Production Assistants’ Union Drive Gets Boost From Bernie Sanders Rally: “Studios Will Push Back”

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s “Fighting Oligarchy” tour stop in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday featured politicians, famous musicians, labor leaders — and Hollywood production assistants.Echoing the event’s ethos of challenging corporate interests and billionaires, labor organizers focused on one of the entertainment industry’s most crucial but unglamorous roles made a fiery unionization pitch to the reported 36,000 attendees. In the process, they put a spotlight on wages and working conditions as they described production assistants as being primed to build “working-class power.”Related StoriesBusinessWriters Guild West Bars Members From Working on Martin Scorsese-Produced Film Due to Randall Emmett's RoleNewsGreen Day Blaze Through Headline Set, Charli XCX Brings Star Power at Coachella Day 2Thousands of production assistants are “sick and tired of being underpaid, overworked and unprotected,” said LiUNA Local 724 business manager Alex Aguilar, whose Local...