CineMontage

Spring 2015

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/501792

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 74 of 83

73 SPRING 2015 / CINEMONTAGE prosecution in Jesup, Georgia. Johnson spoke to reporters after the final defendant, the movie's first assistant director Hillary Schwartz, was also sentenced to 10 years probation. Miller "became the first filmmaker in the history of the film business to go to prison for a film- related death," writes Anita Busch in Deadline Hollywood. The tragedy has shaken up the film industry, writes Ted Johnson in Variety, as Jones' family and friends continue a campaign to emphasize the necessity of on-set safety. This new precedent for criminal liability for on-set accidents will be a significant deterrent to future misconduct, adds Johnson. 23% OF JOBLESS GET UNEMPLOYMENT Due to cutbacks in nine states and an end to federal extensions of the program in 2013, the percentage of jobless Americans receiving unemployment compensation is at its lowest level since the 1970s, according to a study by Will Kimball and Rick McHugh with the Economic Policy Institute: "Though modest compared with programs in some other nations, the 80-year-old unemployment insurance program — initiated by the Social Security Act of 1935 — is one of the most important reforms of the New Deal," write Kimball and McHugh. "The rationale for it is simple enough: It provides temporary income to help out-of-work Americans keep a roof over their heads and the electricity on until they can find another job; and, by providing cash to people who will spend it quickly out of necessity, it bolsters the economy in times of recession to help keep matters from getting worse." Until recently, each state provided 26 weeks of compensation to eligible jobless people. Since the 1950s, Congress passed extensions during every recession and its aftermath. As the situation worsened during the current Great Recession, the jobless in the worst hit states could collect up to 63 additional weeks of compensation — for a total of 99 weeks. But in late 2010, with millions of Americans counted among the long-term unemployed (out of work 27 weeks or more), Republicans in Congress began to argue against renewing the federal extensions. DEMOCRATS PUSH UNIONS Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) has a five-point plan to revive the middle class, write Lydia DePillis and Jim Tankersley in The Washington Post. The fifth point is this: "I'd make it easier to form unions," the third- ranking Democrat in the Senate said. "I think the Republican destruction of unions just kills the middle class," Schumer continued. "And as people start sinking and earning less and less, they'll be more open to that." Expanding union membership, he argued, "is gaining more currency" as a policy solution, "because the statistics are becoming clear and overwhelming about the middle-income decline." As the nation gears up for the next presidential election cycle, a collection of left-leaning politicians, economists and public intellectuals have begun making a renewed case for collective bargaining as a tool to heal the ailing middle class. The pitch also helps Democrats to preserve a key constituency upon which they've long relied to win elections, at a time when conservatives are making painful gains in public attacks on union power. And it's not just the Democrats' "Elizabeth Warren wing" giving labor organizing a fresh look. Noted economist Larry Summers — whom unions loudly opposed when he was being considered to chair the Federal Reserve — is now talking about "adequately empowering workers" by "giving collective bargaining a serious chance." Robert Rubin, whom liberals consider a creature of Wall Street, told a think tank, "Measures that facilitate collective bargaining can result in a broader participation in the benefits of productivity and growth." Hillary Clinton, the assumed favorite for the party's 2016 nomination, is said to be considering a package of labor law reforms to promote collective bargaining, add DePillis and Tankersley. In a speech to the advocacy group Emily's List, Clinton received enthusiastic applause when she talked about the importance of helping workers organize. In her annual testimony to Congress in February, Fed Chair Janet Yellen, an Obama appointee, pointed to the decline of labor unions as a central reason why wage growth LABOR MAT TERS On March 9, director Randall Miller, right, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter on in the death of Sarah Jones on the set of the film Midnight Rider. Photo by Patty Leon for the Coastal Courier and Deadline. com.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of CineMontage - Spring 2015