WGA rep explains the Hollywood writers strike

Hollywood writers represented by the Writers Guild of America, East, and the Writers Guild of America, West, are on strike for the first time since 2007-08. As Alex Press writes in Jacobin, "The WGA (West and East) called the strike just before midnight on May 1, with its leadership unanimously voting for a work stoppage after six weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over a new three-year contract that covers some 11,500 film and television writers. Announcing its decision, the union said that the bargaining table responses of the AMPTP, which consists of Amazon, Apple, Discovery-Warner, Disney, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount, and Sony, had 'been wholly insufficient given the existential crisis writers are facing.'" Even though overall production budgets have risen in the past decade, writer pay has declined, and the rise of streaming services has translated to lower residuals for writers, shorter paid work periods and more precarious employment, etc., with studios even threatening to replace more essential creative labor with AI software.

In this mini-cast, we speak about what led to the writers' strike, and get an update from the picket line, with Sasha Stewart, a WGA-East council member and Writers Guild Award nominated TV writer, producer, and creator. With a background in improv and sketch comedy, Sasha has written for, among other productions, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (Comedy Central) and The Fix with Jimmy Carr (Netflix), and she contributes to McSweeney's and The New Yorker. She was also the Head Writer on the YA political thriller podcast Daughters of DC (iHeartRadio).

Post-Production: Jules Taylor

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[terryrobinson]

I hope the strike last for years. The people of America need a break.

[Rockstar]

So only fans and YouTube have figured out how to pay content creators but Netflix can’t?

[theendgamefl]

Interview starts at minute "8:18" with eight questions! I'm gone! You can pay my time to make me hear this further.

[billyb]

According to Thomas Lennon you cannot invest in what you write in Hollywood because you'll just get fired and replaced by another writer. You just a guy that wrote night at the Smithsonian among other films

[louislamboley]

Not a problem, the local middle school has plenty of replacements to write stories that a ten year old comprehends.

[MonsieurDrobot]

PATHETIC WASTE OF TIME!!!! THESE WRITERS SHOULD BE ARRESTED AND TAKEN OFF THE STREETS!!!!

[RyanRoemer]

Those ungrateful writers going on a pointless strike deserve to be in jail for bullying Jenna Ortega

[billyb]

Aren't they striking that there are still white guys in leading roles in New shows coming out?

[terrancecloverfield]

Id care more if woke Hollywood actually produced good content. Replace them all with AI I say.

[billyb]

I'm an ayatzee worker and it's costing me 10s of thousands of dollars Or the writers to go on strike. I hope they get what they want but I think these studios are just going to penny pinch themselves I to an early grave.

[thiefofvirtue]

Just shows how unfunny the late shows are.
Shows how nobody needs any of them.

[Couldbeme]

We know what Hollywood really is and don't give a damn about those programmer's, uh I mean writers.

[billyb]

If they are going to use AI to write scripts, I can just do that at home

[gamer]

In 2008 it was different because these were the people behind great movies such as the dark knight and iron man, now the best they can produce is she hulk 🤮😂

[jazzguy]

It is very easy for the studios to win this fight with the writers. All the studios have to do is sit back and let the strike go on and on and on. The people who run the studios have billions of dollars. If the studios let the writers strike for the next 10 years I doubt any writer will have the savings to maintain them and their families without of running out of money first with no job. I don’t think any writers are billionaires who can sustain themselves financially and indefinitely in a 10 year long strike. However the studio heads sure can. Eventually the writers will run out of money and the studios won’t.

[nathancortes]

17:45 Exactly this: The main consequence of adopting AI will be a race to mediocrity. AI will do the 'good enough' work, and humans (writers, other artists and creatives) can be hired on the cheap to clean up the mistakes.

So the AI is like the Professor, being recognized as the originator of the work by doing the first draft, and the humans are the assistants (the grad students if you will) who do the menial clean-up.

And then when all the good humans leave for greener pastures, all you're left with is the mediocre error-laden first draft. Ooooh boy.

[jansean]

Striking because writers don’t want to work “gig to gig” like everyone else in film and television just seems elitist.

[bradynields]

23:13 By giving writers low pay do you mean cost reduction?

[drewbreezy]

writers want more money for the half baked toliet crap we have to call entertainment each night, Piss off to that give me bad Taco Bell and good vodka I can literally crap out 10 seasons worth of Emmy and Oscar gold in just 3 minutes

[billyb]

I had a terrible experience with Triple A the other day and I'm never going to marry again. The same with McDonald's recently. You have to just not put your money in those places if you care about the worker