The first day of the first industry-wide Hollywood labour strike in six decades felt at times like a siege. Crowds of actors and writers blockaded the front gates of eight of the biggest film and television studios in Los Angeles.
The months-long strike by the Writers Guild of America was escalated this week by a fiery speech from Fran Drescher, president of the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA. Larger picket lines then formed outside the Warner Bros, Paramount, Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Sunset Gower studio sites in LA.
Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA members and supporters on a picket line outside Paramount Studios in LA.Credit: Bloomberg
Hopes for a speedy resolution between the feuding parties – the unions representing Hollywood’s writers and actors, and the studios which produce the bulk of the content for America’s billion-dollar film and TV industry – seemed to fade, with fierce words exchanged.
Disney boss Bob Iger waded into the conflict by telling an interviewer that the union demands were not “realistic.” Drescher, whose speech won wide acclaim from her members, replied by calling the studios “terribly repugnant and out of touch”.
“It’s very disturbing to me,” Iger said. “We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we’re facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it’s not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption.”
But Drescher was having none of it. “Positively tone-deaf,” Drescher said, when asked about Iger’s comments. “I don’t think it served him well,” she continued. “If I were that company, I would lock him behind doors and never let him talk to anybody about this because it’s so obvious that he has no clue.”
Drescher pointed out Iger’s “high seven figures, eight figures” salary as proof of his fundamental misunderstanding of the union’s demands. “[He does not know] what is really happening on the ground with hard-working people that don’t make anywhere near the salary he is making. They don’t care if they’re land barons of a medieval time.”
The Writer’s Guild and SAG-AFTRA have not been on strike at the same time since the 1960s; and the strikes come after months of severe industrial disruption in Los Angeles, which has already had to deal with a strike by school district workers and hotel employees.
The addition of high-profile actors to the strike has also drawn national media attention in the US, amplified by the fact that Drescher, as one of the key faces of the strike, starred in one of the most popular US sitcoms of the 1990s, The Nanny.
Both unions are challenging the studios over similar issues: the falling value of residuals (compensation paid for syndication or re-runs), particularly from streaming content; the impact of lower incomes on access to healthcare; the cost of video auditions, which have mostly replaced in-person auditions, to actors; and a lack of regulation over the use of artificial intelligence in future film and television production.
Media attention on the strike has also been amplified by the presence of profile actors on the picket lines. Oscar winner Jane Fonda joined the picketers outside the Netflix offices in Los Angeles; another Oscar winner Susan Sarandon was in the crowd outside the offices of Warner Bros in New York.
“We’re in an old contract for a new type of business and it’s just not working for most people,” Sarandon said. “The corporate greed that the studios have shown has made it very difficult for people to have lives.”
Drescher, who made appearances at several picket lines in Los Angeles, said that the actors and writers were facing an existential threat. “If we don’t take control of this situation from these greedy megalomaniacs, we are all going to be in threat of losing our livelihoods,” she said.
George Clooney – yet another Oscar winner – also weighed into the debate. “This is an inflection point in our industry,” Clooney said. “Actors and writers in large numbers have lost their ability to make a living. For our industry to survive that has to change. For actors that journey starts now.”
Striking writers and actors chant as they walk a picket line at NBC Universal Studios in New York.Credit: AP
Helming the picket line outside Warner Bros, former SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris said Drescher’s call to arms was “on the mark”.
“She really showed that we actually have a meaningful reason to be here right now,” Carteris said.
“[Fran] made it really relevant to all workers ... We’re being threatened here and challenged, not just in terms of squeezing our wages but the idea of AI, which will absolutely affect all of us. This is all of our fight.”
The financial impact of the strike, which has effectively shut down film and television production in Los Angeles, across the US and across the world, is difficult to estimate but will easily run to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The cost to the city of Los Angeles in non-production losses to retail and other services is around US$30 million ($44 million) a day.
LA’s newly elected mayor Karen Bass issued a statement urging for the unions and studios to resolve the issues quickly. “It is clear the entertainment industry is at an inflection point,” Bass said.
“This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy. I call upon all sides to come to the table and work around the clock until an equitable agreement is reached.”
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2023-07-15 04:55:09Z
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