Universal Trims Trees Shading Striking Writers, Actors

As rising temperatures have created dangerously hot conditions during the writers and actors strikes, Los Angeles city officials are investigating whether a Hollywood studio resorted to shady measures to retaliate against writers and actors on the picket lines.

On social media this week, writers and actors have called attention to a set of trees along a sidewalk outside Universal Studios and NBCUniversal’s lot where they have regularly picketed. Previously, the trees provided picketers with shade. But the writers and actors say the trees were abruptly trimmed in recent days, just as Los Angeles is experiencing a heat wave.

On Tuesday, City Controller Kenneth Mejia announced an investigation into the matter. He also tweeted a set of before and after photos showing a dramatic difference in the availability of shade along the sidewalk since the trees in question were trimmed.

In a statement Tuesday, NBCUniversal claimed the tree trimming happens annually each summer and “created unintended challenges for demonstrators.”

“We understand that the safety tree trimming of the Ficus trees we did on Barham Blvd. has created unintended challenges for demonstrators, that was not our intention. In partnership with licensed arborists, we have pruned these trees annually at this time of year to ensure that the canopies are light ahead of the high wind season,” a company spokesperson said. “We support the WGA and SAG’s right to demonstrate, and are working to provide some shade coverage. We continue to openly communicate with the labor leaders on-site to work together during this time.”

But on Wednesday, Mejia said his office found that NBCUniversal may have improperly trimmed the trees, since the city’s Bureau of Street Services, which manages tree trimmings, did not issue any recent permits for the area.

“With cooperation from the Bureau of Street Services, we have found that no tree trimming permits have been issued over the last three years for this location outside Universal Studios,” he tweeted. “Also, the City did not issue any tree trimming permits for the latest tree trimmings.”

He added that city agencies would now be looking into “if this case warrants the issuance of an administrative citation or hearing. If issued, the administrative citation fee starts at $250.”

A spokesperson for NBCUniversal did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mejia’s tweets Wednesday.

NBCUniversal also faces a set of National Labor Relations Board grievances filed on Tuesday by the unions involved in the strikes, the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, over a different section of Universal Studios. (HuffPost’s unionized employees are represented by the Writers Guild of America, East.)

According to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the unions’ complaints, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA allege the studio is using “illegal conduct” to obstruct picketers. According to the WGA’s complaint, the studio began conducting extensive construction just days after the writers strike began in early May. The construction has severely curtailed pedestrian areas and “interfered with, coerced and restrained” the ability of union members to safely picket, the WGA said in the complaint.

Several unsafe incidents have occurred in the area, including two picketers being struck by a car, according to the WGA’s complaint. The union has circulated a petition calling on NBCUniversal to install a pedestrian lane so that members can safely picket.

In its complaint, SAG-AFTRA similarly highlighted the “unsafe crowded location,” denouncing NBCUniversal for “exacerbating the dire public safety situation to interfere with striking members’ right to engage in the protected, concerted activity of picketing and patrolling outside the employer’s premises during a lawful strike.”

In response to the complaints, NBCUniversal said the company would cooperate with the NLRB and local authorities. “While we understand the timing of our multi-year construction project has created challenges for demonstrators, we continue to work with public agencies to increase access,” the company said in a statement.

Since May 2, more than 11,500 film and TV writers have been on strike after studio executives failed to reach a deal with them. Last week, some 160,000 actors also began to strike, effectively shutting down the entertainment industry.

Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are fighting for equitable pay and working conditions. They’ve called attention to the vast profits of studio and streaming companies and massive executive salaries, as well as the encroachment of artificial intelligence and other technological changes on the livelihoods of entertainment industry workers.