O current contract expired at 00:00 today and the Writers Guild of America has declared the start of the strike, which has no end date and could result in disastrous consequences in an industry that is going through a difficult time.
The union obtained 97.85% of members’ support for the strike and declared its intention to “exercise the maximum leverage possible” in order to obtain a contract that it considers fair, through the complete cessation of work of its members.
To understand what led the writers to the first strike in 15 years, here are some questions and answers about their demands:
What are the immediate effects of the strike?
The suspension of work for thousands of screenwriters working in Hollywood will have immediate effects on productions, starting with nighttime variety shows such as “Late Night” and “Saturday Night Live”.
The impact will take longer to be felt in the series and films, but if the strike takes months it will affect productions during the summer and, as such, cause chaos in the programming plans in the ‘rentrée’.
Studios and streaming companies will be able to use international content to fill gaps caused by the writers’ strike in the United States.
How did the two parties get here?
The Writers Guild of America, which is actually the union of the West (WGAW) and the East (WGAE) union, has spent the last six months negotiating new working conditions with the studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television. Producers (AMPTP): Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony.
The negotiations, which covered screenwriters working in films, television series, variety shows and other formats, failed at a time when the union considers that ‘streaming’ business models have worsened wages and working conditions.
The central issue is how screenwriters are compensated in this era of the Hollywood industry, transformed by streaming and home cinema. The union says they are not paid enough and work more because the teams have been reduced. For example, a ‘showrunner’ on a ‘streaming’ series is paid less than half as much as a ‘showrunner’ on a linear television channel and old forms of compensation, such as residual payments for international content licensing, have all but disappeared with ‘streaming’ .
What are the union requirements?
The WGA’s intention is to obtain “a new contract with fair pay” that reflects the value of writers’ contributions to the companies’ success and includes protections “to ensure the survival of writing as a sustainable profession.”
The union wants an increase in writers’ compensation and a new formula for calculating residual pay, accusing studios and streaming companies of having created “an odd job economy” within a unionized workforce.
The requested increase package comes close to 600 million dollars (546.2 million euros). “What is at stake is the survival of our profession”, said the union.
What do the studios offer in return?
AMPTP says it has offered a new contract with “generous increases” in compensation for screenwriters and residual payments relating to streaming.
It also said it was prepared to improve the offer, but it was impossible to move forward due to “the magnitude of the other proposals on the table that the union continues to insist on”.
The studios, which are under pressure from Wall Street to show profits, have undergone multiple restructurings and layoffs in recent months. Disney has cut more than 7,000 jobs, Netflix has cut the budget and introduced an ad-supported version, and Warner Bros-Discovery is aggressively cutting costs.
What happened in previous strikes?
The last strike took place in 2007 and lasted 100 days, or just over three months, generating a loss of around 2.1 billion dollars (1.91 billion euros).
Thousands of industry professionals lost their jobs during that time and the effects lasted, with major productions affected. The James Bond film “Quantum of Solace” was one of them, with protagonist Daniel Craig trying to rewrite scenes in a skeletal script and unable to hire writers.
The previous strike was in 1988 and lasted 153 days, or about five months. Television ratings dropped 4.6% during that period and damage was estimated at $500 million at the time. That shutdown also spawned the reality TV phenomenon, with “Cops” on Fox and “Unsolved Mysteries” on NBC starting as a result of what happened.
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