Hollywood writers just announced they are going on strike
Blockbuster news from Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced late tonight that they are going on strike.
After negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) fell through, the union said they would protest tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT.
The administration of the @WGAwest and the Council of the @WGAeastacting on the authority granted to them by their memberships, have unanimously voted to declare a strike, effective Tuesday, May 2 at 12:01 am.
— Writers Guild of America West (@WGAWest) May 2, 2023
“While we negotiated with the intention of getting a fair deal – and while your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some profit – the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly inadequate given the existential crisis writers face,” said the WGA in a message to members.
The announcement came three hours before their new movie and script TV contract officially expired. The last WGA strike was in 2007-2008. It took 100 days. More than 11,000 TV and movie writers are expected to leave their jobs.
What the WGA wants
The Writer’s Guild is asking for several changes to their new contract, including:
- Increase fees for streaming and new media.
- Termination of the practice of mini roomssmaller writing rooms where a showrunner and a limited group of writers develop scripts for a minimal fee.
- Increasing contributions to health and retirement benefits
- More control over the writers’ work
With the advent of streaming services, the writers say they need a contract that is in line with the changing times.
“Writers at every level and genre, be it feature films or TV, we are all being devalued and financially abused by the studios,” said Danny Tolli, a writer whose credits include “Roswell, New Mexico“and the Shondaland Show”The catch” told The New York Times. “These studios make billions in profits and they spend billions on content – content we create with our blood, sweat and tears.”
— Nick Mandernach (@ManderNick) May 2, 2023
The studios are pushing back
AMPTP, which represents studios and streamers such as Amazon, Apple, CBS, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Global, Sony and Warner Bros Discovery, said in a statement that it was offering an “expanded package proposition.” According to the Hollywood reporterthe bottlenecks included the guild’s proposals regarding minimum numbers of writing staff and a minimum number of working hours.
The strike has sparked a frenzied battle in Hollywood.
“Across the city, last-minute agents and producers are scrambling to get deals done before midnight, so in some cases some writers could get one last paycheck, we hear,” wrote deadline.
To date, it’s hard to know which shows and productions will be affected by a WGA strike, but the powerful Teamsters union has stated their members “do not cross the picket lines”.
Talk shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will not record any new episodes as of Tuesday night.
