For the AMPTP, It’s Strike First. For the WGA, It’s Strike Hard. For All of Us, It’s No Mercy.
These are the times that try our souls. On May 2, 2023, the Writer’s Guild of America West initiated a strike that all but shutdown the linear media entertainment industry… Or did they? “Hollywood”, to use its de facto term of both endearment and derision, has ceased to conceptualize new scripted content for the time being. Despite that, viewers have no shortage of existing content to watch, whether at home or in theaters. Producers have no shortage of existing content to release, recycle, and redistribute. Furthermore, their reduced expenditures on production will look great in their next quarterly reports during this time of economical belt tightening. Given the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ rejection of 15 out of the 21 improvements that the WGA asked for, it seems like sufficient leverage was lacking in the negotiation room. Perhaps the pen is not in fact mightier than the sword. The guild may have gone on strike; but the AMPTP struck first. And right now, no one is asking: who is really stricken?
The entertainment industry is, by design, quite obfuscated from the public. After all, how would we have “movie magic” if the business revealed its tricks? Plenty has been written about why the 11,000 members of the WGA are striking right now. Little or nothing has been written of the 19,000 members of the Director’s Guild of America (DGA) or the thousands of production assistants working to qualify for membership. Little or nothing has been written of the 168,000 plus members of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) that make up the crews on and around sets or the thousands of trainees trying to qualify for membership. To bring it home to my personal union, little or nothing has been written of the 160,000 plus members of the Screen Actor’s Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union or the thousands of actors and media professionals trying to qualify for membership. None of these groups have strike obligations in their current contracts (with regard to the WGA strike); however, the majority of members support it because we all have similar battles to face. In the case of the DGA and SAG-AFTRA, our next battles will come soon; but until then, we’re left holding the bag.
In the news and on social media, we see established performers and professionals like Rob Lowe, Cynthia Nixon, and Ike Barinholtz with boots on the ground picketing, using their power and platforms to inform people as to why this strike is needed. But we don’t see the struggling guild and non-union industry workers trying to work their way into a better life who can’t afford to take a day off from their second or third job to picket. Background actors make a living by being all but invisible. In an industry that had already been suffering from a dearth of work for the preceding 4 months prior to the strike, now with no work at all, tens of thousands of invisible people are left scrambling to find jobs and/or apply for unemployment insurance.
These are people in an industry role where clearing $45,000 in a year is doing very well, set against the backdrop of a city with as high a cost of living as Los Angeles. These are people who spend every day submitting and waiting for the ever-coveted availability checks and subsequent booking notifications to know if they’ll be able to go to the grocery store this week, or pay their car loan next week, or pay their cell phone next month. It may surprise you to know that some of these people are not just background actors, but principal actors (meaning actors with lines or specific skill performances). For every (famous) principal actor you can name, there are probably 100 you can’t, and 1,000 background actors you’ve never noticed. These are people slipping through the cracks. Like the writers, these are people who were stricken hard.
This all may sound like an indictment of the writer’s strike; but on the contrary, I support it, as do the majority of the entertainment industry’s workers. We arrived at this strike because of the aggressively capitalistic practices of major motion picture and streaming corporations. We arrived at this strike because these companies do not believe that everyone who contributes to the multibillion-dollar entertainment industry deserves a consistent, sustainable, living wage. But supporting the strike isn’t the same as being able to weather it. Every strike has a cost. Solidarity does not equate to strike funds or emergency financial assistance. Solidarity does not provide interim job hirings. Solidarity means that people in the other entertainment industry unions are free to work, except that there basically is no work because there were only so many projects that had finalized writing before the strike commenced and, as union members, we cannot work non-union productions.
So what does this all mean? What is the point? The point is for people outside the industry to better see the industry as a whole: the good, the bad, and the ugly. A lot of people need help right now while the strike is going on, both within and outside of the writers’ guild. Everything is up in the air and the AMPTP shows no signs of budging at the moment. We all know how important it is to be able to make a living. This is something everyone either is or should be fighting for, whether they are in the entertainment industry or not. If this strike goes until June 30th, when both SAG-AFTRA and the DGA would become eligible to vote and authorize strikes, that 11,000 people could balloon to over 190,000. If that behemoth sways, ten production companies will fall. But unfortunately, the rent was due on May 1st; so there will be some faces missing come end of June. For all of the people struggling to get by that make up this industry, the strike is hard. For us, there is no mercy. And the show must go on.
What can you do, inspired reader? You can help keep the pressure on the members of the AMPTP (especially Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros, Netflix, Apple TV+, and Amazon) in whatever way you see fit: social media, picketing, emails, or however you wish to and are able to engage. You can also cancel your subscriptions to all streaming services and decline to purchase any of their other offerings for the duration of the strike (such as tickets to Disneyland). You can donate. I’ve set up a GoFundMe to raise strike funds for impacted background actors. You can share that and this article. However you decide to act, you can help the people of this industry. These are people that live in and contribute to the economies of Los Angeles County and beyond. These are your neighbors, friends, business patrons, and clients. These people are part of your community. It is in times like these that we should help each other. After all, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Updates: This article has been amended since publishing to reflect changes in strike status. The DGA reached a contract agreement with the AMPTP without a strike vote on June 23, 2023. SAG-AFTRA commenced a strike on July 14, 2023. The WGA successfully negotiated and ratified a new contract on October 9, 2023, ending their 5-month strike. SAG-AFTRA successfully negotiated a new contract on November 8, 2023, ending our 4-month strike.
