Thousands of film and television writers headed to picket lines on Tuesday (May 2) for their first work stoppage in 15 years, sending Hollywood into turmoil and disrupting TV production as the industry wrestles with the shift to streaming, Reuters reports.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) said its leadership unanimously supported a strike after failing to reach an agreement for higher pay from studios such as Walt Disney Co and Netflix Inc.
"The companies' behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce," said the WGA, which represents roughly 11,500 writers.
The guild was seeking changes in pay and the formulas used to compensate writers when their work is used by streaming services, among other proposals. The WGA estimated its changes would cost about $429 million a year, according to a negotiations summary shared on Twitter and verified by Reuters as authentic.
Striking writers picketed in front of Netflix in Los Angeles, chanting phrases like "Whose stories? Our stories!" and "On a strike, shut 'em down, LA is a union town."
Conglomerates are under pressure from Wall Street to make their streaming services profitable after pumping billions of dollars into programming to attract subscribers.
The rise of streaming has eroded television ad revenue as traditional TV audiences shrink.
The last WGA strike in 2007 and 2008 lasted 100 days. The action cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion as productions shut down and out-of-work writers, actors and producers cut back spending.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents studios, said it had proposed "generous increases in compensation," and was willing to increase its offer.
But it said it objected to WGA demands that "would require a company to staff a show with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time, whether needed or not."
Writers say they have suffered in the streaming TV boom with shorter seasons and smaller residual payments.
Writers said they were willing to walk off the job because changes from streaming have made it difficult for many to earn a living in expensive cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
Half of TV series writers now work at minimum salary levels, compared with a third in the 2013-14 season, according to WGA statistics. Median pay for scribes at the higher writer/producer level has fallen 4% over the last decade.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is another issue at the bargaining table.
The WGA wants safeguards to prevent studios from using AI to generate new scripts from writers' previous work. Writers also want to ensure they are not asked to rewrite draft scripts created by AI.
Netflix may be insulated from any immediate impact because of its global focus and access to non-U.S. production facilities.
