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The Writers Guild of America is on strike.
“Although we negotiated with the intention of making a fair deal – and although your vote to strike has given us the leverage to make some profits – given the existential crisis writers are facing, the studios’ responses to our proposals have been woefully inadequate,” the WGA said in a message just sent directly to members. “We must now use maximum leverage to get a fair contract by withholding our manpower,” added the guild leadership. “Members of the negotiating committee, the executive board and the council will be with you on the picket line.”
News of the strike, which takes effect in hours, came late Monday after the guild’s negotiations with the AMPTP failed to reach an agreement on a new film and script-TV deal. It is the WGA’s first strike since the 100-day strike of 2007-08.
Less than an hour after talks with the studios ended and more than three hours before their current deal officially expires, the guild also publicly announced the industrial action:
Following the unanimous recommendation of the WGA Negotiating Committee, the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and the Council of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), by virtue of the powers conferred upon them by their membership, have unanimously voted to call a strike that takes effect at 00:01 on Tuesday 2 May.
The decision came after six weeks of negotiations with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony under the umbrella of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The WGA negotiating committee began this process with the intention of making a fair deal, but the studios’ responses have been woefully inadequate given the existential crisis writers face.
The behavior of the companies has created a gig economy within a unionized workforce, and their unwavering stance in this negotiation has betrayed their commitment to further debase the writing profession. From their refusal to guarantee an episodic television job every week, to creating a “daily rate” in the comedy variety, to their blocking of freelance work for screenwriters and AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their work Kraft and opened the door to writing as a fully freelance profession. Such a deal could never be contemplated by this membership.
Pickets begin tomorrow afternoon.
The guild not only explained the status of a strike tonight, but also said when and where the first was Pickets will take place. With locations like Netflix’s Hollywood offices, CBS TV City near the Grove and the other usual suspects of Disney, Universal and more, the first LA pickets will be set up at 1 p.m. PT.
Coinciding with the first major strike in Tinseltown in 15 years, the WGA has scheduled a 6,000-plus capacity members’ information session for May 3 at the Shrine Auditorium.
Even before that, when the pickets go up tomorrow, late-night shows will be shut down on both coasts, along with writers’ rooms and any big-screen or small-screen projects still fine-tuning or scripting.
The guild began putting up picket signs last week after issuing a long list of “strike rules” prohibiting members from working on strike productions and from selling and pitching scripts during the strike.
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At the start of the talks, the guild had sought a major overhaul of compensation and residual formulas, as well as restrictions on mini-rooms, where groups of writers work to break stories and write screenplays prior to the production of a television series.
RELATED: WGA Strike Picket Location List for Los Angeles & New York
Plagued by low residuals, a lack of streaming data information, job insecurity and more, writers are making less money overall, despite a content boom last year with more shows and more platforms. The low income of most writers is something that neither side really experiences disputes, even if so far they have very different approaches to solving the problem.
The guild also wants better protection for its members’ overpayments, noting that with the advent of streaming, more writers at all levels are working at scale than ever before, including many showrunners.