The film and television industry is facing another writers’ strike, like the one that stopped work in Hollywood for 100 days a decade and a half ago.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is scheduled to vote on a strike authorization on Tuesday, and guild members are expected to grant the authorization. If so, the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP) will have until May 1 to reach a new agreement with the guild to avoid a strike.
Negotiations began on March 20, CNN Business reports, with the WGA asking for more compensation and residuals from features showing in theaters or on streaming services, greater contributions to pension and health funds, and reforms to the practice of “mini-rooms.”
As Variety reported in 2021, mini-rooms are a new trend in which small groups of writers pen scripts for a prospective TV show’s first season to prove the concept to a network or studio, often earning less pay than a traditional writers’ room. “If [networks and studios] can save money, and the WGA won’t fight for writers, the mini-room is the future,” warned “The Good Wife” co-creator Robert King in a Variety interview.
With media companies struggling and streaming platforms overpowering legacy film and television outlets, writers are fighting for the survival of their business, CNN Business reports.
“The studios need to respond to the crisis writers face,” WGA leadership told its members before Tuesday’s vote. “WGA members must demonstrate our willingness to fight for the contract writers need and deserve by supporting a strike authorization vote.”
Before the contract talks with the WGA began, the AMPTP said its companies “approach this negotiation and the ones to follow with the long-term health and stability of the industry as our priority” with a goal to “keep production active so that all of us can continue working and continue to deliver to consumers the best entertainment product available in the world.”
The last WGA strike lasted 100 days between 2007 and 2008 and forced networks to slash the episode orders of many TV shows airing at the time. But one industry insider expressed optimism that the WGA and AMPTP negotiators will come to terms and avoid a similar fate, telling CNN Business that three weeks “is plenty of time to hammer out a deal.”