Union framing of conflict‐related issues in the entertainment industry

• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21221

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Union framing of conflict-related issues

in the entertainment industry

Ryan P. Fuller

1

| Linda L. Putnam

2

1

Sacramento College of Business Administration,

California State University, Sacramento, California

2

Department of Communication, University of

California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara,

California

Correspondence

Ryan P. Fuller, College of Business

Administration, California State University,

Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA

95819-6088.

Email: ryan.fuller@csus.edu

This study examined the conflict framing of union leaders

as they reacted to changes in the entertainment industry.

The analysis revealed how participants named conflict-

based issues and attributed blame for them, cast them as

whole stories, or reframed them. Overall, the leaders of

two types of unions differed in their naming and blaming

of controversial issues. This study suggested that naming

and blaming of conflict-based issues operated differently

for the two types of unions. Leaders who employed nam-

ing singled out critical agenda items and often used

reframing, while union leaders who depicted issues as

whole stories resisted reframing the issues.

1|INTRODUCTION

“On strike, shut them down, Hollywood's a union town”(Barnes, 2007). This slogan was the mantra

of more than 8,000 writers who picketed in 2007–2008 to ensure that workers received fair compen-

sation for the creation and distribution of their work through digital media. Estimates put the cost of

the strike at $2.5 billion because of the slowdown in production and the cancellation of television

shows (Littleton, 2013).

At the time of the strike, many believed that the industry was undergoing a tectonic shift from a

profitable business to an uncertain one (Littleton, 2013). The U.S. entertainment industry creates and

disseminates media products through movie theaters, broadcast and cable television, home video,

advertising-supported Internet streaming, and subscription video on-demand throughout the world.

Six major companies comprise this industry. Although these companies compete in their sales of

products, when it comes to negotiations with unions, management is one voice at the table (Littleton,

2013). Unions, however, are diverse and multifaceted; thus, management negotiates with multiple

union groups in a given contract cycle.

Currently, this industry is in a period of conflict aftermath with both the 2007–2008 Writers Guild

of America strike and the protracted negotiations by the Screen Actors Guild in 2008–2009 (Fuller &

Rice, 2014; Putnam & Fuller, 2014). Both negotiations witnessed failed interventions by a federal

Received: 6 November 2017 Revised: 2 April 2018 Accepted: 12 April 2018

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21221

© 2018 Association for Conflict Resolution and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2018;36:53–67. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crq 53