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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 15, 2016 | PAGE 3 CULTURE NOMINEES FOR OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE 22nd annual Screen Actors Guild awards Motion Picture Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett are union members. So are Clare Danes, Louis C.K., and Peter Dinklage. They’ll all be in Los Angeles Jan. 30 as nominees for their union’s highest honor — the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Unlike the better-known Academy Awards, SAG Awards are decided exclusively by their fellow practitioners: All 116,741 members of SAG- AFTRA get ballots and can watch the entries online. The SAG Awards are also unlike the Oscars in that they are for film and television, and they include categories that honor outstand- ing performances by entire casts, not just individuals. With ■ BEASTS OF NO NATION ■THE BIG SHORT ■ SPOTLIGHT ■ STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON ■TRUMBO a gala dinner, an auction, and sales of bleacher seats to the red carpet affair, the event also raises funds for the SAG-AF- TRA Foundation, which funds a childrens literacy program and provides scholarships and health and financial assistance to members and their families. “Yes it’s glitzy and glam- orous, but really it’s about cel- ebrating our union,” says SAG- AFTRA national board member Mary McDonald- Lewis, a Portland voice actor and dialect coach. McDonald-Lewis said she’s especially excited this year about the nominations for Trumbo, a true-to-life film about Hollywood radicalism, and for performances in the Big Short and 99 Homes, both which are about financial fraud in the mortgage industry. How the Oscars began as a tool for union-avoidance Everyone’s heard of the Academy Awards, but few know the anti-union origins of its sponsor, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci- ences. The Academy was founded in 1927 by Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer studio boss Louis Mayer to prevent unionization in the film indus- try. As an invitation-only pro- fessional organization, it was meant to be a more presti- gious alternative to unioniza- tion. With separate branches for producers, actors, writers, directors, and technicians, it would settle workplace dis- putes and eliminate the need for unions and strikes — while remaining controlled by producers. From 1927 to 1933, the Academy functioned as a company union. In competi- tion with the Screen Actors Guild and other unions, it de- veloped a standard contract covering terms and conditions of work. Hollywood unionized any- way in 1933, and company- controlled unions were out- lawed in 1935. But the Academy continues on as a way to promote the film in- dustry. To this day, its mem- bership is self-selecting, and secret. 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Watch it live on TNT and TBS Saturday, Jan. 30, 5-7 pm (PST) Cast Male Lead ■TRUMBO Bryan Cranston ■ BLACK MASS Johnny Depp ■THE REVENANT Leonardo Dicaprio ■ STEVE JOBS Michael Fassbender ■THE DANISH GIRL Eddie Redmayne Female Lead ■ CAROL Cate Blanchett ■ ROOM Brie Larson ■WOMAN IN GOLD Helen Mirren ■ BROOKLYN Saoirse Ronan ■ I SMILE BACK Sarah Silverman Male Supporting Role ■THE BIG SHORT Christian Bale ■ BEASTS OF NO NATION Idris Elba ■ BRIDGE OF SPIES Mark Rylance ■ 99 HOMES Michael Shannon ■ ROOM Jacob Tremblay Female Supporting Role ■ CAROL Rooney Mara ■ SPOTLIGHT Rachel Mcadams ■TRUMBO Helen Mirren ■THE DANISH GIRL Alicia Vikander ■ STEVE JOBS Kate Winslet Male in a Comedy Television Ensemble in a Drama ■ DOWNTON ABBEY ■ GAME OF THRONES ■ HOMELAND ■ HOUSE OF CARDS ■ MAD MEN ■ MODERN FAMILY Ty Burrell ■ LOUIE Louis C.K. ■ SHAMELESS William H. Macy ■THE BIG BANG THEORY Jim Parsons ■TRANSPARENT Jeffrey Tambor Female in a Comedy Ensemble in a Comedy ■THE BIG BANG THEORY ■ KEY & PEELE ■ MODERN FAMILY ■ ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK ■TRANSPARENT ■VEEP Male in a Drama ■ GAME OF THRONES Peter Dinklage ■ MAD MEN Jon Hamm ■ MR. ROBOT Rami Malek ■ BETTER CALL SAUL Bob Odenkirk ■ HOUSE OF CARDS Kevin Spacey Female in a Drama ■ HOMELAND Claire Danes ■ HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER Viola Davis ■THE GOOD WIFE Julianna Margulies ■ DOWNTON ABBEY Maggie Smith ■ HOUSE OF CARDS Robin Wright LOCAL MOTION ] ■ ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Uzo Aduba ■ NURSE JACKIE Edie Falco ■ UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT Ellie Kemper ■VEEP Julia Louis-Dreyfus ■ PARKS AND RECREATION Amy Poehler Male in a TV Movie or Miniseries ■ LUTHER Idris Elba ■TUT Ben Kingsley ■TEXAS RISING Ray Liotta ■ A VERY MURRAY CHRISTMAS Bill Murray ■WOLF HALL Mark Rylance Female in a TV Movie or Miniseries ■ GRACE OF MONACO Nicole Kidman ■ BESSIE Queen Latifah ■THE LIZZIE BORDEN CHRONICLES Christina Ricci ■THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE Susan Sarandon ■THE SPOILS BEFORE DYING Kristen Wiig NOV-DEC 2015 The following are Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces where workers have voted on whether to be represented by a union. The thumbs-up symbol means workers will be union- represented. Thumbs-down means they’ll be on their own. The information comes from the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board. Election Results Social Security Disability benefits: You paid into the system while you worked, and if you can’t work anymore, it's time to obtain them. Employer (Location) Union Coast Cutlery warehouse workers (Portland) Yes-No = Teamsters Local 206 American Paper Converting (Woodland, Wash.) AWPPW 3-5 % 5-17 % Hundreds of low-wage Portland airport service workers unionize A group of 259 service workers at Portland International Airport will have a union — and a chance to improve wages and working conditions. On Dec. 29, Service Employees Interna- tional Union (SEIU) Local 49 announced that airport service contractor Huntleigh USA will voluntarily recognize a union for its Portland airport employees, after the union turned in signed authorizations from a majority of the workers. The Huntleigh workers per- form a variety of service tasks at the airport, including helping passengers who are in a wheel- chair, handling bags at curb-side check-in, and expediting move- ment of passengers though security lines. The work- ers currently earn minimum wage.
