‘Staggering solidarity’: How California’s summer strikes broke down wealth, class barriers

In Los Angeles it’s rare to see actors and housekeepers standing shoulder to shoulder on picket lines, or TV writers standing behind UPS drivers fighting for better pay.

Yet such signs of solidarity across social classes are prominent features of what some are calling a “hot labor summer” sweeping California. Strikes have ground Hollywood to a halt. At the same time thousands of workers who make the city run are putting pressure on employers to pay living wages in an increasingly unaffordable state.

“There’s staggering solidarity,” said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation. “I think it’s in levels we haven’t seen before. If you look at the difference between what a fast food worker makes and a writer makes, it’s smaller than the difference between what either of them makes and their CEO.”

To read the full report from CalMatters, click here.