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Chants and “Team trans!” Amid cheers, dozens of Netflix employees emerged from a corporate office building in Los Angeles on Wednesday to protest the recently held Dave Chappelle stand-up special in one of the most visible signs of labor unrest in history. from the streaming service.
Critics inside and outside the company said Mr Chappelle’s show “The Closer” promoted bigotry against transgender people. The protest put the tech company directly at the center of broader cultural debates about transphobia, free speech, and employee activism. Throughout the day, #NetflixWalkOut was one of the most talked about topics on Twitter.
Employees holding banners that read “Hey Netflix: Do Better” and “Transphobia Is Not a Joke” joined more than a hundred supporters and activists who had started to gather hours ago. There was also a small group of counter-protesters chanting “The jokes are funny”.
Joey Soloway, creator of the Amazon Prime comedy series “Transparent,” urged Netflix executives to add a trans person to their company board “this week,” and the entertainment industry as a whole to start hiring significantly more transgender people: “I want to call out a trance. I would love for a trans person to give me notes about my story. I want a trans agent. I want a trans manager. I want a lot of trans critics in the papers.”
B. Pagels-Minor, who is transgender and was fired from her job as a show executive at Netflix last week, read a list of employee requests for the company. It included hiring more trans people and adding warning labels for content criticized for being transphobic. Netflix Mx said. Pagels-Minor was fired for sharing sensitive documents outside the company; The former employee’s lawyer denied that his client shared information with the news media.
In addition to the scene in Los Angeles, many Netflix employees working remotely shut down their laptops and took an afternoon break from work.
One employee, Gabrielle Korn, wrote on Twitter: “We are not fighting Netflix. We’re fighting for Netflix. We all know how great that can be and it’s not there yet.”
Amid the ongoing public relations crisis, Netflix executives began to adopt a conciliatory tone while continuing to support Mr Chappelle.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s CEO, said in several interviews on Tuesday that he “spoiled” communications with employees after the outcry over Mr Chappelle’s special episode and that he needed to discuss the discussion in a more “humane” language. Mr. Sarandos also acknowledged that the shows, series and movies on Netflix have had an impact on the real world, something he denied in his initial statement.
Similarly, hours before Wednesday’s protest, the company said in a statement that it supported the strike.
“We value our trans colleagues and allies and understand the profound pain this has caused,” Netflix said in a statement. We respect the decision of any employee who chooses to leave, and recognize that we have more work to do at both Netflix and our content.”
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