![\"Logo](\"http:\/\/vqt.nlm.mybluehost.me\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/washington-post-heading.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For the past 15 years, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas has kept the shirt in pristine condition, on the top right-hand side of his drawer. It has moved with him twice, from the Los Angeles duplex he was living in as a junior writer on \u201cFriday Night Lights,\u201d to the two-story craftsman home where he now lives. It has remained in the same place through the birth of two daughters and through the development of the CBS action drama he created, \u201cS.W.A.T.\u201d \u2014 the red T-shirt he wore for nearly all of the 100-day Hollywood writers\u2019 strike in 2007.<\/p>\n
The shirt serves as both a testament to the career he has built and a pledge to preserve it, Thomas said: \u201cIt\u2019s a marker that you stood the test of time and you\u2019re ready to go again if necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas, who has spoken about the impact the strike had on his work, may be donning that shirt as soon as next month.<\/p>\n
How a Hollywood writers\u2019 strike can derail a great TV show<\/p>\n
Hollywood is standing on the precipice of a strike that could shut down the industry after members of the film and television writers\u2019 guild overwhelmingly approved a walkout earlier this week.<\/p>\n
The Writers Guild of America announced Monday that nearly 98 percent of voting WGA members, more than 9,000 writers, authorized the potential walkout \u2014 which would be the first strike in 15 years \u2014 if the union can\u2019t negotiate a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood production companies.<\/p>\n
The last time the guild authorized a strike was in 2017, but the WGA and the studios were able to hammer out a deal at the 11th hour. The most recent agreement was settled in 2020. This year\u2019s strike authorization vote had the highest approval rate and turnout of any in the WGA\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
The studios and networks have less than two weeks to reach an agreement and avert a work stoppage.<\/p>\n
Hollywood writers say the issue at the core of their demands is an existential one: In an era of peak television, is it still possible for writers to make a living?<\/p>\n
Companies have used the transition to streaming as an excuse to undervalue writers, the WGA said, \u201cworsening working conditions for series writers at all levels\u201d while streaming services such as Netflix profit. The guild\u2019s goals for the new contract include raising writers\u2019 minimum wages and ensuring that the compensation and residuals for writers whose projects appear only on streaming services are paid in line with those whose work is in theaters.<\/p>\n
Other union requests include regulating the use of artificial intelligence to write scripts and addressing pay issues for mini-rooms, where writers are asked to work on a show in its preproduction stage or before the series has been picked up.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur membership has spoken,\u201d the WGA said in an announcement. \u201cWriters have expressed our collective strength, solidarity, and the demand for meaningful change in overwhelming numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AMPTP expressed its commitment to reaching a \u201cfair and reasonable agreement\u201d in a statement: \u201cAn agreement is only possible if the Guild is committed to turning its focus to serious bargaining by engaging in full discussions of the issues with the Companies and searching for reasonable compromises.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Slack, a writer and consulting producer for the drama series \u201cMagnum P.I.\u201d and a former WGA West board member, said the vote was a necessary measure, pushing production companies to be more amenable in the negotiations process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe power to withhold our labor is the only tool we have to get the studios to pay us what\u2019s fair,\u201d he said. \u201cOur products are the foundation for all the billions of dollars of revenue that these entertainment companies generate, and we need to be compensated for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slack was a writer for \u201cLaw & Order\u201d when he joined his fellow union members on strike in 2007. At the time, he almost went bankrupt, but Slack said he would do it again to secure fair compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still hoping that we won\u2019t have to go on strike,\u201d Slack said. \u201cBut writing should be a viable career \u2026 that lets you raise a family, buy a house, build money for retirement. And that\u2019s something worth fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The kind of progression that writers such as Thomas and Slack have experienced in their careers \u2014 working up from writers to producers and showrunners \u2014 is much harder to achieve now than it was a decade ago. Even though there are more writing jobs, they\u2019ve diminished dramatically in quality, Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Brittani Nichols knew she was signing up for hard, unglamorous work when she moved to Los Angeles at 22. Nichols, who is now a writer-producer on the hit ABC show \u201cAbbott Elementary,\u201d shared her first apartment with four other people: a family of three who slept on an air mattress in the living room and another roommate.<\/p>\n
In those early days, her commute to work took two hours because she had no car and had to rely on Los Angeles\u2019 public transit system. She worked different side jobs to make enough money just to take the bus \u2014 working as an extra, doing marketing consulting research. All of the money she could scrape together was invested in her writing career, she said, \u201cbecause I knew that was the only way to get that job that was going to put me on stable ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
And like many other young writers, Nichols accepted the hardship as growing pains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just like, this is just part of it. This is what being a broke artist is,\u201d said Nichols. \u201cIf you stick it out and are good at your job, a middle-class life is on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut increasingly, because of how studios are grinding down pay and making it impossible to build a career, there\u2019s nothing on the other side for writers anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just that eternal struggle.\u201d The career paths available to her back then have increasingly disappeared.<\/p>\n
It used to be that writing on a hit show could sustain you for that year, until the next season rolled around, Nichols said. Before streaming exploded in popularity, TV seasons were longer \u2014 around 22 episodes \u2014 and there were fewer limited series options than there are now. Not only are today\u2019s shows shorter, they also take more time to produce, increasing the length of time a writer must live on last season\u2019s paycheck \u2014 and that\u2019s if their show is even renewed.<\/p>\n
Because so many writing opportunities have essentially become gig jobs, writers have also struggled to pick up the kind of skills and experience that prime them to take on more lucrative roles as producers and showrunners. According to the WGA\u2019s most recent data, only half of its members are making more than the contracted minimum salary for their job \u2014 in 2013, two-thirds of writers did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not an industry built for people without money,\u201d said Nichols.<\/p>\n
How much a 2023 writers\u2019 strike would impact this year\u2019s crop of TV and film depends largely on how long a strike lasts.<\/p>\n
Viewers are unlikely to notice any impact on broadcast shows, many of which have already written and filmed their final episodes. The same goes for streaming shows, which have longer lead times than broadcast series. But an extended strike could push back when these shows return to air. The same holds true for films, particularly those set for release in the next two years. It\u2019s also unclear whether unionized actors would be willing to cross picket lines to shoot these projects.<\/p>\n
The impact of the 2007 writers\u2019 strike was widely felt. Popular TV shows such as \u201c30 Rock,\u201d \u201cFriday Night Lights,\u201d \u201cBig Bang Theory,\u201d \u201cGrey\u2019s Anatomy\u201d and \u201cHeroes\u201d cut their seasons short. Daytime soaps hired nonunion writers. Late-night hosts improvised without their regular writing staff and grew beards in solidarity as the strike went on. Other shows, such as \u201c24\u201d and \u201cEntourage,\u201d halted production completely, postponing their seasons. The impact of the strike also rippled out onto the big screen, affecting \u201cTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen,\u201d \u201cX-Men Origins: Wolverine\u201d and \u201cTerminator Salvation,\u201d among others. The 100-day work stoppage is estimated to have cost the city of Los Angeles $4.5 billion in today\u2019s dollars.<\/p>\n
But unlike the 2007 strike, when there were debates among writers about how streaming could impact their livelihoods, there\u2019s greater unity and less infighting among writers this time around, industry veterans say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen so much clarity in the issues that have to be addressed, and so much agreement on the fact that they need to be addressed now,\u201d said Thomas.<\/p>\n
As the contract deadline approaches, people across the industry are scrambling to complete projects, secure deals and wrap production.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all planning as if the strike is going to occur,\u201d Elsa Ramo, a managing partner of a Hollywood law firm, told Vanity Fair earlier this month. \u201cOur perspective is, how do we continue to get things made if and when the strike happens?\u201d<\/p>\n
Nichols, however, isn\u2019t changing any of her plans. The season finale of \u201cAbbott Elementary\u201d \u2014 an episode she wrote \u2014 aired Wednesday night. She knows the cost of a work stoppage: the loss of income and job security, potentially losing momentum in your career, projects being delayed or canceled. \u201cAbbott Elementary\u201d writers are expected to start working on Season 3 on May 1 \u2014 the same day the contract expires. The risk of losing work during a strike will be worth it, for her and others, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, I\u2019ll either leave the job to try to pursue something else, or the show will end or get canceled,\u201d she said. \u201cThen there\u2019s another job that I\u2019ll have to go do. And right now, the chances of that job being good are incredibly low.\u201d<\/p>\n
View this article at The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The existential threat driving a potential Hollywood writers\u2019 strike: For the past 15 years, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas has kept the shirt in pristine condition, on the top right-hand side of his drawer. It has moved with him twice, from the Los Angeles duplex he was living in as a junior writer on \u201cFriday Night Lights,\u201d
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elsa-ramo","category-the-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6854,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6852\/revisions\/6854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ramolawpc.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}