Marty Walsh is a man who understands unions. Walsh recently served as secretary of labor under President Biden before stepping down from the position to become executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, the union of the NHL. And he has some firm words for the AMPTP in the midst of the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
“When you see an industry that’s growing and making record profits and making hundreds of millions of dollars, and you’re not willing to sit down and have a conversation about a few dollars working to make sure the people that provide you that content? You don’t take care of them? Something’s wrong,” Walsh told TheWrap.
The former secretary of labor was among several guest speakers representing sports unions who made an appearance at the WGA sports solidarity rally on Wednesday. The strike took place outside of the CBS Broadcast Studio, which produces programs such as “CBS Sports Network.” Though the strike was themed around sports, WGA members from all walks were represented in the New York picket.
Walsh confirmed that his union is standing in solidarity both with the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
“It’s about showing support, solidarity, letting people know that you’re not here alone. I think a lot of times, if you’re on strike, you’re thinking you’re alone, and you’re not. You have a lot of other union members around the country who support you,” Walsh said.
Though he noted that he has “no qualms” about top executives in the entertainment industry making “great money,” he emphasized that they need to “open up their pockets a little more.”
“Don’t look to take benefits away from the workers. Look to enhance the workers. The workers are your product. The workers are your streaming service,” Walsh said. “If you don’t have the writers writing the content so that the actors can perform it — or whatever writers are writing for — you don’t have a product. I’m asking [for the AMPTP] to get to the table, sit down and talk to these writers, these workers, because they’re raising families. Many of these writers have secondary jobs to make ends meet. That shouldn’t have to be the case.”
There’s also a personal reason why Walsh is invested in the WGA strike. From 2014 to 2021, Walsh served as the mayor of Boston, guiding the major U.S. city through the COVID-19 pandemic and its ensuing shutdown.
“During difficult times in the pandemic, shows helped people keep their sanity, helped people find things to do when everything was shut down,” Walsh said. “As mayor for seven years, I came out to thank the writers for all the amazing work they did there.”
For all of TheWrap’s Hollywood strike coverage, click here.
