LOS ALAMITOS, CA — On May 2, 2023, the Writers Guild of America started striking for the first time in 15 years. This results from a lack of agreement from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Production, which represented Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Brothers Discovery, NBC, Paramount, and Sony.

The WGA’s main demands relate to the pay they receive from streaming services. According to the WGA, the AMPTP has such a large share in residuals from streaming that writers get paid considerably less than they did a decade ago despite the growing amount of projects and ease of viewing thanks to streaming services. The Los Angeles Times reports that the WGA’s proposal would equate to writers earning about $429 million compared to the AMPTP’s proposal which would only allow $86 million. The last time the WGA struck was in 2007. That strike lasted 100 days and cost an estimated total of $2.1 billion.

Many writers claim to not have sufficient pay. Some even require federal aid like food stamps in order to survive. While writers face issues of paying for basic necessities like rent, the CEOs of major production companies continue to make more money every year. In 2022 the average yearly pay for these CEOs was reportedly $32 million which only heightened resentment from the WGA.

So what does it mean that the writers are striking? The main thing is that all strikers stop working on any projects that they are attached to. That includes movies, documentaries, TV shows, and basically any project being published by Hollywood. This causes many projects to cease or pause development such as the final season of “Stranger Things”. Another area that is majorly impacted is late-night talk shows like “Jimmy Fallon”. Late-night talk shows have shut down entirely and are being forced to air re-runs until the strike is over.

Another major part of the strike is picketing. This is when a group of people go to a place of business, in this instance company buildings and film sets, and march in front of the entrances with signs and chants for their cause. While it is primarily made up of striking workers, anyone is welcome and encouraged to participate in a picket. Another thing that picketing film sets does is prevent work trucks from entering the set.

“The teamsters specifically have a very blanket ‘Teamsters do not cross picket lines’ policy,” described WGA negotiating committee member Adam Conover. This means that any set that is being picketed cannot receive the trucks that they need to work and film, shutting down the set entirely and costing companies thousands of dollars each day. This happened to the Marvel production of “Wonder Man” on May 4.

The WGA has gained the support of other countries’ writer unions so the companies will eventually run out of options. Writer unions from the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have all told their members to down tools for all American productions out of solidarity for the WGA strike. However, there is one prospect that might cause issues for the writers: AI companies have expressed interest in using AI to write scripts and then have writers clean up the script. The WGA has included strict guidelines for the use of AI in their demands, but the strike may cause desperate companies to turn to AI.

There is no telling when the strike will end. However, if past strikes are any indication, it is going to be a while. The main goal of the strikers is to hurt the companies’ wallets.

“If we shut this shoot down, Disney is going to lose a couple hundred thousand bucks on this location rental, on this equipment, on all the people, and that’s gonna hit their balance sheet, and it’s gonna be like, ‘oh, it’s more expensive for us not to work with the writers guild than it is to actually negotiate,'” Conover said.

Writers are the backbone of Hollywood and deserve to be fairly compensated for all the work that they do. While it is never the desired outcome, a strike can ensure that writers revive the treatment that they deserve. It is only a matter of time before that happens.