As the spotlight dims on the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the Writers’ Strike was a moment when writers took centre stage not with scripts, but with picket signs. The strike, a phenomenon that has echoed through the corridors of Hollywood, has been a battle for creativity, fair compensation, and the future of storytelling—pens were put down, voices were raised, and picket signs went up; all in the name of a script’s worth, where the power of the written word was never more evident than when it was withheld.
What is the Writers Guild of America (WGA)?
The WGA represents writers in film and television in the United States. It works to negotiate with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents large production companies such as Disney and streamers like Netflix and Apple. The most recent contract between the two parties expired in May 2023, and the strike began the day of expiration after negotiations did not reach agreements.
What happened?
If you have been keeping up with entertainment news lately, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) would have been a familiar topic to you, considering prominent actors like Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada) and Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson) being on the picket lines for this strike. What you might have overlooked from the endless (yet necessary) stream of posts about the strikes is the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, and that this is the first time that actors and writers have simultaneously walked out since the 1960s. The WGA strike this year is a critical moment in the history of the entertainment industry, shedding light on the crucial importance of fair labour practices, equitable treatment, and collective bargaining in an ever-evolving landscape. The WGA went on strike over an ongoing labour dispute with AMPTP, specifically to call for higher pay and job security, as well as fairer deals and contracts where artificial intelligence (AI) is involved. Along with the simultaneous SAG-AFTRA strike these can be seen as a part of a broader spectrum of Hollywood labour disputes.
Why is it important?
If you have been watching shows religiously on streaming platforms like Netflix or Disney+, you would have noticed that many shows have shifted to shorter seasons over longer periods of time—compare Grey’s Anatomy’s seasons with an average of twenty episodes with more recent shows like Outer Banks, which has only ten episodes per season. This has made less work available to writers, and unions like SAG-AFTRA and WGA want, no, need assurances from production studios that actors and writers will be compensated fairly and have a guaranteed source of livelihood from their craft. Moreover, with the growth of AI, they are looking to ensure writers are well compensated when any of their work is used to train AI.
One of the central issues that led to the SAG-AFTRA strike is the demand for fair compensation. Actors, voice-over artists, and other industry professionals were advocating for just wages that reflected their contributions to the entertainment industry. The strike highlighted the disparity between the astronomical earnings of some in the industry and the struggle of many to make a living wage — despite also having contributed a huge amount of time and effort into a piece of work. It is important to note that fair compensation is not just about ensuring a decent livelihood for artists but also recognising their value and talent, especially in an industry notoriously known to be critical and cut-throat.
How does it affect us?
Many of us rely on shows to remain sane amidst the heaps of work we have, be it a sit-com, a drama, or a sad movie, and having writers go on strike might affect us more than we think. American television series and films play a substantial and obvious role in Singapore’s entertainment market. Though we might seem far-removed from the situation considering our geographical location, a strike like WGA’s would not only mean we will experience delays in having new seasons of our favourite shows, or brand new films to indulge in, but also a fall in the quality of the production. That means no new Abbott Elementary, no new Stranger Things, no new Daredevil.
A notable, not-so-nice-but-common practice within Hollywood is treating workers as disposable. Precisely because of how fast-moving the industry is, together with the inconsistency of productions, writers and working-class actors are expendable and can be laid off easily without major repercussions for the production companies themselves. Yes, that means writers can be laid off after producing a full-length script or story for a show, and yes, these scripts can be used for a show production without the writers being compensated at all. With the WGA strike, many such anecdotes have surfaced, simply reiterating why the WGA strikes are so important. Relating this to a bigger scale, this also barred laid-off writers from revising their scripts, talk through important character arcs, and cut unnecessary scenes or dialogues. This means that we, the viewers, get unsatisfying character progressions and storylines when the show is considered “done”, and the writers will not get royalties for the show’s development or progression.
Another important part of the strike is the part where WGA fights for fairer deals regarding AI. Most recently, Marvel chose to use AI generative art for Secret Invasion’s opening credit sequence. The WGA strike aims to counter this kind of effect of the radical, new growth of AI—offloading entire creative processes to AI and the whole human-versus-machine dispute. Why is this monumental? One of the negotiations for the strike were guarantees that artificial intelligence will not breach writers’ credits and compensations, and for it to be used as a tool, not a replacement, effectively attempting to protect the rice bowls of human creators from being incessantly replaced by AI and bots. This could create a new essential model for a lot of other content-creation industries in protecting its human creators.
What happens now?
What the strike subtly accentuates, is that writers do much more than only write scripts. They are crucial for shows to move forward smoothly. While we are merely passive viewers on the receiving end, standing in solidarity with writers is a form of quiet support that we should all consider—because it is more than a fight for higher pay for writers; it is a fight to give creatives the rights and credit they deserve, and a chance that (unionised) individuals who are chasing the same writing dream together has a fighting chance against a profitable, high-profile industry. This is an uncommon and precious thing, and the WGA represents this precise fight. This strike is one that is fighting to prove that creatives cannot be steamrolled by the demands of spreadsheets and profits.
The WGA strike also sets a precedent for future labour movements, mostly within the entertainment industry. It demonstrates that writers, actors and industry professionals were willing to stand up for their rights and that they could mobilise for change. This precedent may encourage other unions and organisations within the industry to address similar issues and work towards a more equitable future.
While the strike has (finally) reached a tentative deal that meets most of the asks of the WGA, it serves as a timely reminder that behind the glitz of Hollywood lies a workforce that deserves respect, fairness, and a voice in shaping the industry’s future. Recall Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt and Cillian Murphy walking out of their Oppenheimer movie premiere, or the major delay of the new seasons of Wednesday, Criminal Minds, Euphoria. Names that go by in the end-credits that we all knowingly skip — the working-class actors and show writers who are working paycheck to paycheck and receive less credit than they deserve, are equally as important as those who we worship the ground they walk on, and if anything, they are probably the ones we should most respect.