Union City Blues: thoughts on the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes

It's a given that labor relations in the United States are often atrocious and that unions have struggled to succeed in representing their members and maintain some kind of resilience against the very often unified class of executives and upper management in any given industry.

As a former union member (the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers), I can submit that on the one hand, I am grateful for what the union provided to workers for fourteen years, but I can also add that it's not as strong as it was. The biggest concession was the no-strike clause and reduced pay increase percentages. I won't go into anything more because it's not germane to what I'm about to discuss and plus, I left Harvard six years ago.

It's just that having direct experience with having been a union member, you are far more acutely aware of how few protections there are against exploitation of workers than when you're not. Sure, in a right-to-work state, you might have some degree of fallback if you file a complaint with the National Board of Labor Relations, but realistically, you are at the mercy of corporate interests and opaque management. Any representation or arbitration is likely to cost you. A lot. Moreover, the cards are stacked against the worker in such situations as corporate entities mostly promote the admittedly false image of benevolence (as in, how lucky you are to have a job at all and that we hired you, to look at what we do for the community, to we care about all our employees - just not malcontents or whistleblowers or the ones who dare to be critical about our management strategies and practices). 

Without unions, there would be no overtime compensation, no weekends, or health benefits. The late 19th century capitalists were not beholden to ideas of fairness for workers; consequently, the movement for worker representation and collective bargaining became a cri de cour and was a struggle forged in a crucible of literal blood, sweat, and tears. By the 1950s, unions were robust, having altered the face of labor in the United States and having played a major role in greater parity among the labor and executive classes. With the rise of Reagan Republicanism in the 1980s, unions were catastrophically weakened by the now-debunked theories of "trickle down economics" and outright mendacity to discredit what unions do and how they work. 

Since the pandemic, we are seeing a return to younger workers looking to unionize. Think of the various union organizing happening with Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, and other corporations. Fewer people are willing to take on low-paying retail and service jobs without some form of insurance, healthcare, and sense of job security. These are never guaranteed by a corporation. Personally, I think we're still a bit of a way off from seeing a full-blown labor movement in this country, but the gains made have been significant. Consequently, it's important when unions do call on their members to strike, a further risk - the greatest - to take. 

When the Writers Guild of America and later, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists unions voted to go on strike, I had to admit that as both a fan and consumer of performances in these media, as a commentator on them, and as a former union member, I was really happy. I still am. The choice to strike can be catastrophic to the individuals and families who choose to do so; but that's the point. It sends a message to executives and management just how important these positions are to the people who fill them and just how serious their concerns are that they are willing to sacrifice what security they may have to fight for better conditions.

The proposals for each union are born out of years, if not decades, of less than meaningful pay increases, residuals, healthcare access, and recognition. Writers have traditionally received the short end of the stick and performers, well, let's just say, if you know anyone who's been an actor, dancer, singer or musician, you know what they go through. This is history. What gains have been achieved have been hard-won, but now the industry is at a turning point and has entered a new frontier. The streaming platforms have introduced new possibilities and new obstacles to creators, writers, and performers.

Sadly, the obstacles seem to be greater than the opportunities. The studios seem to be recalcitrant and some of the heads outright thick. Bob Iger who returned to Disney as CEO asked if the actors realized how much they're disrupting the industry. Let that sink in for a moment. I don't know if AMPAS awards and Oscar for Greatest Amount of Cluelessness, but Iger would be my candidate.

I think many of us civilians are interested in seeing just what does shake out here. While some pundits are saying that the strike may not affect other sectors, I'm not so sure I agree. The film industry, and by extension, streaming and broadcast television and radio have a web of other relationships with other industries. It is a large enough part of the economy that to have it grind to a halt may have some repercussions beyond the industry itself. At the very least, these twin strikes are at the very least, extremely valuable symbolically. They signal that unions are still necessary and that no, corporations are not benevolent deities. 

There are plenty of films and shows on various schedules to no doubt keep the public entertained through the fall and beyond to the holidays. However, I wonder what would happen if the strikes extended beyond that? How would that affect the studios' bottom lines? We may assume that the CEOs will be fine, which is one of the major bones of contention here - the disparity between what the executives make against what the majority of talent makes. 

This latter, by the way, would be hilarious if it there wasn't so much obtuseness surrounding how the industry is perceived. Not every writer is Lawrence Kasdan or Quentin Tarantino and not every actor is Robert Downey, Jr. or Florence Pugh. Whenever you hear stories about actors who live out of their cars when they first came to L.A. or lived with a ton of roommates because rent is so high, the usual response is, well, yeah, but you made it and you have a recurring role in a series, if they're lucky. Or if they're among the luckiest, a regular role, starring or supportive in a series. All of these are the rarest of scenarios. Out of ten thousand actors, only a small percentage will get a few lines or a named character in a series. Most will be doing background work as extras and for them, there are minimal provisions. 

Even if you do get a regular gig in a semi-successful series, once it's over, unless you've saved your coins, you're back to hustling for the next gig. And unless you have a good agent, or are incredibly tenacious, or the stars have aligned, you're probably going to be more out of work than employed and rent doesn't go down. Taxes don't lessen. And the way healthcare in the industry is structured, you'll be back to paying out of pocket sooner than later. That's the reality for the bulk of performers. 

Of course, others may have teaching appointments and positions in schools, colleges, or universities. Some may have set up their own dram courses and teach in the community, etc., etc. The performing arts may be the worst crapshoot for a way to earn a living. 

As for writers, it's even worse. Residuals? Hah! As of this writing, both unions have lobbied for residuals to be paid for work on streaming productions and the AMPTP has categorically rejected those proposals, as well as counter-offered with weak proposals regarding compensation and healthcare, let alone safety on sets for both constituencies. 

I will link to both proposals and where they stand but I want to direct readers' attentions to a couple of measures the studios have rejected. 

Four points regarding new media and modernization proposed by SAG-AFTRA that were rejected out of hand:

1. Apply union scale minimums, rest periods and protections for minors to new media productions that are not high budget, regardless of length. 

2. Require residuals for ongoing exhibition on advertiser-supported and subscription-based streaming services regardless of the budget or length of the picture. 

3. Calculate residuals for pictures made initially for new media and then exhibited on network or foreign television on the same basis as pictures made initially for television. 

4. Increase the residual that applies when a traditional media picture is exhibited on a streaming platform that is free to the consumer.

And for the WGA, the following proposals regarding streaming and AI that have met with rejection.

VIEWERSHIP-BASED STREAMING RESIDUALS (“TIERED FIXED”) Establish a viewership-based residual—in addition to existing fixed residual—to reward programs with greater viewership. Require transparency regarding program views. Rejected our proposal. Refused to make a counter. 

AD-SUPPORTED FREE STREAMING SERVICES High-budget programs made-for AVOD get TV weeklies and script fees and improved residuals. Rejected our proposal. Refused to make a counter.

 PENSION & HEALTH—TEAMS Each member of a team gets P&H contributions as if they were writing as an individual. Rejected our proposal. Refused to make a counter. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Regulate use of artificial intelligence on MBAcovered projects: AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI. Rejected our proposal. Countered by offering annual meetings to discuss advancements in technology. 

It's either ludicrous or just to be expected that the executives of these massive organizations have taken no consideration of how unfair the system is regarding new technologies; it's left to the people doing the work to provide the "content" that brings viewers to the product to point out that with these shifts in how films and series are delivered, commensurate shifts in compensation and support for those works are also required. As ever, no one said that being rich automatically implies an equal amount of vision, care, or intelligence.

I highly recommend reading both unions' proposals and taking a look at what's been rejected and what has been tentatively agreed upon. The lack of seriousness with which the studios are taking this is hardly shocking. These people are not, for the most part, invested in the people who provide the sources for the entertainment that are the reason studios exist at all. In recent years, it's become obvious to the point of redundancy that the people who run the studios are mostly financial people (look for a number of hedge fund managers in them there office buildings), some venture capitalists, and people who have no idea how films are made. There are also, of course, many executives who have come from tech companies who have no interest or love for the mechanics of how things are made; both groups pretty much just want to see the bottom line go up, healthy returns on investment, and the thinking seems to be that if worse comes to worse, just replace writers with AI and hire - what - non-union scabs to appear before the cameras? None of that sounds viable but the lack of foresight on these execs' parts is staggering and shouldn't be underestimated.

In the meantime, I hope you'll join me in keeping abreast of the situations. It might be that this blog will wind up being dedicated to legacy films only if the studios decide not to deal responsibly and honorably with the people who have made them what they are.

Documents:

WGA Negotiations—Status as of May 1, 2023

SAG-AFTRA Status Negotiations as of July 13, 2023

Additional Reading:

This may seem like it falls under irrelevant information, but I do ask that if you're not familiar with the history of unions in the country, what they've accomplished, and where they stand presently in the broader scheme of things, it's a good idea to gain that familiarity. 

UnionPlus's "A Brief History of Unions". https://www.unionplus.org/page/brief-history-unions

National Museum of American History Behring Center. "Labor Unions". https://americanhistory.si.edu/american-enterprise-exhibition/consumer-era/labor-unions

Where unions are now and where they are likely to go.

I linked to this in the body of the post, but here: Cheapism has a good overview of companies where workers have been fighting to organize: https://blog.cheapism.com/companies-that-are-unionizing.

Forbes. "A Look Inside at This Year's Biggest U.S. Unionization Efforts". https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2021/12/10/a-look-inside-this-years-biggest-us-unionization-efforts. December 10, 2021.

Pazzanese, Christine. The Harvard Gazette. "Will the Message Sent by Amazon Workers Turn into a Movement?" https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/04/the-future-of-labor-unions-according-to-harvard-economist/. April 2, 2022.

Historical contexts. The earlier Hollywood strikes, the stakes, the gains.

The 1963 double strike:

Doherty, Thomas. The Hollywood Reporter. "The Last Time Actors and Writers Both Went on Strike: How Hollywood Ended the 1960 Crisis". https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/sag-wga-1960-hollywood-strike-reagan-history-1235538551/#!. July 18, 2023.

Torres, Libby. The Insider. "Hollywood's writers and actors are on strike together. That's only happened once before, 63 years ago— here's how it went down then". https://www.insider.com/hollywood-strike-sag-aftra-wga-writers-actors-1960-2023-7. July 14, 2023.

The 1988 WGA strike:

History.com Editors. History. "Writers Guild of America strike begins". https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/writers-guild-of-america-strike-begins. March 4, 2020.

And today:

Arkin, Daniel. NBC News. "What you need to know about the SAG-AFTRA actors strike". https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sag-aftra-strike-what-know-actors-writers-wga-rcna94075. July 13, 2023.

Wilkinson, Alissa. Vox.com. "Hollywood’s writers are on strike. Here’s why that matters." https://www.vox.com/culture/23696617/writers-strike-wga-2023-explained-residuals-streaming-ai. Updated July 13, 2023.

From the unions themselves; best for keeping current:

Writers Guild of America

WGA On Strike. https://www.wgacontract2023.org/updates

Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists

Most recently:

SAG-AFTRA. sagaftra.org. "We're Fighting for the Survival of Our Profession". https://www.sagaftra.org/were-fighting-survival-our-profession. July 17, 2023.  

To stay up to date on the SAG-AFTRA strike: 

https://www.sagaftra.org/news-events