The WGA writers’ strike has completed their time on strike, but the SAG-AFRA actors’ strike is still walking the picket lines for improved pay in Hollywood.
The Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) represents around 11 thousand writers across the country who went on strike last spring for a number of reasons. The biggest reasons for the strike include residuals, the involvement of Artificial Intelligence in content and late payments. , writers have seen less pay as companies have switched from television programming to streaming platforms.
“People are getting paid pennies while companies make a lot of streaming,” Wayne State College film professor Mike White said
Since the start of the strike, the writers have reached a tentative deal with Hollywood companies. The all-new deals include increases in royalty payments for streaming content and guarantees that AI, or artificial intelligence, will not encroach on the credits and compensation for writers, according to an article titled “Writer’s Strike Ends with Tentative Deals: What Happens Next.”
While the writers were on strike, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists had also gone on strike. However, as the WGA reached an agreement, SAG-AFRTA has yet to do the same. The actors went on strike for similar reasons relating to pay, and in tandem with the writers, had brought most tv and film productions to a halt.
SAG-AFRTA represents roughly 160 thousand actors or so who are calling for increased pay and residuals, much like the writers. In the same article published by CNN in mid-July, actors in California were reported to have an average pay of $27.73 an hour by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics according to a CNN article titled “Why celebrities are striking: The average pay for actors may surprise you.” The Bureau did note that actors do not work consistently due to the occupation’s nature, and therefore do not get paid full-time year-round.
However, now that negotiations have started to take place, with the first meeting ending Monday, Oct. 2, and more meetings on the way, actors can now push their work. A noted absence of actors doing many interviews occurred over the summer.
“As they (the negotiations) finish, actors can now push their work,” White said. “I’m glad it’s moving forward.”
As Hollywood and SAG-AFRTA move with negotiations, White is optimistic about the aftermath of both strikes.
“Writers still wrote during the strike,” he said. “We might be entering a new era of creative works.”
In addition to the creative works written during the strike, White pointed out that the creative work will be like when the industry first shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID created a backlog of production, straining production assistants,” White said.
Shortages of workers and assistants may be inevitable in the near future, which will create a path for new graduates to immediately enter the industry and begin work.