SPYWITNESS

SAG board member and Hollywood actor/activist Esai Morales encouraged janitors, longshoremen, musicians and other union members to get on stage Tuesday morning.

"You're all actors today," Morales told the crowd at the start of the three-day, 28-mile protest march from the La Brea Tar Pits to the Port of Los Angeles. "And your role is to call attention to the plight of everyone in L.A. looking for decent jobs, safe working conditions and fair salaries."

Morales not only encouraged participation in "The Fight for Good Jobs" march. He also urged film and television studios to provide SAG members with a fair contract during negotiations that began this week.

"Most actors have never walked the red carpet and struggle to get by," Morales said as Teamsters handed out coffee before the march.

"We will do whatever it takes to help them earn enough to obtain health care, buy a home and raise a family."

But it may be an uphill march to the Thursday afternoon rally at the San Pedro dock.

"Conditions and salaries for actors today are much worse than they were when Shelley Winters made me join all the unions in 1960," said Sally Kirkland as a Dixieland band played Woody Guthrie tunes.

>JOEL STRATTE-McCLURE/ SPYWITNESS

Photos by Adrian Sanchez - The Perfect Exposure Gallery