Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) joined actors and writers on the picket line in front of the Netflix offices in Manhattan on Monday (July 24).
“How many private jets does David Zaslav need? For real,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referencing the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. “How many private jets do the CEOs need? It is insatiable. It is unacceptable. I do not know how any person can say, ‘I need another $100 million before another person can have health care.’”
Ocasio-Cortez referred to the ongoing labor strike headed by members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) as a “hot labor summer” and said the only way for the unions to get what they are demanding is to stand together in solidarity.
“We have workers all across the country – either currently on strike or gearing up to be on strike – because at the end of the day we are all facing the same challenge, which is an unacceptable, unprecedented concentration of wealth and corporate greed in America,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez also linked the film and TV industry’s strikes to others that have come before it and those that will come after.
“We have workers all across the country either currently on strike or gearing up to be on strike, because at the end of the day we are all facing the same challenge, which is the concentration of wealth and corporate greed in America,” AOC said. “Direct action gets the goods, now and always. The only way that we can do this is by showing them that we are stronger.”