All film and TV shows will stop next week if Hollywood workers don't get better benefits and weekends

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) recommended to their members that they strike as companies have refused to agree to employees' demands on wages, healthcare benefits, days off, lunch breaks and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.

"Nobody wants to go on strike, but we have been given little choice by companies that are earning record profits off our members' labor but are unwilling to treat those same workers with dignity and respect," said the union director Rebecca Rhine in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

Members are set to vote over whether to strike Oct. 1-3, which means new shows could be on hiatus until the union can reach an agreement with the studios.

The infamous 2007-2008 writers strike brought Hollywood to its knees as it dragged on for 14 weeks. In that case, writers were being excluded from profits off of streaming programs. The Oscars was on hold out of fear of picket lines. Movie productions stopped, as did dozens of TV shows. It ultimately cost the economy of Los Angeles County $3.2 billion, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

If a strike is authorized, it will be the largest Hollywood strike since the '07-'08 writer's strike. In that case, 60,000 IATSE members will walk off their job all over the United States.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and IATSE exchanged barbs last week, but by Friday, the Directors Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild of America and the Teamsters all joined together in a statement of support and solidarity with the stage employees.

"On behalf of our hundreds of thousands of members working across film and television, we stand in solidarity with our I.A.T.S.E. brothers, sisters and kin," the joint statement said. "The basic quality of life and living wage rights they're fighting for in their negotiations are the issues that impact all of us who work on sets and productions. We stand with the I.A.T.S.E."

Actors have also been promoting the crew workers, noting that they're always there before she gets there, sometimes at 5:30 a.m. and still working even as she left in the evenings.