Teamsters chief Lindsay Dougherty caused a sensation with a rousing speech to 3,000 striking Writers Guild of America members, many of whom leapt to their feet when she delivered the mic-drop moment: “And what I’d like to say to the studios is, ‘If you want to f*ck around, you’re gonna find out.'”
“Our Teamster members are going to be with you side by side,” Dougherty promised to cheers at the rally, held Wednesday evening at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium. “We have a saying that we like to tell our members: ‘Teamsters don’t cross picket lines.'”
Dougherty, featured in a Los Angeles profile in March, is the first female and youngest ever Local 399 leader. A native of Detroit, she came up through the ranks in Hollywood from the bottom up, working as an extra as she rose to the union’s top spot.
“All of the support you’ve seen so far is just going to get better, and we’re excited to be in this fight with you guys,” Dougherty told the WGA strikers. “We are at a turning point in the labor movement right now. If we want to get what’s ours, we’re gonna have to fight for it tooth-and-nail. So just hang in there. Keep fighting. Keep hitting the pavement every single day, because if you throw up a picket line, these f*cking trucks will stop, I promise you.”
As the strike enters its fifth day, #FAAFO has been trending on the Twitter profiles of WGA members as productions have gone dark, including late night TV talk shows, Marvel’s tentpole feature Blade, and the third season of the HBO Max hit “Hacks.” SAG-AFTRA actors, production assistants, and other Hollywood union members have marched alongside the striking writers.
“We’ve all seen what’s happening right now in Hollywood. They’re starving all of us out, not just you guys,” Dougherty said. “So, whatever they pay you guys now, they’re going to pay all of us later, with interest.”
#wgastrong pic.twitter.com/nFHGu701Ln
— Julie Benson (@TheJulieBenson) May 4, 2023
