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.