I need someone to dumb down the writers strike for me. And then tell me what we can do to end for the people who are being shafted.
This is a tad long, but potentially worth a read if you want to know the basics of the strikes:
The Writers Guild of America (WGA), which represents film and TV writers; and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which represents actors, negotiate new contracts with the studios, under the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), every 3 years. You can read more about the background behind the strike here: https://www.wgacontract2023.org/announcements/wga-on-strike
There were supposed to be contract negotiations in 2020, but due to the pandemic already adding a variety of stressors to the industry, it was decided to hold off on the negotiation until the next date. That brings us to three years later. The unions are now on strike because the studios REFUSED to negotiate basic, reasonable requests.
The WGA went first in the contract negotiations, and when they concluded without an agreement, the writers went on strike starting May 2. Following the breakdown of negotiations, the WGA’s negotiating committee clearly communicated its demands and the AMPTP’s meager responses. You can read them in their entirety here: https://twitter.com/adamconover/status/1653272585252257793
There are a lot of issues at stake in the WGA’s negotiations, but central to the strike is the fact that the studios have been routinely underpaying, understaffing, and exploiting working writers. The WGA’s demands are reasonable. Writers want payment commensurate to the obvious value they provide to studios via the shows and films they write, but wages are going down even while inflation is going up. Writers want sufficient time and minimum staffing numbers in writers’ rooms in order to have the capacity to create good TV, but the studios are severely shortening the duration of writers’ rooms and slashing staffing numbers at every turn. Writers want protection from being replaced by AI-generated scripts, but the studios refused to set even paltry, reasonable limits on AI.
Contrary to studio propaganda, many hardworking, award-winning writers are living at poverty levels and cannot even afford rent in Los Angeles. Many work multiple gig jobs to get by. FX’s award-winning TV show “The Bear” is a phenomenal, much-beloved, popular show, and yet when one of its writing staff, Alex O’Keefe, attended the WGA awards show and won an award for Best Comedy Series, his bank account was in the negative.
Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and so on only offer a single flat rate to writers. They do not offer any bonuses to shows that do incredibly well and gain worldwide reach; they hoard the value these shows create. Even when The Bear, or a show like Stranger Things, explodes across the globe and wins multiple awards and is viewed by millions of people, the writers receive the same exact pay rate as a lower-performing show. That’s unacceptable. You can read Alex O’Keefe’s story here: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-bear-writer-wga...
While all this is happening, CEOs are receiving record pay. Warner Bros./Discovery CEO David Zaslav was paid $246.6 million in 2021. Reed Hastings (Netflix) was paid $51.1 million in 2022. And so on. You can view info on executive salaries here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/.../hollywood-ceo-2022.../
After the WGA negotiations concluded without a deal, the Directors’ Guild of America (DGA) negotiated and reached a deal with the AMPTP. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. It doesn’t sufficiently limit AI and it doesn’t increase wages to even match inflation. Read more about the DGA deal here: https://www.indiewire.com/.../dga-deal-ai-terms.../
After the DGA reached an agreement, SAG-AFTRA (the actors’ guild) began negotiations with the AMPTP. On July 14, the actors went on strike too—because the AMPTP counteroffers were frankly insulting.
Studios refused to consider increasing the penalty for paying union members late, a major issue that means working actors are often dipping into savings or going into the negative even when they have a steady job. Studios refused to increase the penalty for not allowing sufficient rest for actors, which leads to many workplace injuries. Studios want to replace actors with digitally scanned likenesses, which could lead to the end of acting as a profession. Studios also refused to negotiate about guaranteed lunch breaks, even though film shoots often have 12 to 15 hour days and need guaranteed breaks.
Studios aren’t going to increase health benefits even though they haven’t been updated in years; to acknowledge performance capture as a SAG-AFTRA category of work and therefore give it union protections; to include stunt coordinators in residual payments; and many more completely reasonable demands. Frankly, it seems like the AMPTP was never negotiating in good faith.
You can watch SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher’s (The Nanny) excellent strike announcement speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4SAPOX7R5M
If you’re interested in reading the complete SAG-AFTRA demands and AMPTP counteroffers, they’re available here: https://www.sagaftra.org/.../SAG-AFTRA_Negotiations...
SAG-AFTRA members generally aren’t millionaires. They’re not, for the most part, celebrities. Around 2% of union membership are people you might recognize from their movies or shows, and they’re on the picket lines too in order to support their fellow union members who don’t have big names. Most SAG-AFTRA members are working-class artists trying to make a living in expensive cities like Los Angeles and New York, juggling multiple other gig jobs just to afford rent.
WGA member John Rogers, who wrote the Leverage and Librarians TV shows, recently posted on Twitter: “The earnings cutoff for SAG-AFTRA to qualify for health insurance is about $26,000 a year. 87% of the union does not qualify.” That too is unacceptable. Source: https://twitter.com/jonrog1/status/1679892719504887809
We’ve covered a lot of ground. Now let’s talk strike strategy. There’s currently no call for a consumer boycott from the WGA or SAG-AFTRA. Source: https://twitter.com/adamconover/status/1680356548131057664 Therefore, audiences can keep up their normal viewing habits if they want (though if you'd like to cancel your accounts in solidarity, be sure to note that you're doing so to support the unions!)
Rather, the strategy is that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are withholding their labor, so that there will be no new movies or TV shows coming out of Hollywood. There are of course films and shows completed before the strike that will still be releasing in the next few months, and there are many international productions that are not covered under the WGA or SAG-AFTRA. But the Hollywood content pipeline will dry up and Wall Street investors might start getting nervous.
Since there’s no call for a consumer boycott, watching stuff isn’t crossing the picket line. Go to theaters and watch movies and shows—it demonstrates again how valuable the work of writers and actors are to us. But if you're an actor, don’t send audition tapes to any struck company, and if you’re a social media influencer, don’t accept any paid promotional/advertising work for the struck companies (studios) for the duration of the strike. Fanfiction and fanart are fine if you're not doing it as a paid promotion. You can read more about the guidelines here: https://variety.com/.../sag-strike-faq-rules-explainer.../
If you’re able, you can donate to the Entertainment Community Fund: https://entertainmentcommunity.org/ which will help crew and support staff whose livelihoods are affected by the work stoppage. There’s also the Green Envelope Grocery Fund https://twitter.com/msjoellegarf/status/1671937601908129792 which gives out mutual aid for groceries directly to those affected by the strikes.
Please also vocally support the strike and correct any misinformation around you. Actors and writers aren’t asking for the moon. In light of studio CEOs receiving $50+ million salaries a year (and the numbers are only going up), it’s eminently reasonable for writers and actors to demand an end to exploitative labor practices and the protection of the future of their art form.
Tl;dr (Too long, didn’t read?) -> Actors and writers in Hollywood are on strike because studios are killing the movie and television industry. It’s not an issue of celebrities wanting more money. It’s about preserving the future of the arts & entertainment industry, period. Please support the strike if you're able.
