On the WGA and SAG Strikes

I remember the 2007 Writer’s Strike pretty clearly. It was a very savvy move. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) was striking for a share of digital distribution of TV and film content, and a stipulation that expensive shows would hire WGA writers (ensuring writers were paid a market rate). I can’t imagine how different the last fifteen years of entertainment would have looked if studios didn’t have to pay their writers for shows and films appearing on streaming platforms. I can’t imagine some of the biggest successes of the streaming age (Stranger Things and Ted Lasso to name a few) thriving in a world where streaming companies could have saved on production costs by hiring the most desperate, novice writers available instead of people genuinely passionate about the project.

This time, the Screen Actors Guild (SGA) has joined the WGA (apparently the first simultaneous strike since 1960), but that’s not the only thing that makes this movement feel momentous. We’re at the very start of the AI boom, and Hollywood studios are bargaining for the right to buy a person’s likeness for use in perpetuity or use AI-generated scripts. This strike isn’t just about the future of entertainment; it’s about how the most profitable industries in the world can treat their workers in a scary, new digital age. And given how wages for workers have stagnated for years while companies turn record profits, it’s one of the most visible fights for fair wages we’ve seen in some time.

Entertainment is important. One of my favorite authors once wrote, “Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.” And as much as I absolutely despise those Nicole Kidman AMC commercials, they do carry the idea that we bond over the stories we enjoy together. And even if the executives resisting the strikers terms didn’t sound cartoonishly evil, I would still support giving the people who create our stories fair, livable wages. And I think a successful WGA/SAG strike could really echo through other industries and help workers across the country earn what they deserve.

I’ll let Brennan Lee Mulligan put this another way.