Hollywood strike: TV and movie writers will walk out on Tuesday after pay talks with major studios broke down.
Television and movie writers declared late Monday that they will launch a strike for the first time in 15 years, as Hollywood girded for a walkout with potentially widespread ramifications in a fight over fair pay in the streaming era.
The Writers Guild of America said that its 11,500 unionized screenwriters will head to the picket lines on Tuesday. Negotiations between studios and the writers, which began in March, failed to reach a new contract before the writers’ current deal expired just after midnight, at 12:01 a.m. PDT Tuesday. Erdogan returns from three-day campaign absence due to illness All script writing is to immediately cease, the guild informed its members.
Hollywood strike: Screenwriters will walk out for first time in 15 years
The board of directors for the WGA, which includes both a West and an East branch, voted unanimously to call for a strike, effective at the stroke of midnight. Writers, they said, are facing an “existential crisis.”
Hollywood strike: “The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing,” the WGA said in a statement. “From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a ‘day rate’ in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”
Hollywood strike: Screenwriters will walk out for first time in 15 years: The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade association that bargains on behalf of studios and production companies, signaled late Monday that negotiations fell short of an agreement before the current contract expired. The AMPTP said it presented an offer with Australia to ban recreational vaping in e-cigarette crackdown “generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals.”
In a statement, the AMPTP said that it was prepared to improve its offer “but was unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the guild continues to insist upon.”
The labor dispute could have a cascading effect on TV and film productions depending on how long the strike persists. But a shutdown has been widely forecast for months due to the scope of the discord. The writers last month voted overwhelming to authorize a strike, with 98% of membership in support.
Hollywood strike: At issue is how writers are compensated in an industry where streaming has changed the rules of Hollywood economics. Writers say they aren’t being paid enough, TV writer rooms have shrunk too much and the old calculus for how residuals are paid out needs to be redrawn.
“The survival of our profession is at stake,” the guild has said.
‘Sticking points’
Hollywood strike: Screenwriters will walk out for first time in 15 years: The WGA criticised studios for creating a “gig economy” that aims to turn writing into an “entirely freelance” profession. “For the sake of our present and our future, we have been given no other choice,’ the guild stated in a lengthy document.Writers Guild Of America votes to strike after talks with Hollywood studios fail | seotoptoolz
It called for a TV staffing minimum, ranging from six to 12 writers per show, as well as a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment per season.
In their own statement on Tuesday, the AMPTP called those the two “primary sticking points”.
For their part, the collective studios previously said they must cut costs due to financial pressures, while noting how the overall “residuals” payments to writers hit an all-time high of $494m (£395m) in 2021.
Hollywood strike: They noted on Monday they had been been willing to increase compensation and streaming residuals but for “the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the Guild continues to insist upon.”
The AMPTP also rejected a guild demand that the use of AI bots be banned from writing or rewriting material, instead offering to hold “annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology”.
On Sunday evening, the Deadline Hollywood outlet reported that production on late-night shows including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will all come to a halt.
Late Night host Seth Meyers expressed his support for the strike on the corrections segment of his show on Friday.
“I also feel very strongly that what the writers are asking for is not unreasonable,” Meyers said. “As a proud member of the Guild, I’m very grateful that there is an organisation that looks out for the best interests of writers.”
Alex O’Keefe, writer on the comedy-drama series The Bear and a member of that union, told the BBC on Monday that half of all writers were paid the minimum by studios. Barack Obama and friends surprise Barcelona restaurant
He said the creative output of his writing colleagues was better than ever, matching the demands of the streaming age, but writers are paid less than ever.
Hollywood strike: Screenwriters will walk out for first time in 15 years
Hollywood strike: Screenwriters will walk out for first time in 15 years: “And writers like me, especially young, black writers, indigenous writers, writers of colour have brought a whole new wave of creativity to the process.
“But we are finding ourselves unable to survive in places like New York City and Los Angeles, where we need to be to be in writers’ rooms.”
O’Keefe went on to note how while there are some writers who are “doing very well”, many writers, including showrunners on big shows, were not.
Hollywood strike: “I wouldn’t classify all writers as being poor or broke, but I can say myself I have $6 in my bank account,” he said.
He said that when he and his colleagues won best comedy series at the Writers Guild of America Awards, he went to the ceremony in a suit bought for him by his friends and family.
“The bowtie was bought on credit, I didn’t have any money, I had a negative bank account,” he explained.
When he worked on The Bear, he did so from his “tiny” Brooklyn apartment. Indeed Assessments Test Answers 2023 – How to Take Indeed Assessments 2023
Hollywood strike: “My heat was out, I had a space heater, I plugged in the space heater, [and] sometimes all the lights would go out. I’d end up in the public library, writing this show that has now become a huge hit and made lots of money for some people… a couple of people.
“But not for the people who were the creators, who really poured their hearts and their souls into the characters and into the stories and the moments that you remember.
“So there is a huge underclass right now in Hollywood.” Top news
The actors’ union SAG-AFTRA and the directors’ union DGA have voiced solidarity with striking writers.
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