Dispatches From The Picket Lines: Strikers Protest Lack Of Progress On Safe Zone Outside NBCUniversal; Studio Responds

It’s Day 19 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 92 of the WGA strike.

Frustrated with the lack of progress on a safe zone for picketers outside of the NBCUniversal lot, SAG-AFTRA Board Member Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher was joined by WGA Negotiating Committee Co-Chair David Goodman and U.S. Representative Jimmy Gomez (CA-34) on Tuesday to hand deliver a petition demanding a swifter resolution.

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The WGA says its been eight weeks since the LAPD’s Labor Relations unit told the studio to create a k-rail pedestrian path along Lankershim Boulevard, but nothing has been completed. Around the time the writers hit the picket line, the studio cut off access to Lankershim sidewalks to accommodate a long in-the-works improvement project. As a result, picketers could only congregate on the corners or picket outside of Gate 8 on Barham Boulevard, where a row of Ficus trees were unexpectedly trimmed during the dead of summer (and the studio was fined as a result).

“They ripped up the fucking sidewalks and our members said, ‘nice try,'” Goodman told the crowd Monday. “We’re not going anywhere. Then they cut down the trees. And our members said, is that all you got? We’re not going anywhere. But in all seriousness, a lot of coordinators and the captains and the WGA staff saw that our picketers lives were in danger and they demanded that NBCU do something about the damage they cause. And NBCU said no.”

“What they’re doing now is they’re trying to cut the trees, they’re trying to break up the sidewalks, they’re trying to make it unsafe and they might even send out some security that will protest with you,” added Gomez. “But we know who they really are. So, your job is not to give up, to show each other respect and to have each other’s back because that’s what it’s about.”

After the union members delivered the petition with over 26,000 signatures, a NBCU spokesperson released this statement. “From day one, we’ve supported the guilds’ right to demonstrate at entrances to our property and have actively been looking for solutions to increase safe access during our multi-year construction project that broke ground in February 2020. Given the complexity of traffic challenges on Lankershim Blvd., we’ve been developing two potential plans simultaneously.”

“The first plan includes placing hard barriers in the street,” the statement continued. “Because this requires a city lane closure, we have submitted this plan to the City for review and approval. The second plan, which mitigates traffic impacts, creates temporary walking paths and expanded shaded rest areas. We have implemented the second plan and it substantially increases demonstrators’ safe access to our busiest gates on Lankershim Boulevard.”

The studio has also poured new asphalt walkways to connect key gates for demonstrators.

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