Hollywood was frozen in its tracks starting in May when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike. The WGA had a host of issues with which they were significantly concerned, and after a failure to find a solid compromise, the WGA started striking in May. They were later joined by other workers in the industry including makeup artists, camera operators, other behind the scene workers, and even SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union. The strike technically came to a close on Wednesday, September 27 after an initial deal was made between WGA leadership and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
The origins of the strike date back several years. Mounting concerns over lack of pay, long hours, residuals, and lack of credit have contributed to discontent among writers. However, when the issue of ChatGPT, and the possibility that it would replace writers, was added to this list, the WGA felt it had no choice but to go on strike.
The central financial issue at stake here is the concept of residuals. Residuals are effectively royalties for TV shows and movies. Writers get an initial paycheck when working on a show, but each time these shows and movies are rerun they receive an additional check. When the era of on-demand streaming began, residuals dried up as audiences moved from watching on cable to watching on Netflix, HBO, or Disney+ where reruns didn’t weren’t counted as highly when it came to residual payout.
On top of the residual issue, and lack of pay raises, writers consistently considered themselves overworked. It has become more common practice in recent years to attempt to cut costs by reducing the number of writers for each show, meaning that each writer has to pick up the slack to ensure quality TV is still being produced.
A full list of what the WGA won can be found on its website. The biggest points are increased pay, increased residuals for streaming and airing in foreign countries, the banning of AI-writing software to replace writers, and increased minimum writing staffs. All this together will be an estimated 223 million dollar per year increase in value for writers. The value does fall short of the estimated 429 million dollars that initial demands would have covered, but when compared to what the AMPTP was willing to offer before the strike—a total of some 86 million dollars—five months of striking did make a major difference.
However impressive this deal is, it is not finalized. Between October 2 and 9, the entirety of the WGA votes on whether the deal is enough, and if the vote doesn’t go in the agreement’s favor, then writers will return to the picket line. Most analysts agree that this isn’t likely, as most writers got much of what they wanted and wouldn’t risk a worse deal down the road.
Although the WGA may be back at work, Hollywood troubles still aren’t over as the SAG-AFTRA is still on strike. SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA strike in mid-July, and is looking to receive similar compensation from the producers guild. Nevertheless it is believed that the SAG-AFTRA strike will end sooner rather than later. Consistently throughout the history of Hollywood labor, the biggest union wins have been when the WGA and actors union strike together. In those cases, the WGA tends to be the first to come to a settlement and that agreement is the basis for the deal between the producers and the rest of the industry. This means that although we might not see blockbuster movies like Dune: Part Two be brought back to their original release dates, it is very unlikely that they’ll be pushed even further back.
