THE GREAT HOLLYWOOD STRIKE OF 2023
The Dream Factory. That’s what industry insiders have called the entertainment business in Hollywood for nearly one hundred years. It’s because of the immensely valuable and culturally important products – movies and television series – that Hollywood exports around the world. This town powers the imaginations of folks the world over. It is where the best storytellers in the world come to practice their craft.
My name is Woody Strassner, and I’m a writer here with Wayfarer. I’ve also been a working screenwriter in the entertainment industry for nearly 10 years now, writing on television shows like ROYAL PAINS and STUMPTOWN. It’s been the job of a lifetime and I love what I do.
But I, like many other writers in this business, have sacrificed for this dream. And some of us have sacrificed terribly. Luckily, our industry is one of the few industries left in America whose workforce is almost 100% unionized.
That high unionization rate helps protect the labor and talent pool – the shop floor of the dream factory – from abuses by the studios. These protections are codified in the major unions three-year contracts with the studios.
Every three years, we renegotiate for pay and working conditions. Unfortunately, every so often, a negotiation rolls around where the studios and the unions are quite far apart in their respective demands.
Historically speaking, those big differences often arise when big technological changes are sweeping the entertainment industry.
Like today, with the rise of streaming distribution and the threat of AI disrupting the workforce.
And when those differences between the studios and the unions are too far to bridge, well… that’s when a shutdown happens. And the entire town grounds to a halt.
My union, the Writers Guild of America, walked out on strike against the major Hollywood studios and entertainment conglomerates on May 2nd, 2023. We were joined by the Actors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, on July 14th, 2023.
At its core, the labor fight both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are waging against the studios is over better pay and working conditions, which have been eroded by the rise of streaming distribution.
But believe me, a double strike disrupting the town is a very rare event.
The last time both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA were on strike together was way back in 1960. When a young man named Ronald Reagan was president of the Actors Union back, and who led the actors out on strike.
Then, like now, the two major unions walked out on strike over the studios changing business practices and compensation caused by technological disruption in the industry.
This fight today in 2023 is quite possibly the most important labor action of my lifetime. Because it will define compensation and the sustainability of the screenwriting career for decades to come.
Lights… Camera and….Action! Welcome to our Hollywood tour, brought to you by Wayfarer — where the story meets the road. We poured our hearts and insider knowledge into this tour to bring you an exciting exploration of the city of dreams!
- 2 hours
- 26 miles
- Driving Tour
A strike is not without its costs, though. The economic toll of the joint WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike on the industry, and the wider Los Angeles region, will be severe. Its costs will most likely measure in the tens of billions of dollars, if not more.
But for those of us trying to build our dreams in the dream factory, like myself, it’s a fight we cannot shy away from.
Suffice it to say, history is being written in Hollywood this summer.
Want to learn more about the history of Tinseltown? Please check out Wayfarer’s Hollywood Tour! And you might even catch a glimpse of picketing actors and writers yourself, as you drive past the famed studio lots of Sunset Gower and Paramount Studios.
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by xotatech.com