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From Japan to South Africa, from Malawi to the US the right of unions to organise is under attack – and for those working in arts, entertainment and media that threat is often worse given the growth of informal and precarious employment patterns throughout the industry.



“Arguably one of the biggest challenges for performers and other workers in the media and entertainment sector is becoming their ability to benefit from core labour rights. This has always been the case, but we currently are facing an alarming trend that is challenging hard-fought labour achievements”, said Dominick Luquer, General Secretary of International Actors' Federation (FIA). “An unprecedented number of freelance workers in the entertainment and media sector are now facing a host of challenges - from the lack of social protection, healthcare, retirement to, perhaps most importantly, the denial of their right to organise and bargain collectively minimum terms and conditions. As this is developing, a growing number of performers work without the benefits of union protection. “We risk coming back to the time when the artist had to pass the hat around for a living. Except this time its worse, as the industry has grown global and the employers ahead of us are powerful international corporations, much stronger than they used to be. It's a critical time. We need to extend our memberships and make a priority of embracing not just workers in a traditional employment relationship but equally freelance, casual workers, fighting for their right to be represented collectively - whilst hammering on the need to guarantee core labour rights to all”.



Benoit Machuel of the International Musicians' Federation (FIM) said the crisis was now affecting even the most socially advanced countries and the need to fight back was global. In Malawi FIM was fighting a government refusal to allow recognition of the Association of Professional Musicians and in Japan the unions had had to resort to court battles to secure representation rights. FIM was now launching a survey on the state of representation rights globally and would use the results to lobby governments.



John Myers from the ILO said he very strongly supported the work of UNI-MEI “to combat abuses of competition laws and to fight for the right of workers in the entertainment and media industries to organise and bargain collectively” as there had been a general rolling back of labour rights over the past two decades and that laws drawn up in the past often were irrelevant to today's employment relationships.



“It makes my blood boil to hear about what is going on in too many countries with the denial of collective rights.It's time for a plan to harness the power of the organised working class,” said David Young of the Writers Guild of America and Idano Or of IMAGO stressed the need for joint working between unions and international organisations.



“Without us they have nothing – we have huge power. We have to find a way to use the potential we have,” he said.



Click here to see photos from the conference.