Picket lines will go up outside all the major L.A.-area studios yet again Tuesday as the Writers Guild of America strike stretches into its third week — with no word on renewed labor talks or movement toward resolution of a walkout that has ground entertainment production to a halt.
Since the strike began May 2, pickets have become the daily routine at Amazon Studio in Culver City, CBS’ Studio City lot, Television City, The Walt Disney Co.’s corporate headquarters in Burbank, the Fox Studios lot, Netflix’s Hollywood headquarters, Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Sony Studios in Culver City, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. in Burbank.
Friday, the June 11 Tony Awards ceremony in New York became the latest show affected by the strike, with the WGA denying a request for a waiver that would have allowed the show to be broadcast as scheduled. But Monday, according to various reports, the WGA announced its East members would not picket the Tonys.
“Tony Awards Productions (a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing) has communicated with us that they are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the WGA, and therefore the WGA will not be picketing the show,” the WGA said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The strike previously scrubbed production on late night talk shows and “Saturday Night Live,” all of which have gone into reruns. Last week’s “MTV Movie & TV Awards” event in Santa Monica was canceled in favor of a pre-taped event due to celebrities unwilling to cross WGA picket lines.
Also last week, Vice President Kamala Harris backed out of her planned appearance at an MTV mental health awareness event in Carson set for Thursday of this week to avoid conflict with the WGA strike.
Harris was set to appear alongside a surprise celebrity guest and young leaders at a Cal State Dominguez Hills town hall to raise awareness of Mental Health Action Day.
The last WGA strike lasted from November 2007 until February 2008. Industry experts estimated the 100-day strike cost the local economy between $2 billion and $3 billion. With both sides appearing to still be at loggerheads, many observers fear the current walkout could last even longer.
The WGA is pushing for improvements on a variety of fronts, notably for higher residual pay for streaming programs that have larger viewership, rather than the existing model that pays a standard rate regardless of a show’s success.
The union is also calling for industry standards on the number of writers assigned to each show, increases in foreign streaming residuals and regulations preventing the use of artificial intelligence technology to write or rewrite any literary material.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Hollywood studios, issued a position paper earlier this month outlining its take on some key negotiating points in the labor impasse. Responding to a union demand for minimum staffing levels and employment guarantees, the alliance said such a move would “require the employment of writers whether they’re needed for the creative process or not.”
The alliance also pushed back on the issue of streaming residuals, saying the union’s most recent contract gave writers a 46% increase in streaming residuals taking effect in 2022 — increases that some writers may only now be seeing in their paychecks. The alliance contends the union’s proposal would represent a 200% increase over current residual rates.
It also called for “a lot more discussion” on the issue of artificial intelligence, and suggested writers “want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined.”
“The AMPTP member companies remain united in their desire to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry, and to avoid hardship to the thousands of employees who depend upon the industry for their livelihoods,” said an alliance statement issued when the strike was announced. “The AMPTP is willing to engage in discussions with the WGA in an effort to break this logjam.”
Last week, the AMPTP also began labor talks with the Directors Guild of America, which is seeking to address many of the same issues involved in the WGA stalemate. The DGA’s contract with AMPTP expires June 30.
On June 7, the AMPTP is scheduled to begin negotiations with the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union, which has already come out in strong support of the striking writers.
“We are united in support of the WGA and I thank all of the SAG-AFTRA members who are showing solidarity with their strike,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher wrote in a message to its membership on Friday. “For those who haven’t yet been able to do so, I hope you will join me and others in supporting the writers on a picket line.
“… As a member of the WGA, I can say firsthand the contributions made by writers cannot be undermined, diminished or cheapened. I’ve said it a thousand times, `If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage!”’