Enjoy Labor Day as you can. Please post and discuss any labor/business topics here. The ongoing strike by creatives and content producers is worth highlighting.
Since May 2, 2023, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) has been striking against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — which includes Amazon/MGM, Apple, Disney/ABC/Fox, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony, Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO), and others.
On July 14, 2023, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) began their own ongoing strike against AMPTP.
FYI, just 12.7% of SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members earn the $26,470 required annually for health insurance. That’s not a living wage anywhere in the United States, and is really low for New York and Los Angeles. There are few wealthy stars.
Members of WGA and SAG-AFTRA need living wages and decent health insurance. And that only addresses one part of the expansive set of exploitive strategies utilized by big media companies.
While there are unique features of each strike, such as safe working conditions for each type of occupation, both WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes share common issues. Pay to keep up with inflation and living wages is a start. There also needs to be more equitable distribution of streaming revenues and residuals. Further arrangements need to be made for working with generative artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent AMPTP wielding AI to drive down wages and conditions for workers. Please read about lists of specific strike points in the two links above.
Your can keep up with updates at wgacontract2023.org. Here is the latest, including a table showing how small guild demands are (0.004 - 0.206% of corporate revenues).
We repeated what we have said since day one, that our demands come directly from the membership itself. They address the existential threats to the profession of writing and to our individual careers, all caused by changes to the business model implemented by the companies in the last seven to ten years. We stressed that we could not and would not pick and choose among those threats; that we have not struck for nearly four months to half-save ourselves, nor are we leaving any sector of this Guild unprotected when we return to work. We are willing to negotiate within these areas, but every existential issue must be met with a genuine solution.
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One last reminder illustrates why the AMPTP’s current stance is irrational. As we have repeated from the first day of our first member meeting—and on every day of this strike--our demands are fair and reasonable, and the companies can afford them. Here is the cost to each company of our current asks on the table, including the addition of increased health funding to address the impact of the strike.
Check the link for the table.
Let’s move on to action.
There are many ways to stand with WGA and SAG-AFTRA
- Join picket lines. WGA is picketing multiple companies in New York and Los Angeles. SAG-AFTRA is picketing in over 25 cities. We can join. Be sure to check locations, times and sign up if you can join.
- Unions in other countries cannot participate directly, but they can do things to keep companies from pressuring SAG-AFTRA through international maneuvering. Here is a recent video of British creative laborers discussing international solidarity.
- Buy WGA gear.
- WGA is partnering with the Entertainment Community Fund to make fundraising kits available. We can raise money for entertainment professionals through events, social media and swag. I need to get some of that dog stuff.
- Donate directly. I don’t see how that gets divided up. Anybody who knows more about donating to WGA and/or SAG/AFTRA, please add it in the comments.
I contacted both WGA and SAG-AFTRA for this. Thanks to Bob Hopkinson of the WGA for guiding me to useful links and the latest information. None of the email recipients responded that posting on Daily Kos violates solidarity, though I did not ask that directly. Further perspectives on posting online during a writers’ strike is appreciated. We need to get this information out, anyway.
A larger point to me is that these strikes are outcomes of monopolizing consolidation within content production industries. Companies further leverage international differences to exploit workers. All of these actions are set in the context of a mult-decade swing towards increased inequity with top heavy wealth and power distributions. Now, we are also in the midst of a transition to a muli-polar world of competing currencies, economics, political systems and alliances.
Remember the dawn of the digital age, with its promises of unlimited freedom and mobility.
Globalist company executives need to be met by globalist solidarity among workers. Support WGA and SAG-AFTRA as you can. Please share ways to organize with any movements domestically and internationally, as well.
Finally, small companies are also impacted by media consolidation and anti-competitive leveraging. Daily Kos has been severely impacted by declines in advertising in markets dominated by Google and Amazon. We can discuss ownership and advertising business models. However, as long as that is our economic system, we have to find a place within it. Readers can go to DailyKos.com, click on a front page story and scroll down to find donation links. Not sure about copying those buttons into a community diary.