Hollywood writers are putting down their pens and grabbing signs. After weeks of negotiating new contracts with Hollywood’s biggest studios, the Writers Guild of America said on Monday that it had failed to reach a new deal. Now, for the first time in 15 years, nearly 12,000 scribes plan to strike on Tuesday in a strike that threatens to shut down Hollywood.
“The WGA Negotiating Committee started this process with the aim of creating a fair deal, but the studio’s response was completely inadequate as the authors were facing an existential crisis.” WGA said in a statement shared with Vanity Fair. “The behavior of the companies that created a gig economy within the union workforce and their unwavering stance in this negotiation betrayed their commitment to continue to lower prices. value of writing.”
The WGA urged its members to begin picking on Tuesday afternoon.
The WGA spent six weeks negotiating with the Television and Film Producers Alliance — which negotiates on behalf of 100-year-old studios like Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, as well as streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Studios. The association said in the statement that studios would not meet certain requirements, including weekly job guarantees for TV writers or protections against AI intrusion. . The studios “closed the door to their workforce and opened the door to writing as a completely freelance profession,” the association said. No such agreement may be contemplated by this membership.
The WGA’s contract renegotiation process has been complicated by the difficult economic situation for the studios, which have slashed budgets and laid off thousands of employees as they face pressure from Wall Street over the past year. turning their streaming services into a profitable business. AMPTP said in a statement that it “presented a comprehensive package proposal to the Association last night, including generous increases for writers as well as improvements to residual streaming. AMPTP also indicated to the WGA that it was willing to improve that proposal, but was unwilling to do so because of the importance of other proposals still on the table, which the Association continued to insist. It added that its main sticking points were “The association’s proposals would require a company to staff a program with a certain number of writers for a certain period of time, whether need it or not.”
The group continued, “The AMPTP member companies remain united in their desire to reach an agreement that benefits writers as well as the health and longevity of the industry, while avoiding hardship for the thousands of employees who depend on industry for a living. . AMPTP stands ready to engage in discussions with the WGA in an effort to break this deadlock.”
Conversations with Hollywood sources in the weeks after negotiations began showed that no one wanted to strike. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO. david zaslav and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos both voiced support for a deal with the writers, but worries about possible layoffs as contract expiration date draws closer with little indication the teams are nearing a deal agree. On April 17, the WGA announced that 98% of its members voted to allow a strike if a new contract is not signed by midnight on Monday.
This will be the writers’ first layoff since late 2007, when they went on strike for 100 days over cuts to the studio’s digital sales, among other issues. The strike led to years of bitterness between the two groups. Although the writers won important concessions, they also lost jobs and lucrative studio contracts. Meanwhile, manufacturing was delayed and the LA economy suffered.
The upcoming strike could be similarly devastating, depending on how long it lasts. (The longest strike on record was in 1988, when the strike lasted 153 days.) Sources indicate that there was little incentive from either side to prolong the upcoming strike for months. . But whatever its length, it will have an immediate impact on the day-to-day business in Hollywood. Writers will not be able to recommend new projects or work on existing ones. Late night shows will be the first evening shows, because they are usually written just hours before they are taped. Broadcasts like Abbott Elementary School—which was scheduled to start the writers room for a third season this week — may also be delayed with a return to airing this fall.
