Carol Lombardini: CEO Shame Eater

Carol Ann Lombardini was born in 1954 in Framingham, Massachusetts, daughter of Harry O. and Sarah (nee Scarano) Lombardini. Her older brother, John R., may still live in her childhood home in Framingham. Her sister, Jean K., the oldest of the 3, may live not too far away in Ashland, MA.

At 23, her father Harry was likely a brickmason helper making $700 a year (about $15K in 2023 dollars) working 40 hours a week, and he had likely graduated high school by then. It’s conceivable Harry was a union member of The International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers (BAC) local 3 for much of his career.

Carol Lombardini got her college degree from University of Chicago in 1976 and then her law degree from Stanford University in 1979.

From 1979 to 1980, Carol Lombardini worked as an associate lawyer at Meserve, Mumper & Hughes in Los Angeles, then as an associate lawyer again at Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn in Los Angeles from 1980 to 1982.

She married William L. Cole, on April 23, 1983. He’s a lawyer who has spent most of his career working on the employer side of employment and labor disputes. Their children are Kevin Daniel and Kristin Elizabeth.

Some say she likes hiking and cooking.

Then in 1982, Carol Lombardini began working at the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association tasked with negotiating virtually all industry-wide guild and union contracts on behalf of employers, and she is now their president and lead negotiator.

She seems to have had an aunt named Ultima Martell, and an uncle named Terzo “Tass” A. Lombardini. He passed away about 10 years ago. Her uncle was the husband of Madeline (nee Scarano). It’s possible Madeline was her mother’s sister, maybe making Madeline a sort of double aunt by both blood and marriage. Her uncle served in World War II in the US Army and then was the founder of Braclo Concrete as co-owner in 1947 in Bedford, MA, working there until retiring from that company in 1983.

1983 was the year after she started working at an organization that negotiates with unions, and was the year she married a labor law attorney who represents companies. Unrelated: in the 1980s, the mob started facing Federal Government resistance, especially on the East Coast, to the mob’s involvement in the building and construction industries, and with unions.

What makes the youngest child of possibly a union brickmason who worked construction, with an uncle in the concrete business, decide to spend almost her entire career working to compromise unions on the other side of the country from where her father raised her while he probably supported her and her family with a good, safe and fair paying union job?

The rogue’s gallery of CEOs, the chief executive officers of the biggest and most influential of the AMPTP companies, try to outsource their labor negotiating because they likely hope to remain unsullied and unburdened by even speaking with their own employees about a living wage, career protections or workplace safety. The AMPTP, at the CEOs’ direction, has given the actors’ and writers’ unions the silent treatment for over 100 days during the strikes, so far.

The CEOs of the 8 companies that constitute the AMPTP’s “Class A” members, calling the shots during negotiations are:

1. Disney CEO Bob Iger
2. NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman and Chief Content Officer Donna Langley
3. Paramount CEO Brian Robbins
4. Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida
5. Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters
6. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
7. Apple CEO Tim Cook
8. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav

During contract negotiations in 2023, these CEOs have:

• cut back trees to deny their employees shade to avoid sunstroke while picketing,
• broken up sidewalks in an apparent attempt to lead their own employees to be killed in traffic,
• and apparently, without allowing their names to be used, the CEOs said they hope writers will start losing their houses and apartments before the CEOs will negotiate a new contract with their own employees upon which their companies depend.

It is Carol Lombardini who the CEOs task with denying the people who make film and TV, to their faces, the base pay that would allow them to afford shelter to live in and food to eat. And Carol Lombardini does it, and has done it, for decades now.

Carol Lombardini seems to encourage all of this, in addition to the months of silence; there’s not a single word from Carol Lombardini decrying such things, and there’s no indication these weren’t actually her ideas to begin with. What sadness and loss prompts someone to dedicate their life to doing what Carol Ann Lombardini has done and continues to do? With so much silence, we may never know.

© Copyright September 23, 2023, David August, all rights reserved davidaugust.com

David August is an award-winning actor, acting coach, writer, director, and producer. He plays a role in the movie Dependent’s Day, and after its theatrical run, it’s now out on Amazon (affiliate link). He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, on the TV show Ghost Town, and many others. His artwork has been used and featured by multiple writers, filmmakers, theatre practitioners, and others to express visually. Off-screen, he has worked at ad agencies, start-ups, production companies, and major studios, helping them tell stories their customers and clients adore. He has guest lectured at USC’s Marshall School of Business about the Internet.