Striking building workers raise their fists in salute during a rally in the Bois de Vincennes, … [+]
Streaming services have stripped writers of their ability to make a living in television, and the Writers Guild of America is prepared to strike.
Hollywood writers voted on Monday to authorize a strike, which grants the WGA the ability to call a strike if it can’t reach a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers by May 1.
“Writers are not keeping up,” the WGA said in a recent statement. “The companies have leveraged the streaming transition to underpay writers, creating more precarious, lower-paid models for writers’ work.” The AMPTP responded that, “the AMPTP is fully committed to reaching a fair and reasonable deal that brings strength and stability to the industry.”
What a Possible Strike Means For Guild Members
As any freelancer knows, it’s stressful enough to not know when your next job is coming—and WGA members have felt the effects of a changing landscape.
In the last 10 years, the proportion of TV series writers working at minimum wages has increased from 33% in 2011 to 49% in 2021. Over the last decade, the WGA argues, median writer pay has declined by 4%—or 23% when adjusted for inflation.
“There are fewer jobs now, giving even more power to producers and studios,” says Tom Vaughan, a feature writer who details his support for the WGA in this Twitter thread. “When I first entered the business, studios developed and packaged projects with producers. Those days seem to be over. Buyers want that done before they even see a script.”
Vaughan also explained that new revenue streams don’t compensate writers as well as the old ones did, citing a straight-to-DVD movie he wrote in 2006 whose residuals would exceed a blockbuster today. “That’s not sustainable for anyone but the most successful of writers,” Vaughan added.
Other writers echoed Vaughan’s sentiment—particularly on the issue of compensation for residuals. “I don’t think anyone wants to strike, everyone would rather be working, but there are too many issues to figure out,” says Dan Perlman, co-creator of Showtime’s Flatbush Misdemeanors.“I hope that the lack of transparency with residuals is addressed. Writers and producers don’t have access to figures of how their own shows and work are doing, because streamers don’t release the viewerships for their shows.”
What The WGA Is Asking For
The WGA represents writers in the entertainment industry, including those who work as staff writers, independent writers, and freelancers. The union negotiates contracts on behalf of its members with film and television studios, networks, and independent producers, ensuring fair compensation—which, many say, writers these days aren’t getting.
“I thought that once I broke in and got my first staff writing job, I would be able to get more work and embark on a sustainable career,” says Liz Magee, a WGA member and television writer. “That was how it worked, but the streaming landscape has changed everything about TV. The guild is fighting for a deal that allows writers to be paid how they’ve been paid and treated in the past: fairly.”
So now, the WGA is asking for a number of improvements, including increased compensation, residuals from features, more contributions to pension and health funds, and no more mini-rooms, a practice in which a very small number of writers work on a few episodes before a show has been picked up, which grants the studios the right to pay them less. And many writers support these changes.
“Because of tactics like mini rooms and a massive trend in title repetition (not getting promoted when qualified), younger writers like me can’t get consistent work,” says Magee. “I hope that by demanding better contracts, deals, and more reasonable residual payments from huge corporations that profit directly from writers’ work, it’ll better the industry overall.”
The Strike Timeline
So what does this mean for the rest of us? Am I about to lose access to new episodes of Succession? I’d literally rather go without floss, although maybe that says something more about me. Jokes aside, the last time Hollywood writers went on strike in 2007, it lasted 100 days and cost Los Angeles about $2.1 billion.
We don’t need to panic yet, though. The AMPTP has until May 1st to come to a deal with the WGA—that’s when its existing contract expires. This vote was just to authorize a strike, not to go on it. Hollywood studios have been preparing for a strike by stockpiling scripts and planning reality TV shows which—to my great shock—don’t use writers.
How do guild members feel about the timeline? “I’m optimistic they’ll come to a new deal sooner or later,” says Perlman. “The last one lasted three months, so that’s what I’ve been mentally prepping for.”
Others expressed similar sentiments. “My hope is that the AMPTP wants to avoid a strike and is willing to give professional writers the appropriate pay for the content they create for them,” says Vaughan. “However, I suspect that only a prolonged strike will make it painful enough for them to do that.”
It’s impossible to know whether an agreement will be reached before May 1st, but this I know for sure—if Netflix’s Sunday night Love Is Blind debacle is any indication, I don’t think we should be counting on reality TV to get us through. We need scripted television and features.
