Ooh, this story hit a nerve for me personally because my new landlords have just brutally hacked into a 120-year-old cypress tree behind my apartment. Allegedly this was done to “improve” the “view” but it’s making my apartment hotter (less shade) and giving the pedestrians in the back alley an “improved” (totally unimpeded) view of me. It’s also a horrible thing to do to such a beautiful, healthy old tree that was home to many squirrels and birds. Anyway, my petty dispute aside, there are far more nefarious tree trimmings afoot! NBCUniversal decided to “prune” the ficus trees along one side of its LA campus, and it was a real hack job. They cut back all the branches.
Coincidentally, they did this just as the SAG-AFTRA union started striking alongside the WGA and both unions were picketing there, in the midst of a brutal heat wave. Then the LA City Controller started to investigate, because it was pretty obvious that this ‘tree trimming’ was about making things uncomfortable or hazardous for striking workers by removing any shade. The studio tried to say that they “always trim these trees in summer” but there’s photo evidence that they haven’t done this before. And guess who didn’t get the required permit to trim these trees, either?
The boundary of NBCUniversal’s lot is now a flashpoint for the on-the-ground mistrust of Hollywood’s double strike. On July 18, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA filed mirrored complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging NBCUniversal had engaged in “illegal conduct” by having picketers march along blocks of Lankershim Blvd. sidewalk on the west end of its campus which were improperly obstructed by the studio’s ongoing campus construction work. The filings contend that the studio has ignored an advisory from the Los Angeles Police Department to establish concrete barriers for pedestrian safety.
Hours after The Hollywood Reporter first publicized the Labor Board complaints (the studio says it will cooperate with any agency inquiries), L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia — an outspoken progressive who holds the municipal office that audits government agencies — tweeted that his department would be “investigating the tree trimming that occurred outside Universal Studios where workers, writers, and actors are exercising their right to picket.”
The WGA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, SAG-AFTRA noted: “Suspiciously timed construction that has forced picketers into streets without proper safety rails, and now tree trimming eliminating shade during a record heatwave, has forced SAG-AFTRA to determine that it cannot safely send its members to picket at NBCUniversal.” The actors’ union added that, through the Labor Board and other means, it was working along with the Writers Guild “to remedy this egregious violation of our members’ rights.”
The studio did not have proper permits for tree trimming: Typically, tree-trimming along public sidewalks is handled by the Los Angeles Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Street Services. Shortly after this article was first published, L.A. City Councilwoman Nithya Raman, whose jurisdiction includes the Barham Blvd. sidewalk, tweeted that she’d looked into the matter with BSS’ Urban Forestry Division and “found that no permit was issued for any tree trimming at this site.” She also shared a statement from the bureau indicating that a compliance notice had been issued to NBCUniversal and that its enforcement arm would consider an administrative citation or hearing. Prior to joining the L.A. City Council, Raman herself picketed during the 2007 WGA work stoppage in support of her husband, TV writer Vali Chandrasekaran (Modern Family, 30 Rock).
Allegedly the studios have since provided some “cooling tents.” But this has “studio brass ratf–king” all over it. Sorry for my crudeness but that’s just what it is. Management wants to deter the striking workers from picketing, or worse, let them get heat exhaustion. I put nothing past the same people who were quoted as saying that they wanted union members to start “losing their apartments and losing their houses” rather than pay them a living wage. They intend to drag out both strikes as long as possible, partially as a cost-cutting measure (I think) but also to attempt to weaken worker resolve. If the studios are willing to push their workers to the brink of homelessness or worse, of course they wouldn’t balk at cutting down trees so that workers can’t demonstrate. Meanwhile, according to Variety, NBCUniversal’s CEO Brian Roberts was paid $32.1 million in 2022. But it’s the writers and actors who are asking too much. I support the unions wholeheartedly and I hope NBC gets drawn into a petty, annoying hearing process over this with the city and county of Los Angeles. That would really be putting the famously tangled bureaucracy of LA to good use.
Our Office is investigating the tree trimming that occurred outside Universal Studios where workers, writers, and actors are exercising their right to picket.
The trimmed trees are LA City managed street trees.
(Before and after photos below) pic.twitter.com/xczw0bTdh9
— LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia (@lacontroller) July 19, 2023
Universal Pictures, the film production studio behind the highly anticipated Oppenheimer, has been accused of trimming trees that just so happen to line the sidewalks where Hollywood strikers have been picketing. https://t.co/rC2h7euCa9
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 18, 2023
The lengths they will go to in their greed is beyond belief.
Greedy fuckin people, I cannot
That’s not a tree trimming. It’s a tree mutilation. I’m glad the City Controller is investigating. Very shady. Pun intended.
You do not severely cut back trees in the middle of growing season. Those trees didn’t need to be trimmed at all, but if they did, you wait until a more dormant period.
Studios showing just how evil they are willing to be.
these trees were already well pruned, tbh, I hope they survive the heat in this condition
How absolutely evil!
Karma’s gonna come for the studios/streamers. F*** around and find out.
This is really awful.
They’re very obvs showing that they don’t consider the strikers human.
This is some real villain behavior.
Isn’t it @ Jais? Not only did they destroy the entirety of the trees, they butchered them!!
I used to live in West University, it’s a small city in Houston that butts up to Rice University, with our own PD, FD, school system and city council. The residents are not allowed to cut down a tree without prior approval. IF you wanted to cut down a tree, the city would estimate the value of the tree which you were required to pay before you could cut it down. These homes built in the ‘30’s-‘40’s and the streets are lined with gorgeous canopies that washed the streets with beauty and tremendous shade. It was beautiful until the ultra-rich moved into the city and since the lots were so small, they would raise the entire lots of the trees. Many home owners would purchase the homes next door to expand their homes. As it continues to vapidly expand, the trees were the first ones to be cut to utilize the entire lot.
I miss these types of regulations. 😢
(sorry as I am simply sick of the mindset of so many people.)
Carina, I am terribly sorry that your landlord took such measures simply instead of fixing the problem and cutting down a historic tree. I hope that that tree haunts him in his sleep.
Greedy bastards, all of them!!
I am sorry to hear about the cypress Carina! I used to rent a house that sat on a hillside and the soil was clay, meaning subsidence that can lead to houses developing cracks and structural problems. The landlord’s insurance company decided to remove the 100 year old oak tree in the garden even though a tree expert said this was not the underlying problem. Apparently what they needed to do was repair the retaining walls. But it’s just cheaper and easier to take out the tree. The tree guy said he’s seen whole gardens (trees and shrubs) razed by insurance companies.
You would also not trim otherwise healthy trees in the middle of summer. You do it in the coolest time of the year so the tree can rebound before it gets hot.
Your dispute is not petty.
We have done enough as humans to destroy plans and trees, so I hate it when even the trees planted in the cities are not safe.
By the way, apparently in many places there is more diversity of species in cities than on architectural fields. It helps that more and more people are putting plants everywhere, either in their own garden, on their balconies and in their streets.
In Amsterdam, there are now gardens on the water in some of the many canals: they put big floats there with lots of plants.
I loved that there was a #TreeLawTwitter ready to jump on this.
I bet there was! Tree law is pretty interesting (and complicated). The biggest point I see is the fact that those are not even the studio’s trees, but belong to the City. That is some very basic tree law which may well come back to bite them in the tuchis. (As they so richly deserve!)
What assholes. Mutilating trees with the intent to cause harm to people for the purpose of keeping excessive profits. How do these people sleep at night?
Wow putting their petty greedy motives on display like that was not a smart move.
Those trees will probably all die now
Bastards.
Interesting…..
It pays to remember in business, the only thing that matters is that the transaction is legal.
It is never about morality….