When Hollywood's writers downed pens in 2007, it ruined James Bond and made Donald Trump a star. What if it happens again? Photo / Getty Images
In the current wave of achingly out of practice union muscle flexing, it’s strange to see Hollywood facing turbulent bouts of industrial action. This is the land of dreams and fairy tales. It’s like finding out that the seven dwarfs are in the National Union of Mineworkers.
But Hollywood’s writers’ union the Writers Guild of America is one of the most nimble and effective industrial organisations in the world and has been operating at a low level of semi-permanent militancy since it triumphed in a 100-day downing of pens back in 2007.
In the current round of talks over the WGA’s latest three year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) – which bargains on behalf of the nine largest film studios, the TV networks and the streaming services – this week saw the union hold and win a ballot for industrial action as 97.85 per cent of writers voted in favour.
The current deal ends on May 1, so the WGA has effectively locked and loaded, spat some chewing baccy onto the sun-baked sand and drawled “your move”.
What’s causing the stand-off?
The WGA agreement with the major studios is a byzantine set of formulas which calculate minimum pay rates, royalty rates (known as residuals) and the more straightforward health care arrangements. Royalties are lower for streaming shows than for broadcast TV and offer no reward bonus if a show is successful. Streamers now account for over 45 per cent of the royalties writers earn and the WGA thinks they should be commensurate with TV. Streamers are also more likely to pay writers the LA equivalent of minimum wage.
You don’t have to work a 9-5 when you have those TV residuals coming in pic.twitter.com/gd9hVW30IM
— Dylan Park-Pettiford (@dyllyp) May 23, 2021
Established, Emmy-winning writers have complained of being unable to earn a stable living, and of having to steal food from the Netflix cafeteria in order to eat while executives are lavishly compensated. As one writer said: “My sister makes a salary of over $300k with benefits at a streamer for SCHEDULING the shows my colleagues CREATE.”
Can’t they write movies instead?
Writers do have a number of places to write, the studios argue – far more than ever before. But the WGA sees a trend. There are fewer movies being made these days – down 31 per cent on a decade ago, according to the Motion Pictures Association – and whilst there is an awful lot of TV around, it’s a different type of TV.
In the Age of the Networks, TV seasons of up to 26 episodes were normal. HBO broke that model with 10 to 12 week seasons on its dramas in the early 2000s, and streamers followed suit when they launched.
Imagine I create something from nothing. It started as an idea and I turned it into an entire world. And with that, you earn all these squares. Yay for us, right? But when I ask for 2% of what wouldn’t exist without me, you think it’s unreasonable. Anyway, I voted yes! #WGAStrong pic.twitter.com/oIJhHpPNSR
— Danielle Nicki (@DanielleNicki) April 12, 2023
Add to that the extra time it takes to make a single episode – shows are competing for time in studios, post-production time is increasing as quality expectations rise and for global streamers like Netflix, writing, shooting, editing and adding VFX to a season just gets it ready for the overdubs, sub-titles and checks for local sensitivities. This typically takes three months. As many writers are paid per episode, writers say they’re working more and getting paid less – claiming weekly pay has fallen by four per cent over the past 10 years, or 23 per cent if adjusted for inflation.
But do the writers actually have clout? Surely anyone can knock out a screenplay…
Writers may be the least known on Oscar night, but they know their power. The last time the WGA called a strike in 2007, the factory town shut down and tens of thousands of entertainment workers and small businesses that service Hollywood (engineers, electricians, florists, caterers, chauffeurs, stylists, lumber yard workers) were idled. The Los Angeles economy lost more than US$2 billion (NZ$3.24b) according to the Milken Institute.
Actors also know the writers have a greater power than just the picket line – they have the best lines and the worst lines, easily handed out to pro-strike actors and anti-strike actors respectively. In 2007, the actors turning up on picket lines to show support almost outnumbered the writers. One reporter counted Ray Romano, Jack Black, Matthew Perry, Felicity Huffman, Minnie Driver, Oliver Hudson, Rob Lowe, Sally Field, the cast of Mad Men, Matthew Modine, Calista Flockhart, Sarah Silverman and Ben Stiller all waving banners on a single day.
And whilst 2007 is a long time ago, the renegotiations since have always been hard fought, a strike ballot was last called in 2017 – with similar support – and the last time writers flexed their muscle in 2019, over 7,000 of them sacked their own agents in a mass firing. The WGA sued the big four agencies - CAA, WME, UTA and ICM Partners - over the ‘packaging’ of talent, where an agent will present a studio with writer, director, and stars in a single easy to sign deal. The writers saw this as the agents acting in their own rather than their client’s interests. Eventually the agents saw their point.
What will happen if the writers go on strike?
The first to go will be the chat show hosts. If you need topical jokes about the strikes taking down your industry and your writers are the ones on strike… well… Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and the rest need teams of writers to sound funny and they won’t show. (In 2007, the hosts ended up paying their non-striking writers from their own pockets in order to avoid a total shutdown.) Saturday Night Live would go next, then the daytime soaps.
Most dramas have been cramming hard to finish their current season and a handful have already shot a few episodes of their forthcoming season. But autumn will look sparse on network TV whilst the streamers won’t show that anything is wrong for months. For movies, everything is in place until 2024. It’ll be like a very, very slow pile of dominoes falling.
In 2007, audiences did – eventually – see a dip in quality, with many TV shows rushing to finish their seasons early and botching storylines thanks to a vastly reduced number of episodes. (On the plus side, Breaking Bad’s curtailed first season meant Aaron Paul’s character Jesse Pinkman got to live.) Even James Bond suffered, thanks to Quantum of Solace having to begin shooting without a finished script. Daniel Craig admitted that the strike “f_____” the film: “We couldn’t employ a writer to finish it… There was me trying to rewrite scenes – and a writer I am not.”
Will anyone do well?
International producers and writers will have their shows on prime time US TV and global streamers will be signing more deals with non-US talent. So expect to see more foreign-language shows popping up on your Netflix home page. The reality TV industry, which often uses writers even if they’re not credited, is already dusting off formats – ironically, Donald Trump’s version of The Apprentice was on the verge of being cancelled in 2007 but the WGA strike gave it a new lease of life and America a new president. The universe loves unintended consequences.
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