center of the lawsuit, brought by the country's biggest teachers union, is the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Signed into law in 2007, the program allows borrowers who work 10 years in an eligible public service job and make 120 on-time loan payments to have their remaining loan balances forgiven. The program is complex. Its first borrowers have only become eligible in 2017. A Department of Education report issued in September found that only 96 applications were Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, shown here in 2014, represents 180 million union members. Courtesy of industriall- union.org