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Arts, Entertainment, and Media Unions Launch Updated DEI Policy Priorities for the 118th Congress

WASHINGTON, DC – Unions of professionals in the arts, entertainment, and media industries affiliated with the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) announced their updated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy agenda for the 118th Congress, Tuesday. The policy agenda’s legislative priorities are centered around creating diverse talent pipelines, incentivizing diversity in hiring, and strengthening creative professionals’ workplace rights. 

“Union professionals in the arts, entertainment, and media industries remain committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said DPE President Jennifer Dorning. “The updated DEI policy agenda for the 118th Congress allows union creative professionals to continue building off gains made in collective bargaining that provide for more inclusive, representative industries.”

DPE and its 12 affiliated unions with members in the arts, entertainment, and media industries first released their DEI policy agenda in 2021. In the last Congress, union creative professionals advanced many parts of the agenda, including a meaningful increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the establishment of chief diversity officer positions at each agency.

The DEI policy agenda for 118th Congress includes additional legislative priorities, like restoring tax fairness for creative professionals and addressing systemic barriers to careers in arts, entertainment, and media. Still, passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, the American Music Fairness Act, and the Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act; reforming Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; and creating federal tax incentives that will encourage more inclusive hiring remain core components of the policy agenda.

“The arts, entertainment, and media industries are becoming more diverse and inclusive thanks to the efforts of union professionals at the bargaining table and in the halls of power. However, we realize this work is not finished, which is why we remain committed to pushing for smart policy solutions that will help continue to move the creative industries forward and allow creative professionals of historically marginalized communities to realize the full value of their skills and talents,” said Dorning.

The unions supporting this DEI policy agenda include:

  • Actors’ Equity Association
  • American Federation of Musicians
  • American Guild of Musical Artists
  • American Guild of Variety Artists
  • Directors Guild of America
  • Guild of Italian American Actors
  • International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts
  • International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
  • Office and Professional Employees International Union 
  • Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists 
  • Stage Directors and Choreographers Society 
  • Writers Guild of America, East

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The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or IATSE (full name: International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada), is a labor union representing over 170,000 technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry, including live events, motion picture and television production, broadcast, and trade shows in the United States and Canada.

For more information please contact:
General: comms@iatse.net
Press: press@iatse.net

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