Unionized film and television writers are on strike Tuesday after a midnight deadline came without a deal with executives of the major producers and streaming giants in Hollywood.
The negotiating committee representing both the East and West Coast branches of the Writers Guild of America said in a statement that the strike would be in effect as of 12:01 am and that members — who voted last month to authorize a strike if one became necessary — would be on the picket line beginning Tuesday afternoon in both Los Angeles and New York.
“Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal — and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains — the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA said in a statement. “The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing.”
“We had hoped to do this through reasonable conversation. Now we will do it through struggle.”
— Writers Guild of America
At issue are pay scales, residual fees, and base employment guarantees from producers for writers working in the era of online streaming and the new distribution models created by giants like Disney, Netflix, Apple, Amazon, NBC Universal, Paramount, Sony, and Discover-Warner — some of the largest and most profitable companies in the entertainment industry — under the umbrella of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
“If they could do without us, they would,” said television writer David Slack, in support of the union. “If they could break us, they would. They can’t. They won’t.”
According to the Los Angeles Times:
Although streaming has been a boon for television, it has upended how writers are compensated. Writers say that they work longer hours for less pay and that they no longer can rely on a steady stream of residual income they used to get in the days of broadcast TV, when successful shows lived on for years in syndicated reruns or the once-lucrative home video market.
The median weekly pay for writer-producers declined 23% over the last decade when adjusting for inflation, according to a WGA survey. When accounting for inflation, screenwriter pay declined 14% in the last five years, the report said.
The WGA said because of the producers’ unwillingness to budge on key demands, “We must now exert the maximum leverage possible to get a fair contract by withholding our labor.”
David Goodman, co-chair of the negotiating committee, told the LA Times that the need for a strike became increasingly evident over recent days of bargaining.
“It was really very clear that the companies were unwilling to move on many of the very important issues we raised,” Goodman said. “They kept wanting us to give up things that we just wanted to talk about and so as a result, we realized that they didn’t want to make a deal.”
The union said the exploitation they suffer as writers is clear to see, but that it will not be tolerated any longer by an industry that disregards the key role they play in creating the shows and movies that audiences pay to enjoy.
“Here is what all writers know: the companies have broken this business,” the WGA committee said. “They have taken so much from the very people, the writers, who have made them wealthy. But what they cannot take from us is each other, our solidarity, our mutual commitment to save ourselves and this profession that we love.”
“We had hoped to do this through reasonable conversation,” the statement continued. “Now we will do it through struggle. For the sake of our present and our future, we have been given no other choice.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy