Reality TV stars endure awful pay and working conditions. Let’s change that | Nelini Stamp

During Hollywood strikes, studios turn to reality TV. But reality stars are sick of poor treatment - and ready to fight back

Last month, UPS workers, organized by the Teamsters, won a historic agreement that significantly raises the pay and benefits of more than 300,000 workers. In a statement, Fred Zuckerman, the Teamsters general secretary-treasurer, hailed it as the richest national contract I've seen in my more than 40 years of representing Teamsters at UPS".

There have been at least 72 labor actions across the country this summer, with no signs of slowing down. The struggle for workers' rights is a tale as old as labor itself. This clash of forces between workers and management is as compelling now as it was more than 100 years ago when Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a fictional expose on the very real horrors workers experienced at meat-packing plants. It's the stuff that makes for excellent cinema - if only Hollywood writers and actors weren't also striking for fair pay.

Nelini Stamp is the director of strategy and partnerships for the Working Families Party, the co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus and the founder of the Instagram account Real Housewives of Politics (@rhopol)