California Lawmaker to Reintroduce Bill to Pay Striking Workers Unemployment Benefits

Hollywood actors join the industry’s writers on the picket line after their union, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), authorized a strike against major studios, outside of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif., on July 14, 2023. Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times

As Southern California’s “summer of strikes” continues, thousands of entertainment and hotel workers have gone without pay for weeks.

State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-Burbank) hopes to change that soon by reintroducing a measure that would allow striking workers to collect unemployment pay.