The big labor news in show business is that Thomas C. Short has finally, as long expected, announced his retirement. Short was the president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, a post he's held since 1994. Assuming his successor (Matthew Loeb) is not a clone, this is good news for writers. Mr. Short was openly hostile to people who do that for a living, both as members of the Writers Guild and as members of The Animation Guild. The Animation Guild is an I.A.T.S.E. union, meaning it was under Short's supervision, and he wasn't much nicer to the writers who were members of his own organization.
Mr. Short was the man who authorized the Stagehands' strike in New York which shut down most of Broadway for many weeks, greatly inconveniencing the public and costing a lot of actors, producers and workers a helluva lot of money. He okayed or threatened other strikes by I.A. locals but when any non-I.A. union began painting picket signs, he was out there condemning them and wailing that they were greatly inconveniencing the public and costing a lot of actors, producers and workers a helluva lot of money. It was kind of stunning to see so much anti-union rhetoric coming from the guy who headed up the largest entertainment union in the world.
In other news, no one seems to know what's happening with the Screen Actors Guild but no one seems to think it's going to be anything but a disaster for that union. I've heard several possible scenarios from folks who know more about this kind of thing than I do. All are different ways in which the union folds, possibly with a major change of leadership occurring at or about the same time. So I don't know what's going to happen…only that it won't be pretty.