The wrestling/actor's union thing

[Death From Above]

Scrolling around the interwebz I come across this blurb from about a week ago:

 

http://pulsewrestling.com/2008/11/24/union...e-wwe-universe/

 

“With Vince McMahon arguing that WWE is entertainment, it clearly falls into the area AFTRA represents. Why the union has not (gone after wrestling already) is open to debate, but my own personal opinion, sad as it is to say, is that it is `only wrestling’ and as such is considered beneath the union. However, the union and other entertainment unions have been pushing to a much greater extent to cover reality TV stars. Thus, it is certainly possible that if some wrestlers made discreet inquiries to the union, that AFTRA may look into representing wrestlers.”

Is this not being talked about just because it's more hot air and is a non-story? Or did the whole thing happen and I'm just that far under a rock?

 

It would be the irony to end all ironies in wrestling if it was Vince McMahon's own push to have wrestlers qualified as "entertainers" that forces his hand into unionizing whether he likes it or not.

[Ditch]

Am I wrong to hope that WWE goes the way of GM and is eventually done-in by unionized labor costs, allowing the Japanese to swoop in and take market share?

 

Oh wait that would require efficiency from Japanese promotions.

[Jkeats]

I'm in both SAG and AFTRA and I believe WWE gets away with it because they aren't a signatory of either union. That's how writers could work for WWE programming during the writer's strike but WWE Films was on the struck list for the WGA.

 

Declaring his workers entertainers isn't going to make any difference. There are plenty of non union productions on the air, commercials especially. There was talk, way back when Smackdown first got on UPN, that the wrestlers might be eligible for AFTRA eligibility and get insurance that way.

 

A lot of WWE workers are probably in either AFTRA or SAG due to various outside projects such as commercials and the WWE films, of course. Being in one or both of those unions isn't the same as the locker room forming a union on their own. The latter would give them much more power.