What you need to know about the looming WGA strike
polygon.comWhen nearly 12,000 movie and TV writers in the Writers Guild of America went on strike in November 2007, entertainment production screeched to a halt. The American labor union, which represents entertainment writers, handles negotiations between those writers and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — the trade group representing TV and movie producers, like Disney, Netflix, and Paramount — every three years. Most years, the WGA and AMPTP reach agreements after a standard negotiation and contract bargaining period. But WGA members have gone on strike six times: in 1960, 1973, 1981, 1985, 1988, and, most recently, in 2007. The WGA might have to strike again on May 1, and although the 2007 strike happened 16 years ago, it’s the best example we have as to how this potential strike could go.
The 2007 strike was centered on several issues to be addressed in the contract agreement — issues around streaming media compensation and DVD residuals, among other things. The economic impact of the strike was huge. Beyond the writers who were withholding their labor to fight for better working conditions and compensation, studios with halted projects ended up firing production workers, too. No one wants a strike — it’s not easy on anyone, to put it mildly — but it’s the last resort, as well as a show of solidarity between writers, when an agreeable contract isn’t on the table.
Related
In early April of this year, the WGA made its first step toward its seventh writers strike when it announced it would hold a strike authorization vote — a move that lets union members vote on whether they’re willing to strike. This vote only authorizes a strike as a possibility; if the unionized writers believe they’re being offered a
Read more on polygon.com
