When film was first developing, before sound was in movies, writers were creating scenes more than writing stories. The story was given to the writers and the writers would create a list of shots and make schedules. These stories were rarely original with a very small script, if at all, so nobody cared about who owned the work or had copyright. As movies became more advanced, with dialogue and longer run times, people cared about new stories more and wanted ownership, so in 1933, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) was founded. This is a labor union to protect writers from unfair wages, to standardize contracts, and to promote fairness for writers.
The development of the movie industry also led to the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or the AMPTP. The AMPTP is the trade association that negotiates guild and union contracts for most of the industry. Some of the companies that make up the AMPTP are Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, Netflix, and hundreds more. With the success of streaming services, it has completely changed how writers get paid and their schedules. Because of this, writers work for longer periods of time for less pay. They can’t even rely on the steady residuals (long term payments) that they had once gotten from broadcast TV because the shows can’t rerun and users have unlimited access to titles under streaming services and shows aren’t paid for individually. This led to writers’ median pay declining by 23% over the last ten years.
Earlier this year, the WGA held a vote between its members to see how fair their wages are, and 99% of votes had shown that they do not believe that they are being treated fairly. The votes showed that the writers wanted better compensation, better residuals, staffing requirements, protection from AI job interference, and other protections for job fairness. On March 20, 2023, the WGA and the AMPTP started to negotiate terms to satisfy the writers’ demands, but negotiations were stalling. By May 1st, the WGA and AMPTP still are not able to agree on the deal on the set deadline. This started off the WGA strike, which had a 97.9% approval rate of the writers, with many actors advocating in favor of the strike, like Adam Sandler.
On May 2nd, the day after the strike had officially started, many late night shows were shut down temporarily, like Jimmy Kimmel Live! Eventually, an anonymous executive from the AMPTP had said, “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” AMPTP has denied this statement, but the strike has continued for 7 months now without an end in sight. Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, even stated that the demands of the WGA were way too unreasonable. For comparison, Elemental made 484.2 million dollars worldwide and cost 200 million dollars to make. If you add in the marketing budget, which is around 100 million, then Elemental made Disney around 284.2-184.2 million dollars in revenue. It seems that all of these companies share this same sentiment, as on August 4th, the WGA, again, negotiated with studios, but failed to reach a deal. Representatives of WGA say that AMPTP was willing to negotiate writer-specific TV minimums and AI, but wasn’t willing to negotiate with any other demands. The writers’ strike is still ongoing to this day, but AMPTP has shown that they will try to stall as long as possible to force the writers to come back to them.
Some shows that the writers’ strike has affected the release dates are The Last of Us season 2, the final season of Kobra Kai, the final season of Stranger Things, and tons of other shows have been delayed or canceled. California alone has reported over 3 BILLION dollars in losses and it’s estimated that they are losing 30 million dollars daily. Currently, there are about 11,500 Hollywood writers on strike, and 160,000 actors on strike as well. One problem with the demands, is that they want a minimum of 6-12 writers on these shows and this number will vary depending on how big the show is. This is my only problem with the strike because I prefer quality over quantity, and having too many writers for a show that doesn’t need it can cause it to be watered down or just worse. Overall, it is disgusting that corporations can openly plan about letting their writers lose their homes, so they don’t have to pay them fairly. I hope that the writers’ strike will end soon and with the writers coming out on top, getting the pay that they need.
Sources:
https://www.coverfly.com/the-history-of-the-wga/
https://hiddenremote.com/2023/08/14/is-the-writers-strike-still-going-on-updates-on-the-wga-strike/
Questions:
When do you think the strike will stop?
Do you think the strike will be successful?
Do you agree or disagree with the strike?
Replies
I think the strike will most likely go in favor of writers. Because, if we look threw history, when a strike happned it almost if not always went in favor of the reason. So i have a feeling this won't be any different.
I agree with you that the writers will most likely be successful in the strike because of past strikes that show how businesses need their workers. However, the companies seem like they will stall negotiations until the writers can't pay their bills and need their job back, but I hope that the writers will get their deal before that.
I think the strike will keep going for awhile. I think the strike will somewhat make an impact but wont get everything they want out of it. Tons of writers dont get paid enough for their time and dedication that goes into their work. I strongly agree with the writers deserving more money therefore I agree with the strike.
I agree with everything you said. I think that the strike will go on for a long time and that they will probably forced to have worse terms than they are looking for. I also think that the writers need more money than they were getting.
I do not think the writers strike will stop, not anytime soon. The strike will be partly successful, but they wont achieve everything they want to. Many writers do not get paid enough for the time they put into their work. I agree with the strike, the writers deserve more money.
I agree that the strike will be drawn out and that they will need to accept terms that they don't necessarily like or agree with, but I hope that they will get the money they deserve at the end of the strike.
I think that this strike will last at least until next year, even though I really hope it doesn't. The strike is going to be successful. Eventually, between the writers, actors, and the public, these companies are going to have to start giving in. Maybe not all demands will be met, but I think that higher wages would be a good start.
I also think this will go on for a while. Many writers out their think that they arn't getting paid enough wich is somewhat true. I think that they may need to go riate or make their message clear that they need paid more.
I agree that they aren't getting paid enough compared to how much the companies make from the shows and movies; however, I don't think that rioting is a good option because small businesses could be put in the crossfire and violence isn't the best option.
I think the strike will take a while to stop. I think that the strike might stop this winter to next spring because the writers will eventually give up and accept a compromise. I agree with the stike because people should fight for what they want and try to get paid more.
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