AOC Strike Q&A: CEOs Can’t “Cry Poverty,” Greed Will “Erode” Brands

Gary Baum
·6 min read
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined a New York City picket line in front of Netflix’s Union Square offices on Monday as the Writers Guild nears three months on strike and SAG-AFTRA enters its second week of a work stoppage. Both unions are protesting what they see as the rapaciousness and intransigence of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the interests of the major studios and streamers in negotiating updated labor contracts.

The high-profile progressive firebrand, known for assailing corporate ills, gave a speech to the assembled protestors, which included performers Sandra Bernhard, F. Murray Abraham and Tatiana Maslany, as well as AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler. “While this is a fight against AI, more than AI this is a fight against greed,” Ocasio-Cortez said, adding: “Direct action gets the goods, now and always. 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.”

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Afterward, she spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about CEOs who “cry poverty,” how greed can “erode” entertainment brands’ value and the role of politicians amid the first industry double strike since 1960.

What’s your takeaway from spending time today with WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikers?

The energy on the line is really strong and people are just really excited to be standing together. I think there’s a sense of agency and power that people feel whenever they start walking a line, where we realize that we have a lot of tools at our disposal to make sure that we balance the terrain of power and of money in this industry and in all industries.

What’s your own message for the struck companies?

The idea that the transformation of workplaces should transform and erode workers and their wages pretty much unilaterally and only have downside for workers and only have upside for CEOs and shareholders is completely wrong.

How do you see these Hollywood strikes connecting to broader American labor issues?

I see them as intensely connected. I represent a district that spans across the Bronx and Queens. It’s in the largest city in the United States, which means we see a lot of workers, from immigrant labor to Hollywood actors.

Last weekend I was with our UPS workers and Teamsters, who are fighting for part-time workers to be paid equal wages and to have dignified conditions. I think right now the landscape and the terrain has changed so dramatically. I mean, I remember five years ago, when I was first elected, just saying the word “capitalism” was, like, taboo, you know? To name this water that we’re swimming in. And now we have record levels of homelessness, we have people that cannot pay their rent. We have people that can barely afford to get groceries. That is starting to impact across all industries.

That means that workers across industries, whether you are a UPS driver or whether you are a WGA writer, you feel like the only way forward for us all to have a future is to withhold our labor.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said, when her union initiated its strike, that the studios were “on the wrong side of history.” Do you agree?

I absolutely agree with that. I think there’s this kind of okey-doke that a lot of industries are trying to pull. They are dramatically changing their technologies, the scale and type of their work. They think that all the benefits from the gain of technology — technology that their workers ultimately have to wield, by the way — should go to the top. Not the people who are wielding it, creating from it, using it and for whom their work is modeled after. But instead it should just go to a couple guys in a boardroom. I also think it’s really important for CEOs to understand that there is only so much you can erode the fabric of the society before it starts to rip. They, too, rely on that fabric.

In your remarks this morning you asked, “How many private jets does David Zaslav need?” How has historic executive pay fueled labor grievance?

There’s just no way where the CEOs can cry poverty when the whole entire world knows that they’re being compensated in multiples that exceed any time in American history. There has never been a time in U.S. history where CEOs have made this high of a multiple compared to their average worker and there is no way that anything they say carries any credibility about what they can and cannot afford when we all see that they are taking what they say they can’t afford and putting it in their own pocket. That disconnect, I think, is materially important because ultimately these companies, especially entertainment companies, rely on their brand value. And there’s absolutely going to be a point where this greed will start to erode Disney’s brand value. It will start to erode Netflix’s brand value. And in the world of stock compensation, where a lot of intangible aspects go into a stock price, this will absolutely start to have an effect. And for CEOs that are paid in that kind of stock compensation, it will have an effect on their pocket as well.

Are you concerned about an extended strike and its trickle-down effect on crew members, caterers, drivers and others who will be out of work?

Yeah, of course, I think everyone’s concerned about it. I do not think that unions and labor look forward to strikes. I don’t think it is a goal or a desire for things to get so bad that we are at this point. Striking is something that people are resorting to because their backs are against the wall. I mean, it is at a point where people are asking themselves, “What do I have left to lose?”

Many local labor-allied Democratic Party politicians in Los Angeles and New York have voiced their support for the strikers, and the city councils in both cities have passed resolutions calling for negotiations to resume. Is there anything more that should be expected of elected leaders to intervene?

I think we should be at the ready to respect workers’ requests. But as of now, SAG and the WGA, as well as frankly the Teamsters in their UPS fight, their big message right now is, “Don’t get in our way. Let us handle this.” And, you know, just stay out of it at the moment, and I think it’s important for us to follow the workers’ leads.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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