AOC Joins Actors and Writers on New York Picket Line: “This Is a Fight Against Greed”

Caitlin Huston
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America picket lines in New York City on Monday, encouraging workers to keep fighting and taking aim at executives such as Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and their “insatiable greed.”

“While this is a fight against AI, more than AI, this is a fight against greed,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

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“How many private jets does David Zaslav need? For real. How many private jets do the CEOs need? It is insatiable. It is unacceptable. I do not know how any person can say, ‘I need another $100 million before another person can have health care,’” she continued.

Speaking in front of the Netflix offices in Union Square, where picketers had included Tatiana Maslany, Sandra Bernhard and F. Murray Abraham, Ocasio-Cortez picked up a SAG-AFTRA sign, joined in on the chants (such as “New York is a union town”) and took selfies with many on the lines. She was accompanied by AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler.

Ocasio-Cortez, who serves as the Democratic representative for New York’s 14th Congressional District, called the current moment a “hot labor summer,” comparing the fights of the actors and writers with that of UPS workers, who may soon be striking.

“We have workers all across the country either currently on strike or gearing up to be on strike, because at the end of the day we are all facing the same challenge, which is the concentration of wealth and corporate greed in America,” she said.

“Direct action gets the goods, now and always,” she continued. “The only way that we can do this is by showing them that we are stronger. That our solidarity is stronger than their greed, that our care for one another will overcome their endless desire for more.

“Your fight right here is what’s going to bust this thing right open,” she said.

Speaking from the picket line, Maslany, who is currently starring on Broadway in Grey House, after starring in She-Hulk on Disney+ and the television series Orphan Black, said she joined to support other actors and writers who are struggling amid the current pay rates.

“I have friends who have been doing this for 30 to 40 years and have lost their health care because the minimums are so relatively low, but wages have gone down, people’s quotes no longer stand for anything,” Maslany said. “It’s just like we’ve been completely cast aside.””

Asked about Disney CEO Bob Iger’s recent comments, in which he called the strike “very disturbing” and called on the unions to “be realistic,” Maslany said the the executive was “completely out of touch.” She added that she supports writers on the show, who have spoken out against their low residuals, as well as the visual effects workers who are trying to unionize.

“I think he’s completely out of touch. He’s completely out of touch with the workers who make his shows happen, who make people watch these shows, who bring viewers to him and him money,” she said.

“Having worked on a Disney show, I know where people fall through the cracks and where people are taken advantage of and it’s outrageous the amount of wealth that is not shared with the people who actually make the show. That’s crew, cast, writers,” she continued.

Comedian and Pose actor Sandra Bernhard similarly said she was on the picket lines to support other workers, who she says are no longer to make a living in the industry in the way she has been. She notes that she continues to receive residuals from the network sitcom Roseanne that are more substantial than the pennies other actors have been reporting from more recent shows.

“Just the inequity of how much it costs to live versus what people are making. It’s almost impossible. It’s soul crushing,” Bernard said. “And I want to be one of those people who highlights that and does everything I can to change that narrative.”

White Lotus star F. Murray Abraham was also among those actors speaking up for those who make less. He said that the problem of inequity in the industry is not just faced by actors and writers but is one that he sees as prevalent across the country.

“I’m a union man. Without a union, there is no middle class. Without a middle class, there’s no democracy. Unions are good for America,” he said.

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