Ayyy! The WGA and SAG-AFTRA are on strike! It’s because of a lot of reasons, one of which is that studio executives are apparently comfortable with letting their workers go homeless. While Writers Guild of America and the (deep breath) Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists don’t all have the same requests, there is a lot of overlap. Our unions cover different services, but there are a lot of folks in the picket line who are in both. Oh, man, do they love telling you they’re in both. ‘Hyphenates’, they call themselves. Dangerous people.
To oversimplify, the big issues at play here are residual pay and pay increases, the use of AI to replace workers, and certain expectations regarding free writing work and self-tape auditions. I encourage you to read up on the issues from the unions themselves or, heck, a news source you trust. If you’ve somehow found yourself here and you’re anti-union, I can’t stop you, but I’d love you to know why we’re striking.
But a question that keeps popping up from non-union member friends is ‘how can we help people striking?’, and this isn’t me faking friendships to convince you to do nice things for us. I have friends. Really. I do. Okay, I have family members. And they’ve asked. So here are some things you can do to help the WGA and SAG-AFTRA during a strike.
And please keep in mind these are from me personally as a union member, not official communication from the unions themselves. Anything that WGA or SAG say overrules anything I’m saying here. Disclaimer, baby, woo!
Donate to the Entertainment Community Fund
This is the big one. The best way to help people affected by the strike is to, well, help people affected by the strike. The Entertainment Community Fund has worked for decades to help struggling workers of all disciplines in the entertainment industry. To be clear, this money isn’t set aside for writers and actors - it’s for everyone who’s trying to make a living in our industry including people behind the scenes.
Obviously, giving money isn’t easy. Everyone feels the squeeze. That’s why so many different sectors are unionizing, striking, or discussing striking. But when you donate to the Entertainment Community Fund, you’re directly helping the people whose jobs have been stalled or lost due to the studios’ refusal to negotiate. Everyone deserves a living wage and everyone deserves a chance to work in this industry without rich parents.
Get Me Rich Parents
No, I’m kidding. But if you could…
Should I Cancel Subscriptions? Should I Skip The Movies?
That’s your choice to make and absolutely fine whichever way you make it. I’m still doing a Barbenheimer weekend. Almost everything appearing on TV and in movies right now was made long before our last contract expired. It was legitimate work, and many union members will still benefit if those works are a success.
On the other hand, part of the reason we’re striking is because it’s become much harder to benefit when those works are a success. Subscriber counts dropping or low ticket sales can affect stock prices which can put pressure on CEOs. That said, these businesses are behemoths and they could always find a non-strike scapegoat to blame.
But if you do cancel a subscription, be sure to let them know why.
Correct Misconceptions
Please don’t go to war for us online, but it is helpful to correct a lot of the myths and misconceptions you might hear from folks in your everyday life. Fortunately, the studio executives have done that job for us recently with aforementioned homelessness comments and calling us unrealistic around the same time they announce giving themselves eight-figure salary bonuses.
I don’t know every myth and I can’t clear every misconception, but here are a couple big ones:
We didn’t suddenly decide to strike. Our contracts were up. Entertainment unions negotiate these overall contracts every few years. The reason the WGA went on strike before SAG wasn’t because one was more eager than the other - it was because one contract ended a couple months before the other.
We would love to come to the negotiating table! Let me repeat that: we are not the ones refusing to negotiate. It’s the studio executives who have delayed and postponed and dragged their feet on this for both unions. They barely used the 12-day extension they got from SAG. Part of this is their strategy to bleed union members until enough get desperate, making them eat into their savings as work stops.
We were not given reasonable offers we turned down. Part of their offer to the WGA was changing certain 13-week writing jobs into day rates and part of their offer to SAG was paying extras for one day’s work while owning their likeness for all eternity. Those are pretty bad faith offers. Their offer on AI was to have annual discussions on it. Seriously. That’s the way parents lie to their kids to avoid buying them a parrot.
Most of us aren’t rich. The average WGA and SAG member goes months - or even years - without a major project. A big paycheck for eight weeks becomes less of a big paycheck over fifty-two weeks. And that’s if you’re lucky enough to get that big paycheck at all. The vast majority of these union members are not fighting to get a second mansion, they’re fighting to keep an apartment lease.
This specific strike does not affect video games. This one is just for you folks. If you hear about a SAG actor on a video game project, they are okay to go. Same union, different contract. Although, fun fact: SAG actually did strike video game acting in 2016!
Don’t Scab
This sounds obvious, but companies have already started reaching out to influencers and creators to make content for them during the strike. Not only will this get you banned from both unions, but it also undermines yourself. If you want to make the good life in Hollywood you imagine everyone is living, then you have to fight for it. And if you want to tell your story the way you envisioned it, then you have to fight for that, too.
Scabbing is not your chance to break into the industry. It’s your chance to be used for very little money in any way the companies want. They are not going to pay you well, they are not going to treat you well, and afterward - I repeat - you will not be allowed to join the unions. I don’t make those rules but those are the rules.
Don’t scab. It ain’t worth it.
Get Me Rich Parents
My real parents wouldn’t even notice.