How to Understand the Writer’s Strike

The Hollywood writer’s strike is really dragging on. One day the word on the street is that the strike is going to end next week. Another day the word might be that the strike will last until summer, or even further. It’s already gone much longer than many people anticipated. If you’re wondering what exactly it all means, here’s a primer on what the writers are asking for and what the studio heads don’t want to give them.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Get to know the players. The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), is going toe to toe with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The contract is renewed every three years and in 2007 the WGA wanted a number of new demands met by the AMPTP.

2. The demands primarily have to do with the Internet: how writer’s get paid when a show/movie is broadcast/downloaded online. Writers receive a residual for television broadcasting, but the same cannot be said for residuals from online broadcasting. Because there is less overhead for online streaming (no warehousing of products), the writers are asking for a fair share of the profits.

3. Learn the impact of a change in technology from VHS to DVD sales. The strike in 1988 determined how much writers would get paid from videotape sales. Now that the technology has changed over, writers are still getting the same percentage on DVD sales. The DVD market is much larger than the VHS market ever was, so writers are asking for their share of the profits.

4. Since writing is basically freelance work, residuals are the main way that writers earn a living during the down time when they haven’t been hired for new work – which can be months at a time. Writers live off the residuals on previous work.

5. Understand the AMPTP’s side. Their main argument is that it is too early to set a percentage figure on internet-related residuals because the web is such a new medium for streaming and downloading media. The writers counter this by saying that there are plenty of concrete numbers (4.6 billion dollars on “new media”) showing that the Internet is going to be highly profitable.

[Heart-C]

on 8/17/2008 Some real stakeholders' analysis here! Good work!

[MichaelJMotta]

on 2/8/2008 I support the strike too, less so as an economic peer than as a writing peer. Per Step 4, I'd love to know what percentage of freelance writers can live on what they make even during/immediately after projects, much less on residuals! How many freelance writers even receive residuals? It's usually a one-time rights deal. eHow actually pays nominal residuals in a sense, but with most places it's one-and-done. It's not easy to make a living as a freelance writer - you have to be extremely frugal. If you can do it Henry, more power to ya! I'm trying - and since I'm used to living like a perpetual college student, I survive.

On labor unions (not necessarily writer unions), while I support unions generally speaking, it's the non-union worker, sometimes the scab who is ostensibly from the same class (proletariat) as the union worker, who is derided rather than welcomed into the union.