Hollywood’s Lessons from the SAG and WGA Shutdowns

Let the unpacking begin.

After a record-long work stoppage, SAG-AFTRA and its largest employers have reconciled. Hollywood’s TV and film production machinery is winding down after a more than six-month furlough that has taxed every sector of the entertainment economy, from union members to local businesses to media giants. .

So what did we learn after the long march of a hard-working summer that bled into an angry, weary autumn? Honestly, we’ve learned a ton.

The industry’s problems with overproduction and the disconnect between capital expenditures and audience returns were widely documented on the SAG-AFTRA and WGA picket lines. Described actor after actor walking the picket lines in LA and New York. Variety Experiences of being a day player, recurring and guest star at times being nickel and dimed, surviving and outright cheating have led the once seasoned and well-connected thespian to film and TV work. It allowed me to live a solid life, without reaching a marquee name. condition This year, picket-waving actors with long lists of credits cited instances of begging business executives for their fees and leaning on SAG-AFTRA staff to help enforce their contract rights. why The same was true when we spoke to rank and file WGA members at all levels of experience. Smaller episode orders, fewer seasons per series and a wider revenue gap between the top and bottom players made Peak TV a bumpy road to work in Hollywood.

These were human stories of how studio, network and streamer executives were trying to manage an unprecedented tsunami of original content production. The pressure on Workday actors and writers was especially affecting veterans as it comes after years of acquiring top-name brand talent at record salaries for TV series and streaming movies. Now, the industry will return to work in a much calmer market for material costs. A number of projects greenlit before the WGA strike began on May 2 have already been scrapped by streamers and other outlets. And the upheaval is not over.

Another important outcome of the Labor Contract Cycle is to spark a conversation about the legal, ethical, and moral lines for engaging creative artificial intelligence technologies. Instead of talking about tech in random words, the anger and conversation that resulted from the strikes forced Hollywood to talk in detail about what creators working in copyright-based industries are doing. So how can AI affect the employment picture? The details of the SAG-AFTRA terms on AI will no doubt be studied as guidelines in the sea of ​​litigation and public policymaking now underway in the United States and around the world.

But the biggest takeaway of all is that Hollywood’s labor contract negotiation process needs to be taken apart and rebuilt for the modern era. When negotiations begin, when priorities are narrowed down, how economic terms are calculated and even the names surrounding “last, best and final” offers need to be rethought. Outside the pressure cooker environment of contract negotiations. A tight deadline.

The WGA went down the pencil for 148 days before reaching an agreement. SAG-AFTRA was out for 118 days, a record for a union for a TV and film strike involving traditional TV and film production (in 2000, the then-separate SAG and AFTRA jointly struck out commercial producers (There was a six-month strike against .) These labor actions were the result of untenable conditions in the industry that intensified around 2015 and reached a boiling point in 2022 as material costs began to shrink sharply.

Labor and management should commit to appointing some kind of bipartisan industrial commission to put some real study into a better process that could prevent another six-month shutdown from burning holes in Hollywood’s production pipeline. . (We made the case in a cover story a few weeks ago, ICYMI.)

But before that can happen, business leaders need to turn their attention to IATSE. The union’s master contract, which covers crew, tech and craft workers who are key contributors to every movie and TV show, is set to expire on July 31.

IATSE, as the industry will recall, came closer than it had in decades during the 2021 contract negotiations. Hollywood’s essential workers have also given rise to the sacrifice of a long labor conflict. The widespread pain caused by production shutdowns only reinforces how Hollywood’s work is woven by many hands. Now is the time for many hard-learned lessons and new treaty precedents to be set this year to find a way to get this year’s dormant IATSE and the rest of the business back on track.