NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood film and television writers declared Monday night that they will begin an industry-wide strike for the first time in 15 years. The strike could have potentially widespread ramifications in a fight for fair wages in the streaming age.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) said its 11,500 members will begin the walkout on Tuesday. Negotiations between the studios and the writers, which began in March, failed to reach a new contract before the writers’ current agreement expired shortly after midnight, at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday. All screenwriting will cease immediately, the guild informed its members.
The WGA’s board of directors, which includes both a Western and an Eastern branch, voted unanimously to call a strike, starting at midnight. The writers, they said, are facing an “existential crisis.”
“The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy within a union workforce, and their steadfast stance in this bargain has betrayed a commitment and further devalued the profession of screenwriting,” the WGA said in a statement. “They have closed the door on their workforce and opened the door on writing as a completely independent profession. The members of this union could never contemplate such an agreement.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade association that negotiates on behalf of studios and production companies, said late Monday that negotiations had failed to reach an agreement before it expired. the current contract. The AMPTP said it submitted an offer with “generous increases in writers’ compensation, as well as improvements in streaming royalties.”
In a statement, the AMPTP said it was prepared to improve its offer “but was not willing to do so due to the magnitude of other proposals that are still on the table and on which the union continues to insist.”
The labor dispute could have a cascading effect on film and television productions depending on how long the strike lasts. But a shutdown has been widely predicted for months due to the extent of the contention. Last month, writers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, with the support of 98% of their members.
At issue is how screenwriters are compensated in an industry where streaming has changed the rules of the Hollywood economy. Writers say they’re not being paid enough, TV writers’ rooms have shrunk too much, and the old calculus of how royalties are paid needs to be redrawn.
“The survival of our profession is at stake,” the union said.
Streaming has multiplied the number of series and movies made each year, which means more jobs for screenwriters. But WGA members say they earn far less and work under more tense conditions. Producers of streaming series receive just 46% of the pay that producers of broadcast series receive, says the WGA. The content is booming, but the pay is down.
The union seeking more compensation at the beginning of the agreements. Many of the payments that scriptwriters have historically benefited from, such as reruns and international licences, have largely been eliminated in the streaming era. More screenwriters, about half, receive minimal fees, and they’ve seen a 16% increase over the past decade. The use of so-called mini writers rooms has skyrocketed.
The AMPTP said on Monday that the main sticking points for an eventual agreement revolved around those mini-rooms (the union seeks a minimum number of writers per room) and the length of employment restrictions. The Guild has said more flexibility is needed for writers when hired for series that have tended to be more limited and short-lived than the once-standard 20-episode broadcast season.
At the same time, the studios are under increased pressure from Wall Street financiers to profit from their streaming services. Many studios and production companies that negotiate, like the AMPTP, are cutting costs. The Walt Disney Co. will cut 7,000 jobs. Warner Bros. Discovery will cut costs to reduce its debt. Netflix has started spending less to keep growing.
The most immediate effect of the strike that viewers are likely to notice will be on late-night shows and “Saturday Night Live.” Everyone is expected to stop immediately. During the 2007 strike, late-night hosts ended up coming back on the air improvising material. Jay Leno wrote his own monologues for him, a move that angered union leaders.
2023-05-02 06:33:31
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