{"id":10307,"date":"2010-09-27T13:14:12","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T20:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/?p=10307"},"modified":"2010-09-27T13:14:12","modified_gmt":"2010-09-27T20:14:12","slug":"urban-backs-new-zealand-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/2010\/09\/urban-backs-new-zealand-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Backs New Zealand Union"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Union demand for better working conditions for actors has won the backing of <em>Star Trek XI<\/em>&#8216;s <strong>Karl Urban<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Urban is backing the <em>New Zealand Actors Equity<\/em>, which has joined with Australian-based unions such as the <em>Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance<\/em> (<em>MEAA<\/em>) in calling for a boycott of <em>Sir Peter Jackson<\/em>&#8216;s <em>The Hobbit <\/em>movies.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><a href=\"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UrbanSmall1.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-10308\" title=\"UrbanSmall\" src=\"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/UrbanSmall1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"108\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>The boycott of <em>The Hobbit<\/em> was called because the movie is a non-union production,&#8221; said Urban. &#8220;[The] <em>NZ Actors Equity<\/em> has my full support in their struggle to gain a higher standard of contract for New Zealand performers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If [Jackson] has the opportunity to help improve the working conditions for actors in New Zealand,&#8221; said Urban, &#8220;to bring us more in line with our colleagues in Australia, the UK, and the US, I hope this is a dialogue which he would engage in, and an endeavor which he would support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Jackson, the demands of <em>MEAA<\/em>, which include wanting a union negotiated agreement covering all performers in <em>The Hobbit<\/em>, &#8220;cannot be agreed to, or even considered, by law.&#8221; According to Jackson, his options include &#8220;involve closing <em>The Hobbit<\/em> down, or more likely shifting the production to Europe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Other actors, including <strong>Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving <\/strong>and<strong> Sir Ian McKellan<\/strong>, all reportedly involved in <em>The Hobbit<\/em>, support the <em>MEAA<\/em>&#8216;s stance, according to an MEAA official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Union demand for better working conditions for actors has won the backing of Star Trek&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2700,2413,2401],"tags":[3402,2487],"class_list":["post-10307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-cast-crew","category-star-trek-xi","tag-the-hobbit","tag-urban"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","newsphere-slider-full":"","newsphere-featured":"","newsphere-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"T&#39;Bonz","author_link":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/author\/tbonz\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/business\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Business<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/cast-crew\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Cast &amp; Crew<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/star-trek-xi\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Star Trek: XI<\/a>","tag_info":"Star Trek: XI","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10309,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10307\/revisions\/10309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}