Ooh, this story hit a nerve for me personally because my new landlords have just brutally hacked into a 120-year-old cypress tree behind my apartment. Allegedly this was done to “improve” the “view” but it’s making my apartment hotter (less shade) and giving the pedestrians in the back alley an “improved” (totally unimpeded) view of me. It’s also a horrible thing to do to such a beautiful, healthy old tree that was home to many squirrels and birds. Anyway, my petty dispute aside, there are far more nefarious tree trimmings afoot! NBCUniversal decided to “prune” the ficus trees along one side of its LA campus, and it was a real hack job. They cut back all the branches.
Coincidentally, they did this just as the SAG-AFTRA union started striking alongside the WGA and both unions were picketing there, in the midst of a brutal heat wave. Then the LA City Controller started to investigate, because it was pretty obvious that this ‘tree trimming’ was about making things uncomfortable or hazardous for striking workers by removing any shade. The studio tried to say that they “always trim these trees in summer” but there’s photo evidence that they haven’t done this before. And guess who didn’t get the required permit to trim these trees, either?
The boundary of NBCUniversal’s lot is now a flashpoint for the on-the-ground mistrust of Hollywood’s double strike. On July 18, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA filed mirrored complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging NBCUniversal had engaged in “illegal conduct” by having picketers march along blocks of Lankershim Blvd. sidewalk on the west end of its campus which were improperly obstructed by the studio’s ongoing campus construction work. The filings contend that the studio has ignored an advisory from the Los Angeles Police Department to establish concrete barriers for pedestrian safety.
Hours after The Hollywood Reporter first publicized the Labor Board complaints (the studio says it will cooperate with any agency inquiries), L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia — an outspoken progressive who holds the municipal office that audits government agencies — tweeted that his department would be “investigating the tree trimming that occurred outside Universal Studios where workers, writers, and actors are exercising their right to picket.”
The WGA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, SAG-AFTRA noted: “Suspiciously timed construction that has forced picketers into streets without proper safety rails, and now tree trimming eliminating shade during a record heatwave, has forced SAG-AFTRA to determine that it cannot safely send its members to picket at NBCUniversal.” The actors’ union added that, through the Labor Board and other means, it was working along with the Writers Guild “to remedy this egregious violation of our members’ rights.”
The studio did not have proper permits for tree trimming: Typically, tree-trimming along public sidewalks is handled by the Los Angeles Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Street Services. Shortly after this article was first published, L.A. City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, whose jurisdiction includes the Barham Blvd. sidewalk, tweeted that she’d looked into the matter with BSS’ Urban Forestry Division and “found that no permit was issued for any tree trimming at this site.” She also shared a statement from the bureau indicating that a compliance notice had been issued to NBCUniversal and that its enforcement arm would consider an administrative citation or hearing. Prior to joining the L.A. City Council, Raman herself picketed during the 2007 WGA work stoppage in support of her husband, TV writer Vali Chandrasekaran (Modern Family, 30 Rock).
Allegedly the studios have since provided some “cooling tents.” But this has “studio brass ratf–king” all over it. Sorry for my crudeness but that’s just what it is. Management wants to deter the striking workers from picketing, or worse, let them get heat exhaustion. I put nothing past the same people who were quoted as saying that they wanted union members to start “losing their apartments and losing their houses” rather than pay them a living wage. They intend to drag out both strikes as long as possible, partially as a cost-cutting measure (I think) but also to attempt to weaken worker resolve. If the studios are willing to push their workers to the brink of homelessness or worse, of course they wouldn’t balk at cutting down trees so that workers can’t demonstrate. Meanwhile, according to Variety, NBCUniversal’s CEO Brian Roberts was paid $32.1 million in 2022. But it’s the writers and actors who are asking too much. I support the unions wholeheartedly and I hope NBC gets drawn into a petty, annoying hearing process over this with the city and county of Los Angeles. That would really be putting the famously tangled bureaucracy of LA to good use.
Our Office is investigating the tree trimming that occurred outside Universal Studios where workers, writers, and actors are exercising their right to picket.
The trimmed trees are LA City managed street trees.
(Before and after photos below) pic.twitter.com/xczw0bTdh9
— LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia (@lacontroller) July 19, 2023
Universal Pictures, the film production studio behind the highly anticipated Oppenheimer, has been accused of trimming trees that just so happen to line the sidewalks where Hollywood strikers have been picketing. https://t.co/rC2h7euCa9
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 18, 2023
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