What Is Treegate? Tree Trimming Heats Up Tense Strike Pickets
There's a lot to wrap your head around with respect to the SAG-AFTRA strike. What are residuals and why won't streamers pay them? How are actors, writers—and lest you be fooled, the rest of us—going to stop AI from hijacking our jobs? And, um, what is "treegate"?
Related: What the SAG-AFTRA Strike Means for the Entertainment Industry
That last question came up yesterday, when union members pointed out that the Ficus trees outside of Universal’s Gate 8, where they were scheduled to picket, had been freshly trimmed. The timing was curious, they noted, given that they were marching in 90-degree-plus heat and could have used the shade.
Now, the thinned out trees are under investigation, with L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia vowing to get to the bottom of their pruning.
"Our Office is investigating the tree trimming that occurred outside Universal Studios where workers, writers, and actors are exercising their right to picket," he wrote on Twitter. "The trimmed trees are LA City managed street trees."
This being Los Angeles, Mejia also shared a before and after shot:
Our Office is investigating the tree trimming that occurred outside Universal Studios where workers, writers, and actors are exercising their right to picket.
The trimmed trees are LA City managed street trees.
(Before and after photos below) pic.twitter.com/xczw0bTdh9— LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia (@lacontroller) July 19, 2023
Universal admitted to trimming the trees, but claimed in a statement that their landscaping was done for “safety reasons." Sure, it "created unintended challenges for demonstrators," they acknowledged, but that was not their "intention.”
Interestingly, the pine trees on the opposite side of Barham Boulevard, the scene of the shearing, hadn't been stripped of its greenery, nor had a row of pepper trees behind the Universal fence near the production gate.
That's not all. Per Deadline, SAG-AFTRA and the WGA (the union behind the ongoing writers' strike) have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in response to Universal's construction on Lankershim Boulevard, claiming the site doesn't allow for safe pathways for picketing.
Related: Every Show and Movie Shut Down By the Writers' Strike
“Within the past six months, [NBCUniversal Media] has interfered with, coerced, and restrained employees in the exercise of their rights under Section 7 of the [National Labor Relations] Act,” the Writers Guild of America, West, said in its filing.
Both unions are fighting for fair pay and protections against the use of artificial intelligence, among other things. You can read more about their demands here and here.
