Opinion: Hill Harper: I’m on strike with Screen Actors Guild and running for Senate

Hill Harper
·4 min read
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If you take a look at what’s happening in Hollywood right now, it’s easy to conclude that contract negotiations between unions and major studio executives have little to do with the struggles facing everyday working people. But the truth is: this isn’t just a battle between some A-List celebrities and the heads of influential studio companies like Disney and Netflix. What’s happening in the entertainment industry affects all of us, because it is an example of broader trends that have been rewriting the rules of our economy for decades.

As an active member of the Screen Actors Guild, a subsidiary of the AFL-CIO, I joined my brothers and sisters this week in going on strike to demand justice and fair contracts. Contrary to popular belief, the entertainment industry isn’t a gold mine for every actor or writer — it’s full of working people whose passion for their craft pushes them to try and make ends meet day in and day out. At the same time, the CEOs of this industry have never done better. In 2022, Netflix’s CEO made more than 200 times the median worker at the company, up from when a studio head might make 40 times the median worker back in the 1980s. This isn’t accidental — as Fran Drescher, the head of my union, said this week, what we’re seeing play out is what happens “when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run.”

Hill Harper
Hill Harper

That’s the case across the American workforce, from manufacturing lines in Detroit to farms in Hillsdale and everything in between. UPS, where workers just voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, has a worker-CEO pay ratio of over 500:1. Starbucks, where workers are organizing in the face of blatant union-busting efforts, is even worse at more than 1,500:1. This is not an accident — it’s the deliberate, painstaking result of decades of right-wing policy aimed at weakening labor unions, attacking the right to organize, and paying workers as little as possible to increase corporate profits, valuations, and stock prices. Just over 20% of workers belonged to a union in 1983 — today, it’s half that. At the same time, CEO pay has skyrocketed, inequality has soared, and the middle class has shrunk to the point of vanishing. Here in Michigan, the richest 5% of households now earn more than 10 times the poorest 20%. It’s a classic story: Throughout American history, when unions are strong, the middle class has done well and inequality has been low, while the right-wing war on unions has meant worsened inequality and a shrinking middle class.

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Memphis talent agent Lisa Lax, left, joins her daughter, talent agent Cydney Wilkes, on the SAG-AFTRA picket line outside the historic Sunset Bronson Studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
Memphis talent agent Lisa Lax, left, joins her daughter, talent agent Cydney Wilkes, on the SAG-AFTRA picket line outside the historic Sunset Bronson Studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

But workers are fighting back. In recent years, we’ve seen a resurgence in the American labor movement, with workers across industries coming together to try and level the playing field. There's a renewed vigor in collective bargaining, a solidarity among workers that echoes the very essence of the labor movement. Michigan, the historical beating heart of the American labor movement, has led the charge in that resurgence, including by electing a new leader of the United Auto Workers committed to fairness, transparency, and solidarity. That solidarity is why I’m proud to go on strike alongside my brothers and sisters in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

And it's why I'm running for Senate. While the labor movement does have outstanding allies in the U.S. Senate, my team's research indicates that today’s Senate lacks a single current member of a labor union, something I find astonishing. During a political era when labor rights are under attack by the Supreme Court and Republicans at every level of government, that’s an omission my candidacy is trying to repair. If elected, I would be a card-carrying union member in the U.S. Senate, and my perspective will reflect that.

The only way to restore a semblance of fairness and balance to our economic reality is to embrace an ethic of solidarity, across geography and industry, among all working people. That’s why it’s important for all of us in the labor movement to stand with SAG-AFTRA and the WGA. Join me, and believe in better.

Hill Harper, an actor and a resident of Detroit, is a Democratic candidate in the 2024 U.S. Senate race. 

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Opinion: CSI's Hill Harper on SAG strike, Michigan U.S. Senate race