#wga strike

[fans4wga]

"There goes the fall season." –Mini Q&A w/ WGA Strike Captain Warren Leight

[Mod Note: Please encourage SAG-AFTRA members to VOTE YES on the strike authorization here by 5:00 PM PT on Monday, June 5th, 2023.

It is not a guarantee that SAG-AFTRA will strike, unless 75% of their members vote yes to authorize one in the event that negotiations, starting on June 7, fall through. Their contract expires on June 30, at midnight, meaning they could strike as early as July 1.

Having an overwhelming majority of members (aka 99%) authorize a strike allows the board to negotiate from a place of strength.

Unions are stronger together, so this move would not only benefit SAG-AFTRA members, but also members of the WGA. As a reminder, if everyone in show business agrees to not work and/or not cross a picket line, then the studios will be under great pressure to agree to a fair deal in order for productions to resume.]

[badwolf-timeandspace]

Willow, Motherland Fort Salem, Runaways... these shows with queer female leads disappeared from streaming platforms worldwide with little or no warning.

They are no longer available, no physical medium either.

Disney, Hulu, HBO Max... they take these and many other shows down for tax cuts and to avoid having to pay residuals to the shows' creators and crew.

More and more shows are being vanished, but as always it hits the queer community extra hard, because there are already far less shows with queer content in the first place.

We've come from bury your gays to cancel your gays and thought it couldn't get worse. But this vanish your gays is worse.

At a time of "don't say gay" and anti-trans laws, the banning of queer books, displays of pride items in stores being vandalized or taken down (out of fear for the safety of employees), our shows are being wiped off the face of the earth.

So for this year's pride month, remember, the first pride was a riot.

[littlespoonevan]

it’s been said before but the thing about wga strike that i find most hilarious (in a dramatic irony kind of way) is that the studio execs’ big bargaining chip should be audiences getting angry over their fave shows being delayed/cancelled and turning on the writers except, with the age of streaming now, the average wait for any streaming-only show to launch a new season is like, at minimum a year. they really made us all get used to a system of ‘here’s 10 episodes in one go you’ll get the next bunch in 12-15 months’ and now think we’ll be annoyed bc what? we’ll have to wait 18 months instead??? bc the shows might get cancelled??? when they cancel them left right and centre without any warning as it is??? there was a three year gap between s3 and s4 of stranger things and s4 still dominated the entire internet all last summer. it didn’t lose any viewers, if anything, it gained them. even without covid delaying things (which is another reason we got used to long waits) all of the most popular streaming shows tend to have year long gaps between seasons and have done for years. like, delay the next season of my show by 4 years, idc, i’ll still be here just pay the fucking writers

[thisisvalid3]

I just think that Mike and Will need a good hug. From eachother. Not a 'bro hug' but one of those 𝕤𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕖𝕫𝕖 hugs. Like they're trying to grasp on to the very essence of what they are. Like they've been broken, glued back together and are now trying to hold on to eachother as tightly as one can imagine so that the glue sets and they don't fall apart all over again.

[writergeekrhw]

Re: the picket line

Out of curiosity, does the strike only affects the Six Bigass Companies?

Like, do indie films still get produced right now or are you striking on those too?

We are striking nearly every film and television company* that uses WGA writers, which means they have to agree to our Minimum Basic Agreement, which is negotiated by the AMPTP. In addition to the big companies, the AMPTP also represents dozens of other smaller entities who trust them to negotiate the MBA.

*It's my understanding that PBS has its own contract with us, and they negotiate separately on a different cycle, so "Sesame Street" is still getting written and we're not on strike against them. At least that's what someone told me on the picket line.

[thefirsthogokage]

Ok, so if anyone, like me, has been wondering when other contracts are up, here ya go:

In the tweet (Which QTs a shot of a large group of people from different unions in LA who's contracts are up soon that came together yesterday (I think)), Justine Bateman says these are the expiration dates:

SAG (Screen Actors Guild) June 30

DGA (Directors Guild of America) June 30

Local 11 (hotel, event, sports arenas, conventions workers) June 30

UPS (United Postal Service, not the same as USPS which is the government mail delivery service) July 31

So, yeah. I'm hoping the DGA woke up with that MAX bullshit about lumping in all writers and directors under the label of "creators". Apparently, that went against the WGA and DGA contracts which have explicit rules about crediting writers in directors (which I'm pretty sure it says in one or two of those tweets in the post I linked in the last sentence).

I fully anticipate with how active Local 11 has been walking with WGA, and other unions, that they are certainly prepared to strike too.

(link to first tweet) (link to second tweet)

And in the video in this tweet, and this tweet, you can see them flying two different flags of their union while marching with a whole of various union members. They are at least 20k members strong. That would do so much damage to the hotels there, and could effect actors, crew, and creative team members that come from out of town for work. Not to mention a whole lot of other people, of course.

Apparently, a hotel housekeeper has to work 17 hours a day to afford a two bedroom apartment in the city. Geezus.

Also, I would think UPS has been poised to strike for a while, considering how bad they have it on their trucks alone, from what I remember.

[samtheviking]

@neil-gaiman

I see more and more support for the WGA every day! It's really beautiful.

[historyandqueershenanigans]

NEW DONATION COMMISSION SLOTS FOR WGA STRIKE!!

I’m very excited to get to do another one of these, this time donations will be going to support the wga in their strike efforts. Heres how it works:

INSTEAD OF PAYING ME, send me proof of having donated 25$ or more to the entertainment community fund (designated to film and tv professionals) and I’ll do a commission for you!

There will be 2 slots open for either a watercolor or digital piece each.

If I get more than 2 requests I will take those commissions as well but they will be done later than the first 2.

I prefer sandman related commissions but I’m open to other stuff too

Message me if interested. Solidarity forever!

[mysharona1987]

[dailysudeikis]

Jason with a fellow writer at the WGA strike in LA - May 25, 2023

[retr0things]

Remember when mikaelas were getting mlvn doubt after this dropped May 12?

[fans4wga]

Without even announcing it on their list of titles to be removed, Disney+ and Hulu have pulled Marvel's Runaways from streaming. (There is a decent chance that this is in order to lease it to another streaming site in the future, but for now there is no legal way to watch Runaways.)

This is not the same as the tax write-off issue with HBO's Batgirl film, as the series has already been paid for and aired 3 seasons. We're now entering an era where streaming sites have user saturation in the US, so further growth and the kind of exponential profits Wall Street investors expect from these corporations is really hard, if not impossible.

Where they'll now find those "profits" is by cutting old shows from the service—in the hopes they can license it elsewhere, and also so they don't have to pay residuals to the writers, actors, and other artists on the show. Make no mistake, this is corporate heartlessness at its best—cutting show residuals during the WGA strike!—and it will continue unless the WGA and other unions strike a deal to stop it.

[witchern]

heads up: these kids are the fucking best.

[Image ID: Letters addressed to the WGA from a group of grade school students at St. Timothy School in Century City. All of the letters begin with the same typed intro: "Dear Writer, My teacher taught us about the Writer's Strike in our Performing Arts class. I wanted to show my support."

The following are all handwritten additions by the students:

"I hope this ends soon. Stay safe while protesting. DON'T GIVE UP." From Jordan, 8th grade.

"We fight with you! Keep up fighting. You are built different than AI." From Sean Park, 6th grade.

"It must be very tough to strike but you have to take those steps to secure your future. We want to work as it is enjoyful but we can't let AI take our jobs so we protest." From Nick, 8th grade.

"I hope they give you everything deserve I know it's not fair and its a pain to protest but we all wish you the best of luck!!! You're doing amazing!" From Eden Harker, 8th grade.

"Your feet must really hurt from all that protesting! I don't want AI to take over. Theres alot of movies/shows I like. Like the fallout, coraline, queens gambit, Level 16 and more. Thanks for being so amazing!" From Misha.

"Stay safe dont get run over. The strik will end soon. Keep going" From Michael.

"YOU DESERVE MORE MONEY AFTER ALL THE GREAT MOVIES U MADE. I LOVE UR MOVIES UR AMAZING I LUV U" From Lauren S, 6th grade.]

[daikon1]

It’s not that I’m not working on my WIPs, it’s that I’m *checks notes* choosing not to write in solidarity with the Writer’s Guild Strike.

[singing-not-sleeping-beauty]

The longer the wga strike lasts the better the news

they're planning themed picket lines now, starting with Star Trek

[bigassbowlingballhead]

Just so we're all on the same page with the writer's strike.

If during the strike, it's announced about AI generated shows. We are not watching them. Not even out of curiosity. Let them fail every AI generated show they try make.

The human voice can not be replaced by AI. Don't let them try.