Walkout NYC!: On Strike in a World of Fetishes, Fictions, and Beleaguered Workers

Authors

  • Clayton Rosati Department of Telecommunications, School of Communication Studies, Bowling Green State University

Keywords:

labor struggles, digital content, freelance workers, permalance, media conglomerates, NYC, fetish, fiction, workers

Abstract

New York City was abuzz with labor struggles in December 2007. The most prominent were that of the Writers Guild of America (East), picketing as part of their nation-wide strike for a fair share of online and digital content “residuals.” NYC-based shows like Letterman’s the Late Show, the Daily Show, and Saturday Night Live languished for months without their creative workers. In December, though, another smaller intersecting struggle also erupted at one of the world’s largest media conglomerates, when Viacom’s vulnerable and (until then) unorganized ‘freelance’ workers (known in-house as “permalance”) walked off the job. The following comic and introduction present preliminary observations and themes from research conducted during this tumultuous time.

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How to Cite

Rosati, C. (2015). Walkout NYC!: On Strike in a World of Fetishes, Fictions, and Beleaguered Workers. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 9(1), 81–101. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/861