After failed negotiations with studios and platform operators, Hollywood screenwriters are laying down their work. In the era of streaming services, they are demanding better payment models.
Hollywood screenwriters have gone on strike for the first time in 15 years. According to the AP news agency, around 11,500 unionized workers began walking out just after midnight, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) union said on Twitter. Pickets are planned in front of the Hollywood studios in the district of the same name in the metropolis of Los Angeles.
Two weeks earlier, the union’s negotiating group had announced the move. According to the WGA, the members voted to give union leaders the authority to call a strike in the event that an agreement with the producers could not be reached.
The previously failed negotiations with the studios, which also include streaming providers such as Disney and Netflix, began in March. It was about a successor solution for the contracts that expired on May 1st with a term of three years.
Demand for more salary and profit sharing
The working conditions for writers in the US entertainment industry felt almost like the Wild West, screenwriter Zoe Marshall told dem ARD Studio Los Angeles. Conditions have deteriorated in recent years, said Marshall, who is also a board member of the WGA union. The studios would repeatedly undersell screenwriters.
In view of the great growth of streaming services, they are demanding higher salaries and greater profit sharing. So far, they have received a fixed annual salary from the platforms – even if series like “Bridgerton” or “Stranger Things” develop into global successes, are seen by hundreds of millions of viewers and often stay on the platforms for years. The authors therefore call for a revision of the applicable rules for their compensation.
hardened fronts
According to the union, despite inflation, salaries have remained the same or even fallen, making it increasingly difficult for authors to make a living. Currently, more of them are working below the wage floor than ever before, while productions are hiring fewer and fewer people for shorter series. Studios, on the other hand, argue that due to economic pressure, costs need to be reduced.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios, said it offered the writers “generous pay increases,” but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement.
The last strike, in 2007, lasted 100 days and cost the California economy more than $2 billion, according to Reuters news agency.
failures at entertainment shows expected
According to Reuters news agency, late-night shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where writing teams write topical jokes, are expected to shut down due to the strike. That would mean that new episodes might not be available during their usual airtime on TV or streaming services.
Depending on how long the strike lasts, the start of series and films could have to be postponed. Studios and streamers had emphasized in advance that they had already bought screenplays and scripts as a precaution.
With information from Katharina Wilhelm, ARD Studio Los Angeles