#wgasolidarity

[wilwheaton]

In 1960, SAG and WGA struck to force management to adapt to the new technology of television. Without that strike and the agreement it birthed, residual use payments would not exist.

My parents stole nearly all of my salary from my entire childhood. My Star Trek residuals were all I had, and they kept me afloat for two decades while I rebuilt my life. I have healthcare and a pension because of my union. The AMPTP billionaires want to take all that security away so they can give CEOs even more grotesque wealth at the expense of the people who make our industry run.

To give some sense of what is at stake: There are actors who star in massively successful, profitable, critically acclaimed shows that are all on streaming services. You see them all the time. They are famous, A-list celebrities. Nearly all of those actors don't earn enough to qualify for health insurance, because the studios forced them to accept a buyout for all their residuals (decade of reuse, at the least) that is less than I earned for one week on TNG. And I was the lowest paid cast member in 1988. They want to do this while studio profits and CEO compensation are at historic highs.

I mean, if not now, when? And I haven't even touched on AI and working conditions.

We must fight for the future of our industry in the face of changing technology, the same way our elders did in 1960. So today, my Spacemom and I went to the place where it started for us, way back when, to do just that.

I see all your support. It means so much. Thank you.

[ami-v-dragnire]

it started with aziraphale's smug ass face

[neutrinotempest]

[lamajaoscura]

Hollywood’s Slo-Mo Self-Sabotage | The New Yorker

[vexinglyvague]

WGA strike 2023 is official

[hkblack]

Important WGA Strike Info For Fandom

Good morning folks. I wish I had checked the news last night but I didn't! So this is coming a bit late.

TODAY Friday 11 August 2023 the WGA is meeting with AMPTP to see if they can resume talks and negotiations.

The WGA has been striking for 100 days and it is in the AMPTP's best interest to find a deal with them to smooth relations with SAG-AFTRA before going to the table with the actors as well.

However, let's be real about the greed of the AMPTP that got us here in the first place. 100 days is a long time for writers to not be getting paid and while they are asking for reasonable things, every day striking is another day of financial insecurity.

So how can we, the fans, help?

Today we need to BLOW UP the solidarity tags: #WGASolidarity and #SAGAFTRAstrong

In everything you post today, every fannish post on every IP, make your solidarity loud and clear. If your favorite show has a social media account, everything they post today, respond with solidarity posts. Share WGA and SAG-AFTRA member posts, TikToks, etc. Make it so that when the execs take their bathroom and coffee breaks and open their phones to scroll Twitter or whatever social media they're using for five minutes, all they see is fan solidarity.

Do a rewatch of your favorite show and tag it + the solidarity messages as you live tweet your reactions.

Make it so that every time they go back to the table the WGA negotiators who are sitting there with them are as aware as the execs are that the fans are on the writer's side.

We can help! We just have to be loud!

Happy Friday folks!

[wilwheaton]

These 10 billionaires are destroying my industry with their greed.

[wilwheaton]

Neil would probably post this, but he doesn't have social media. So here's a gift link to a story I know a lot of you will want to read.

[wilwheaton]

Are you on strike?

I want to make so many dad jokes right now, you have no idea.

But, yes, I am a member of SAG-AFTRA since 1980, and I am on strike with my union, which has been in solidarity with the WGA since May.

I hope we can get back to bargaining, and I hope that the AMPTP will move off its stated position of letting us all go broke and homeless while their billionaire owners add decks to their yachts, so we give up and our unions are destroyed.

I hope that some sane people will sit down and negotiate with us, because so far all we are getting is outright rejections of our proposals, a refusal to counter, and the insulting fiction that paying a background actor 200 dollars one time to use their image and labor in perpetuity (thus eventually removing background actors from production, entirely) was some kind of groundbreaking offer to address the serious issues we all have with AI.

So unless and until the other side negotiates in good faith, I'm proudly on strike.

[wilwheaton]

Even though Mayim Bialik reportedly chose to stand down from her Jeopardy! hosting duties in the show’s final week in deference to the Writers Guild of America strike, the show will apparently go on. According to Deadline, Ken Jennings—the Jeopardy! legend with whom Bialik alternates hosting duties—will step up to the lectern “as a result of Bialik’s decision.” Representatives for Jennings did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Jeopardy! is a WGA show, Deadline reports, and some of its writers—including Michele Loud, Jim Rhine and Billy Wisse—have reportedly joined the picket line. (Writers completed their duties ahead of the season and the strike, the trade publication notes.)

Ken Jennings Crosses the Picket Line to Keep ‘Jeopardy!’ Running

We will all remember this, Ken. This town isn’t nearly as big as you think it is.

[lamajaoscura]

Barbie and Oppenheimer Box Office Is Proof: Support the Strikes

[lamajaoscura]

AMPTP's Refusal to Negotiate Fairly Affects All of Hollywood