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Q3 2018

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66 CINEMONTAGE / Q3 2018 compiled by Jeff Burman A s organized labor was left fuming after the Supreme Court's late June decision in Janus v. AFSCME that public service employees don't have to pay union "agency fees," Hollywood guilds planted a flag of defiance, writes Erik Pedersen in Deadline Hollywood. The high court had struck down an Illinois law that mandates non-union workers pay fees toward collective bargaining. In his majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, "It is hard to estimate how many billions of dollars have been taken from non-members and transferred to public-sector unions in violation of the First Amendment. Those unconstitutional exactions cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely." In an impassioned dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote, "The First Amendment was meant for better things." Here is what Hollywood unions were saying. IATSE President Matt Loeb: "This terrible decision is a sign of our times and the political mess in which we find ourselves. Soon all working people, not just those in the public sector, will face the ramifications of the Supreme Court's actions, in the form of diminished bargaining rights and weaker contracts. "This is a dark day for all of organized labor, but we can and we must continue to press back against this ongoing assault. We must continue to grow and strengthen our unions through organizing, no matter what the laws are. We didn't need permission to fight back against the robber barons of the Gilded Age, and we do not need it to fight back against the robber barons of today." SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris: "The Court made the wrong decision; a decision in favor of increasing the power of employers at the expense of their workers. Without engaged workers, union protections become more vulnerable. This ruling is a direct attempt to weaken unions, the very organizations who allow workers to speak together as one, to have a voice in their wages, their safety at work, and their healthcare and LABOR MAT TERS Hollywood Unions Slam Court's 'Shameful' Janus Ruling

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