Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543164
15 S P R I N G Q 1 I S S U E R O B C A L L A H A N for instance, or the backing of a ballot prop- osition. This very column could be plausibly deemed such a "left-wing culture-war is- sue." And Project 2025's proposed right to sue would effectively create a heckler's veto, rendering unions legally liable for any conduct that could broadly be construed as "political," should any one individual member disapprove. The provision would, in short, prevent union participation in the political arena. T h e E d i to r s G u i l d h a s l o n g b e e n a deliberately apolitical union. Many labor unions regularly charge into the political scrum to advance their members' interests in matters of public policy, but our local has generally sat on the sidelines. Political top- ics can be contentious, disputes over them divisive. Our leadership has historically opt- ed to maintain a narrow institutional focus on matters directly relevant to collective bargaining, avoiding the fray of politics. Our parent union, the IATSE, will sometimes adopt public positions on political or "cul- ture-war" issues, but we've usually ceded such concerns to the International. Indeed, i f P ro j e c t 2 02 5 's p ro p o s a l p e r m i tt i n g members to sue their unions over political differences of opinion were to have been the law in past years, even the most MAGA of our Local 700 members would not have had much cause for complaint with our Guild. Notwithstanding objections from a few naysayers, that's starting to change. It's becoming increasingly obvious to Local 700 members that a lot of our employment-re- lated issues — like the proliferation of artif icial intelligence or the decline in domestic film and TV production — de- mand public policy solutions; they can't be addressed in contract negotiations alone. Moreover, our union isn't made up of people who are defined entirely by employment; we're also parents, siblings, caregivers, community members, and citizens, folks who share in the societal interest in a just and healthy democracy. In 2024, recognizing that we have a stake in politics, we began to mobilize member-volunteers to assist with the cam- paigns of labor-endorsed candidates. We understood it was critical to try to forestall an administration and Congress that would prove historically hostile to workers' rights. Then, early in 2025, we took an active role in the coalition of IATSE locals and other entertainment unions lobbying hard for enhanced production incentives in Cal- ifornia. Local 700 members wrote to their legislators to press the issue, and some even travelled to Sacramento. Together with our union kin from other locals, we won leg- islation revamping California production incentives, and the effort has begun to pay off as the improved incentives drive an uptick in employment. On the heels of that win, this past sum- mer, our board of directors voted to form a Political Engagement Committee so that we have an enduring structure with a respon- sibility to marshal support — in the form of volunteers, votes, and lobbying — for pro-labor candidates and causes. Last fall, the committee mobilized volunteers and votes to help pass California's Proposition 50, a measure intended to counter Trump's election-rigging so that voters have a chance to elect representatives who won't reflexively rubber-stamp his administra- tion's agenda. T h e c o m m i t t e e i s a l s o s i g n i n g u p members for the IATSE Political Action Committee in order to wield influence in support of the interests of entertain- ment-industry workers. Historically, very few Local 700 members have contributed to the PAC, but we're changing that. At the last IATSE General Executive Board meeting, our Guild was recognized for the first time as a leading local in PAC participation. 2 0 2 6 i s go i n g to b e a p i v o ta l y e a r. In his first year in office, Trump seized complete control of the executive branch. T h e l e g i s l a t i v e a n d j u d i c i a l b ra n c h e s — constitutionally intended to balance power — have done effectively nothing to check his monarchical rule. But Trump's policies — whether it be his union-busting, his capricious trade wars, his military adventurism abroad, or his squads of goons in gaiters unleashed upon city streets — are profoundly unpopular. The midterm elections, if free and fair, offer voters an opportunity to curb his power. Our Guild will be part of that effort; our union's very survival, and much else, may very well depend on the outcome. Labor's struggles on behalf of democ- racy, though, cannot begin and end at the ballot box. Voting is necessary, not sufficient. If one major party has come to be unabashed in its antipathy to organized labor, we must acknowledge that the other has been at best an inconstant champion. Political action isn't simply about electing the politicians less hostile to our interests, but also about holding those in power ac- countable, and about exercising collective power to change the parameters of what's politically possible. In Minnesota last month, unions came together with community organizations and faith leaders to call for a day of "No work, no school, no shopping" to protest the mayhem the Trump administration brought upon the state. Tens of thousands walked away from their jobs and into the bitterly cold streets in what amounted to the first significant U.S. general strike since the 1940s. The action didn't result in the strikers' list of demands being satisfied. Indeed, only days later we would all witness union member Alex Pretti being shot down by masked agents. But someday, when the story of how we defeated this regime is at last told, I trust that we will remember as pivotal that winter day when a community coalesced in solidarity to show that they would not be cowed by thugs. Unions are intrinsically anti-authoritar- ian organizations. The purpose of a union is to bring democracy to the workplace, a realm where otherwise bosses exercise the power of dictators. And unions understand that democracy in the workplace cannot survive the death of democracy at large. Although our numbers in the greater labor m o v e m e n t h av e b e e n d i m i n i s h i n g fo r decades, organized labor is still the only broad-based, multiracial, multicultural movement of working folks wielding soli- darity to counter the power of corporations and oligarchs. If we're to build upon the de- fiant solidarity we saw in Minnesota, unions will need to play a key role in the coalition. SEE PAGE 53