So How’s That WGA Strike Going for You?

It's only Day 3, but I writers gonna write about writing.

The WGA is still on strike. At this point, you probably know why. Changes to the industry have made it increasingly hard for creatives (including musicians, actors, artists, directors, and more) to make a reasonable, consistent living in entertainment. Even upper level people on hit shows have been affected. Writing a movie can net you a decent amount once and then require months or years of extra work, very often with no pay. Shit’s bad.

But the strike?

The strike has been going well.

That’s not to say I’m glad we’re striking. Nobody is glad we’re striking. Everyone wants to get paid. Everyone wants to make shows and movies and audio dramas. Hell, beyond creativity and pay, you think a bunch of socially awkward weirdos want to be outside holding their arms in the air for hours? Jesus.

Granted, it’s only Day 3. Our resolve will be tested, as will the resolve of other workers in our industry. But so will the resolve of the studio and corporate executives who don’t want to pay the people who make the content while giving themselves hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Literally, for a little more than half of the pay of the six highest entertainment executives, they could match every single request the guild has made. That’ll never happen, of course, without the squeeze.

So, yes, it’s early. But the solidarity shown by our members towards each other is incredible. It’s extremely easy to divide television and film and audio writers (and then divide them again amongst themselves based on their respective genres and budgets). We work in the same industry and flow back and forth, but we also have different needs based on the different economics of those specific sectors. In every meeting, and on every picket line, those differences don’t divide us. We’re not scrambling over each other to get the deal that helps our sliver at the cost of others. We won’t do that.

And then there’s the solidarity from other unions. Almost every union in entertainment has given us their support (and many non-entertainment unions for that matter). From the actors to the directors to the fucking crew members that are the lifeblood of anything you see on a screen. They’re not just with us, they’re watching us. A deal we make next month could be their deal two months from now. When executives tell us they want to capitalize on A.I., it’s not just writers who are threatened. Musicians. Animators. Actors. Voice actors. Set designers.

Once they figure it out. This is worth more time later, but A.I. isn’t going to outright replace creatives. At least not for a long while. That at least would be some sort of dystopian era of horrified wonder. Instead, executives are going to use A.I. to generate something vaguely crappy and then pay creatives as little as possible to come in and fix it. And fixing it is going to take a lot of time. In the executives’ ideal world, for example, a soundtrack will be written by an A.I. and then a musician will be brought in on the cheap to “smooth” it out. Meanwhile, the credit for the creation of the work goes to the company. 

But they can’t even do that right now. Humans are still making the content. Humans are still shooting the content. The shadow of A.I. is currently only that: A shadow. Oh, it’ll come. I’ve got no doubt about that. But it won’t come in full Shakespeare Skynet for a while. It’s a bluff for executives to claim they can wait it out until ChatGPT is good enough to write an episode of Succession all by its lonesome.

A.I. is a useful tool. But as of now, humans still have to make the content. And when they can’t make the content, that causes executives (many of whom are also human!) to not be able to sell content. That’s why our strike has already been effective.

Yesterday, a full production day of American Horror Story in New York was shut down due to members from other unions refusing to cross WGA picket lines. That might not sound like much, but I’ll tell you the one thing no executive wants: A day of production shutting down. Production schedules and budgets are beyond fucking complicated and messy. When you lose a day of production - for any reason - it costs money immediately and down the road. Losing a day of shooting drives executives crazy because it’s simply money down the drain. That’s their decision by not even coming close to the negotiating table. 

Our picketing yesterday in New York had over one thousand participants. Not all of them were writers. Some were from other unions. Some were just people there to support. College students with signs saying they wanted to be writers were giving out food and drinks to the picketers. Also, there was a nice moment when an elementary school bus passed and all of us waved at them as they waved back. Pretty certain they had no idea what we were doing, but I’m sure it seemed fun.

There are more pickets today. And tomorrow. And next week. And on and on. We’ll keep safely and legally shutting down productions when we can. We’ll keep embarrassing executives by making their advertisers and partners have to see us every time they show up for a meeting. 

Don’t get me wrong, this is going to be painful for a lot of people, not just us. Executives didn’t just give us a “no” on some requests. They literally gave us no answer at all on some requests. Let me repeat that: They didn’t even try to negotiate or even respond to many of the requests. That’s not good faith negotiating. That’s running out the clock and hoping it hurts us enough for them to still be able to get a new Christmas yacht. 

What the executives and studios and corporations are doing is holding up the process because they know that if we, the writers, get a good deal, then everyone else will expect to be treated with a modicum of respect. Shit, screw respect. We want the ability to keep doing what we love without its sustainability fading away like Marty McFly’s siblings in the photograph. Everyone deserves that. We were all told “learn to code” but as the tech industry now is seeing, no matter what skill you think will keep you at the top of the heap, executives will find a way to make your life harder. 

So, yes, it’s going to be a long one. The Writers Guild of America will keep going to the table in good faith until the executives do. Luckily, there are grants and (I believe) interest-free loans available to people in the industry, not just writers. I know these are bandaids to a larger problem. I also know that, as a childless adult who lives alone, I’m lucky in that this strike only directly affects me alone in my household. I don’t have to put food on the table for kids - something that a lot of normal people do. We aren’t all cool writers in our early 20s making bank and spending it on whatever kids do these days (Roblox???). I mean, some of us are. And they’re so cool! Unapproachable gods. But most of us are just dorks making a living.

Side note, it’s insane that not having a family puts me in the “lucky” camp. Good economy and society we’ve got going. Masterful gambit, sir.

This isn’t going to be easy. We didn’t think it was. We’re writers. Our lives are failure and sadness mixed in with brief moments of joy when a stranger pats us on the head and tells us we did good, we did real good. Don’t let that stranger become a friend because then the magic of that moment is gone forever. Only strangers’ appreciation of you counts. Those that you love don’t actually love you back and they’re lying when they say they do.

So, we’re striking. We’re going to be striking for a while. But the other unions are with us. The workers are with us. And what we’re fighting for goes beyond getting a better credit and residuals after writing a movie. To be both dramatic and entirely honest, it decides the future of being a creative worker in the entertainment industry. 

But we will win.

And that’s kind of nice.