WGA and SAG-AFTRA have suspended picket lines for several locations in the San Fernando Valley on Monday and Tuesday as temperatures are expected to be between 96 and 101 degrees, TheWrap has learned.
The WGA will sit out their usual picketing at Disney, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. and Radford Studios. SAG-AFTRA will also be absent at Disney and WBD.
At this time, picket lines are still expected at Fox, Netflix, Paramount and Amazon, which are all south of the Valley.
Extreme weather forced L.A.-area strikers to stay home this past Monday, due to Tropical Storm Hilary. Pickets were also called off in New York in July due to blistering temps.
Most strike captains have been offering misting stations, fans and plenty of water to picketers throughout “hot labor summer.” And several strikers have sported strike-themed umbrellas on the picket lines, both mass-produced and hand-made, to beat the heat.
NBCUniversal paid a nominal fine in July for trimming trees that shaded sidewalks without a license. The studio denied that the trimming was designed to make conditions more uncomfortable for the striking actors and writers and promised to provide tents.
On Wednesday, the WGA accused Hollywood studios of not negotiating in good faith and urged members to continue striking after studios released the details of their latest offer to the public.
“This was the companies’ plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other,” the group said in a memo.
With studios losing the PR battle as the strikes drag on, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has hired the Levinson Group, a well-known crisis management firm based in Washington, D.C., to support its communication strategy, an insider with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap on Friday.
Deadline first reported the news.
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