AFM: Writers Guild Backs Hotel Workers’ Boycott

The WGA has spoken out in favor of a boycott of hotels in Santa Monica that are affiliated with the American Film Market.

Hospitality trade union Unite Here Local 11 is in the middle of a labor dispute with several hotels, including Le Meridien Delfina, the new headquarters of the AFM, which started on October 31 and will run until Sunday, November 5. union held protests outside several AFM-affiliated hotels and called on market visitors to boycott them. The union, which has been on continuous strikes since the Fourth of July weekend, is calling for “a living wage” for its members so they can afford to live in Los Angeles amid rising inflation and rising housing costs. Unite Here has also called out Le Meridien Delfina and other hotels for allegedly using unhoused refugees to replace workers during the strikes.

The WGA, which last month signed a new deal with AMPTP ending the second-longest strike in its history, sent an open letter to Jean Prewitt, CEO of the Independent Film and Television Association (IFTA), which AFM leads, in which he called on them in honor of the hotel boycott.

“As writers who recently went on strike for 148 days, we call on the AFM to do the right thing by honoring the workers’ boycott,” the letter said. The Hollywood Reporter, is reading. “This means not patronizing, eating, gathering or sleeping in these hotels until they have new contracts with living wages, and the unhoused refugees exploited by these hotels have the decent jobs and housing they need and deserve. Hotel workers will protest and probably strike at the affected hotels.”

The letter was signed by Writers Guild of America West President Meredith Stiehm, WGA West vp Michele Mulroney and Secretary-Treasurer Betsy Thomas.

In a response to Stiehm, Prewitt said the AFM was “in no way a party to the Unite Here Local 11 dispute with the hotels and has no knowledge of the union’s allegations other than what has been reported by the news media.” She writes that “termination or relocation” of the AFM “is not an option, as this would cause serious financial damage to IFTA, the AFM and our thousands of global voters.” Prewitt noted that the AFM “is a long-standing event that supports the survival of the global independent film industry, the city’s economy and its many residents and employees. The six-day event, organized by the non-profit organization IFTA, requires months of complicated organization and investment by IFTA and the participants themselves, whose livelihoods depend on the business done at the AFM.”