As the WGA writers’ strike crosses the 50-day mark studios and economies alike are feeling the effects of an all-pens-down writing force. California is already reporting a $1.5 billion loss, more than the $429 million yearly compensation package the writers are demanding from studios.
The lack of acceptable contract negotiations over fair pay to writers is costing the studios significantly more than they would have lost by compensating their writing staff by accepting the WGA’s terms.
“They claim that you don’t need writing staff during production and that writing doesn’t happen in post. Well, as anyone who’s ever written for a TV show or knows how a TV show gets made knows, that is flat-out false,” said Yahlin Chang, WGA’s negotiating committee member.
“Once an episode goes into prep and your production team comes back and says you’re a million dollars over budget, only writers can figure out how to consolidate scenes and do the rewriting necessary to keep the integrity of the story. And the lie that ‘writing doesn’t happen in post’ is how the companies have gotten away with forcing showrunners to work in post for free and for below minimum.”
Writers have been picketing since May 2nd over contract negotiations. Yesterday, the WGA held a “March and Rally for a Fair Contract” in Los Angeles. Thousands of writers and supporters joined the march starting at Pan Pacific Park and headed to the La Brea Tar Pits. The SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, the Directors Guild, and the American Federation of Musicians all came out to support the WGA.
“The degradation of writers’ working conditions and wages is unsustainable. We already know this and quite frankly, the entire town does too. It is precisely what the Guild is fighting to change with the proposals we have on the table,” said Chang. “The destruction of the writers’ room will undermine our union and threaten our health and pension plans. We need to secure the stability for the current membership as well as generations of writers coming up after us.”
Sadly for now no end is in sight as both sides still seem far apart on finding a deal.