Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.
Gilbert Flores for Variety[1]
The 2023 Screen Actors Guild–American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike started on May 2nd, 2023 and lasted until just recently, when the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) agreed to negotiate with union leaders’ and workers’ demands, on September 27th, 2023.[2] Writers and actors had been picketing together for a historic event, becoming one of the longest labor strikes in Hollywood history. As written in Georgetown University’s interview with labor negotiations expert Catherine Tinsley, “The writers’ strike comes amid the ongoing strike by over 150,000 actors in the (SAG-AFTRA). It’s the first time that both unions have striked simultaneously since 1960.”[3] It is important to note that “SAG merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to form SAG-AFTRA in 2012.”[4] SAG-AFTRA is in solidarity with WGA.[5] The strikes have lasted 148 days and prohibited many blockbuster projects from moving forward with production, leaving a noticeable side ache in many of the executives and their subsequent profit margins, too great to simply ignore or shut down.[6] The largest concerns among the strikers consisted of that of artificial intelligence and deciding when and how the new technology should be involved in the human creative process.
The writers have recently come to an agreement through working with their union, WAG, to negotiate with their bosses, producers and owners of studios in Hollywood. It is the first time that AI has been included in a WGA contract.[7] According to Betsy Reed, editor at The Guardian, the contract negotiations are as follows, “The writers’ contract does not outlaw the use of AI tools in the writing process, but it sets up guardrails to make sure the new technology stays in the control of workers, rather than being used by their bosses to replace them.”[8] It’s a preview of what is expected to be a larger labor struggle against AI, preventing this new technology from replacing humans in pursuit of intelligence. Although AI is not the only issue that caused this act of protest, some other problems have been culminating relating to the rise of streaming platforms and the subsequent negotiations of pay terms to accommodate these changes, along with noticeable wage disparities.[9] Streaming services’ popularity in recent years has increased tremendously, yet writers and actors felt that their pay hadn’t changed nearly enough.[10] The actors are still trying to negotiate and come to terms with some form of agreement with AMPTP at the time of this publication. It’s suggested that much of the success these Hollywood workers achieve is due to strong unions backing them as well as the privilege of fame, and a supportive, popular public status. How did these unions become powerful?
The history of Hollywood’s organized workforce dates back nearly a century. The beginning of it was around the 1920s, but it really established itself in the 1930s during the Great Depression. The Depression had Hollywood’s, like many other industries’, workers facing brutal pay cuts and unemployment, so these laborers sought to unionize and did, forming what is now known as WGA.[11] The New Deal had a valuable impact on this decision; The Wagner Act served as a tangible result of the political and ideological climate at the time. Its passing in 1935 guaranteed the rights of workers to organize, bargain collectively, exercise mutual aid, etc.[12] The National Labor Relations Board helped these unions develop power. Though it wasn’t long until WW2 and its aftereffects posed new difficulties.
The onset of the Cold War brought about new challenges to unions, including the Labor Management Relations Act, which was hard on unions.[14] For example – in the year 1945, the most overt example of the visibly increasing tensions in the transition out of a new deal political climate came in the shape of “Bloody Friday” which took place on October 5. October 5th is the day when hundreds of strikers – painters, carpenters, writers, actors, all of Hollywood – picketed outside of Warner Bros and were brutally attacked by police forces. “Making movies and television requires hard labor and plenty of it. The industry is built on obscenely long hours, unsafe working conditions, wild pay disparities and unsteady employment,” Hadley Meares of The LAist, remarks.[15] At the same time, many protests were occurring partially due to globalization, that is, increased competition with foreign films and television. The events of this day contributed to the creation of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which restricted the power and activities of labor unions.[16] This day also served as a reflection of the growing anti-communist, conservative ideology that was about to erupt in the States. The peak of anti-communism’s impact on Hollywood unions would occur in 1953, with the blacklisting of many Hollywood figures out of fear that their participation in films would translate to a communist infiltration of the US.[17] This qualification of proving oneself an anti-communist would now determine the success of civil rights movements, unions, and other social protests, although leftist figures were some of the first ones who pushed for the existence of these organizations to begin with. Unions commonly found their grounds, unions found their grounds in a core of leftist militants such as John Howard Lawson, the Screen Writers Guild’s first president and a Communist Party member.[18]
Many more protests occurred over the years, one notable strike in 1988 lasted for 22 weeks, the longest in history at its time, much of the concern regarding writers’ creative rights and commission for reruns on television. In 2007 and 2008, a 100-day strike occurred to account for labor rights relating to the recent creation of new media platforms including internet services and digital downloads.[19][20] The strikes of Hollywood seem to consistently reflect a changing political climate and a continuous development of technology and the relationship these factors have with laborers.
Over time, Hollywood’s unions have remained rather stable, giving their members representation and a powerful voice, with strikes producing viable, positive outcomes. That doesn’t mean there aren’t persistent, consistent challenges either from police forces or from executives, sometimes materializing in strange ways, like most recently the trimming of trees to eliminate shade for protesters, or convenient placement of construction projects so picketers are forced from the sidewalk.[21] Hollywood’s strong labor union history spanning from the New Deal political climate to anti-communist hysteria, all the way to the neoliberal age into the present, is a profound and important example of the history and future of labor movements in the US.
[1] Cynthia Littleton, Gene Maddaus, Selome Hailu, and Adam B. Vary. “WGA Aims to Flex Industry Muscle With March and Rally at Pivotal Moment for Hollywood Labor Talks,” Variety (blog), June 21, 2023.
[2] Wendy Lee, Stacy Perman, “WGA Members Easily Ratify New Contract to End 148-Day Strike as Anxieties Loom,” Los Angeles Times, October 9, 2023.
[3] Cliff Djajapranata, “Hollywood Strikes Explained by a Labor Negotiations Expert,” Georgetown University (blog), August 23, 2023.
[4] Steven Wishnia, “Hollywood Is a Union Town, But the History Is Complicated,” The Indypendent, Accessed October 16, 2023.
[5] “SAG-AFTRA Statement in Support of WGA Negotiations,” SAG-AFTRA, Accessed October 16, 2023.
[6] Lee, Perlman, “WGA Members Easily Ratify New Contract to End 148-Day Strike as Anxieties Loom.”
[7] Djajapranata, “Hollywood Strikes Explained by a Labor Negotiations Expert.”
[8] Dani Anguiano, and Lois Beckett. “How Hollywood Writers Triumphed over AI – and Why It Matters,” The Guardian, October 1, 2023, sec. Culture.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Lee, Perlman, “WGA Members Easily Ratify New Contract to End 148-Day Strike as Anxieties Loom.”
[11] Wishnia, “Hollywood Is a Union Town, But the History Is Complicated.”
[12] An act to diminish the causes of labor disputes burdening or obstructing interstate and foreign commerce, to create a National Labor Relations Board, and for other purposes, July 5, 1935; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.
[13] Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library Collection, 1945.
[14] Murray Ross, “Labor Relations in Hollywood,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 254 (1947): 58–64.
[15] Hadley Meares, “How The Bloody Hollywood Strike Of 1945 Forever Changed The Film Business,” The LAist, November 23, 2021.
[16] “1947 Taft-Hartley Substantive Provisions,” The National Labor Relations Board, Accessed October 16, 2023.
[17] The Hollywood Blacklist, Explained, Film 101, Accessed October 16, 2023.
[18] Wishnia, “Hollywood Is a Union Town, But the History Is Complicated.”
[19] “A History of WGA Contract Negotiations and Gains,” Writers Guild of America, Accessed October 16, 2023.
[20] Meares, “How The Bloody Hollywood Strike Of 1945 Forever Changed The Film Business.”
[21] Eva Rothenberg, “Universal under Investigation after It Trimmed Trees That Shaded SAG-AFTRA Protesters,” CNN, July 19, 2023.