Shohei Ohtani's Yuuuge Contract

 

The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed unicorn superstar Shohei Ohtani to an eye- popping $700 million 10- year contract.  Paul Campos puts this in historical perspective:

"The first year in MLB baseball history for which there’s comprehensive salary data featured an average salary of $19,000. Converted to 2023 dollars, this $175,000. This means that a single year of Ohtani’s contract is worth approximately 70%, in real inflation-adjusted dollars, of the entire major league payroll in 1967.

"1967 was also the first season in which major league players had a certified union."

Someone owes a hearty arigato to the late, great union organizer Marvin Miller.

(Photo illustration: Axios Visuals/ Photos: Ronald Martinez, Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

 

SAG/ AFTRA Strike Tentative Agreement

 

Another strike may be ending with another (apparent) union victory:

After a grueling 118 days on strike, SAG-AFTRA has officially reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with studios, a move that is heralding the end of the 2023 actors strike.

The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced. The strike will end at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. On Friday, the deal will go to the union’s national board for approval.

The performers union announced the provisional agreement Wednesday, after about two weeks of renewed negotiations. The development came not long before a deadline of 5 p.m. that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers had set for the union to give their answer on whether they had a deal.

The union is so far providing some details of the agreement, more of which will likely emerge in the next few days prior to the union’s ratification vote. In a message to members on Wednesday night, the union said the pact is valued at over $1 billion and includes pay increases higher than what other unions received this year, a “streaming participation bonus” and regulations on AI. The tentative deal also includes higher caps on health and pension funds, compensation bumps for background performers and “critical contract provisions protecting diverse communities.” If the deal is ratified, the contract could soon go into effect, and if not, members would essentially send their labor negotiators back to the bargaining table with the AMPTP...

The strike impacted tens of thousands of union members, and the impact on the economy of southern California alone of the SAG/AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes has been estimated at $6.5 billion. Time to get people back to work and the shows on the road.

BONUS:  Hotel workers in Las Vegas have agreed to a tentative contract with MGM Resorts International, the largest employer on the Strip. Unions matter, and they produce results.

(Photo: Shutterstock)

QOTD -- Labor Unions

 

"Workers and organized labor are cool again. Young Americans are the country’s most pro-union generation. Labor has poll ratings most politicians only dream about, and the Biden administration is making workers’ pay, benefits and rights its calling card.  [snip]

"... Heralds of change include well-publicized organizing efforts in new sectors of the economy, broad public sympathy for the Hollywood writers’ struggle, and big wage gains by workers increasingly willing to strike for them. 

"There is also President Biden, the most outspokenly pro-labor president since Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Progressives such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) support Biden’s reelection partly because they get how the often-unheralded work of his administration is making a new era for labor possible..." -- E.J. Dionne, Jr., starting off an op/ ed on the resurgence of labor unions and the cultural shift that's come with the demonstrated economic value of unions.  Dionne quotes from a Treasury Department report that finds that "unions raise the wages of their members by 10 to 15 percent, have 'spillover effects' that benefit nonunion workers, 'reduce race and gender wage gaps' and 'boost businesses’ productivity.'”  Young American workers with higher expectations are finding that unionization can increase their wage and job security, giving them leverage that non- union workers don't have.  No wonder they're the most pro- union generation.