Burbank mayor on how the local economy depends on entertainment workers: “The CEOs of these giant companies don’t live here”

As the mayor of the Burbank entertainment production center and a member of SAG-AFTRA, Konstantine Anthony has a unique perspective on the union’s first strike against film and television companies in more than 40 years.

previous Entourage The actor (and Universal Studios House of Horrors werewolf) now presides over the lot home to Warner Bros. and The Walt Disney Company, among other studios. Burbank has been hit hard by the ongoing writers’ strike, now in its 11th week, the politician said. the hollywood reporter on Friday. The impact will only grow now that the actors union has organized a strike following the collapse of negotiations with studios and streamers and the expiration of their package of film and television contracts on Wednesday at midnight.

“We’re seeing a huge hit to our local economy, the people who normally eat at restaurants and use the dry cleaners and buy gas in town, all of that has gone down considerably over the last 70 days of the writers’ strike,” Anthony said. THR while walking the picket lines at Disney. “And we’re definitely going to see more of that now that all production has stopped due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.”

Anthony is seeing many Burbank residents who work in entertainment show up at the city’s picket spots, including Warner Bros. and Disney, during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA work stoppages. “The vast majority show up at our studios because they’re upset,” Anthony continued. “They are very angry that their salaries have not increased, they are very angry with the treatment of how the studios are effectively erasing them from the writing profession, from the acting profession, AI and all this new technology and the lack of streaming. waste is really affecting their pockets”.

A member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which houses an active Hollywood Labor subcommittee, Anthony has been an outspoken supporter of the writers’ strike, attending the “Striking 9 to 5” picket line and helping to organize a Burbank Comedy Event raising money for struggling scribes.

The mayor offered a civic perspective to SAG-AFTRA and WGA’s compensation claims, noting that these workers are important to the local economy. “In the mayor’s chair, I specifically know that the money we see in the local economy comes from workers. The CEOs of these giant companies don’t live here, they don’t spend money, they buy yachts out of town and out of the country. That’s where your money goes,” he said. “So we have to keep the money here, locally, we have to pay our workers, because they are the ones who pay for the childcare, they are the ones who pay the purchase and sales tax and the property tax here, locally, In the economy.”

SAG-AFTRA members began picketing Friday after the National Board of their labor group called a strike the previous day. According to the union, in ongoing labor negotiations with studios and broadcasters, the companies failed to adequately engage on issues including AI regulations and minimum compensation rates. Meanwhile, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has countered that the union backed away from “historic” salary and residual increases and a “breakthrough” AI proposal.