Update on the Hollywood Strike
On May 2nd 2023, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and its 11,500 members went on strike. On July 14th, Screen Actors Guild (SAG) followed suit. These strikes came after continued denial of residual payments from streaming services and the emergence of AI in the writer’s room, among other issues. As this strike nears the longest writer’s strike in history, that being the 153 day strike in 1988, many have been left to ponder the true depth of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ (AMPTP) greed. Unfortunately, while AMPTP’s refusal to properly compensate the workers who make their industry function may seem absurd, it comes as no surprise. However, before the issues of the AMPTP can be discussed, an understanding of what the writers and actors are striking against is necessary.
Before the advent of streaming services, writers who wrote for a show or movie would receive residuals, which are payments sent for the reuse of a writer’s credited work. This essentially meant that every time an episode a writer worked on aired, they would receive a payment, allowing them a steady stream of income while looking for additional work, along with the initial payment. But, when streaming services began to come about, the rules for residuals were not changed to suit this new era. This meant that as cable tv became more and more obsolete, screenwriting became a gig economy, with many writers barely scraping by and working multiple jobs. These terms went for actors as well, meaning if an up and coming actor gives a performance that takes the show to the Emmys, the only payment they would receive would be the initial one.
Additionally, with the popularization of AI, those in charge subtly pushed to eliminate human writers and actors entirely, as there is no regulation in place to stop them from doing so. The concern on the side of the writers is with chatbots such as chat GPT being used to screenwrite, but this has not been used to great effect yet. On the side of the actors, this new technology had already been used to great effect as production companies began to use actor’s likenesses indefinitely through AI. Both of these technologies would eliminate not just residuals, but the initial payment as well, leading to an artistic industry devoid of artists.
When the WGA saw not just the existing lack of residuals, but the discussions of eliminating human writers entirely, their course of action was clear. On May 1st 2023, they went to AMPTP with a list of demands, linked below. These demands included improvements to the minimum pay requirements, increased residuals from streaming, and the preservation of the writer’s room to combat screenwriting becoming a gig economy. The majority of these demands were either met with flat out rejection or demeaning counter offers, and following this meeting, the WGA saw no other course of action than to strike.
Regarding the SAG-AFTRA strike, it came about following similar pay injustices as the one’s WGA faced, with SAG-AFTRA’s primary goal in striking being “...to ensure our members working in film, television and streaming/new media can continue to earn a professional living with a contract that honors our contributions.” SAG-AFTRA issued a strike authorization vote to their members on June 5th and entered negotiations with AMPTP on June 7th. The demands of SAG-AFTRA included minimum earnings increases, a request to stop the using of an actor’s likeness indefinitely and only paying them half a day’s wage, and increases in residuals from streaming. Both the SAG AFTRA demands list and the AMPTP response use very biased language, but the general idea is that AMPTP fails to grasp that the actors are requesting more than fair monetary compensation. When the AMPTP does address non-financial issues, they use self-serving and vague language. Following these negotiations with the AMPTP, SAG AFTRA went on strike on July 17th 2023.
Focusing back on the present, WGA and SAG AFTRA have remained unwavering in their demands, and AMPTP has not returned to negotiate since WGA’s and SAG AFTRA’s respective negotiation dates. Many members of AMPTP have stated their thoughts on the strike, and one of the most abhorrent s came from an anonymous studio executive who reported to deadline that “The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” In the same article, deadline wrote that AMPTP was not even considering coming back to the table until late October. When looking at the press release from AMPTP and their willing admissions of greed to Deadline, along with numerous other examples which have not been included in this article, it is clear that the members of AMPTP value their own profits more than the well being of their workers and the success of their industry.
Is this a revolutionary discovery? No, of course not. However, the unashamed expression of the AMPTP’s cruelty is something that should not be ignored, and it highlights the dated attitudes of executive leadership in the present day. A new age is coming about, one where the denial of worker’s value will not be tolerated.