Hollywood studios have already lost the strikes. Now it’s time to surrender

“Don’t start a fight unless you are certain you can win it.”

Yesterday from L.A. Times Culture Columnist and Critic Mary McNamara. Perhaps the single best summation of where things stand. We can skip the column’s review of the many, many tactical mishaps committed by the AMPTP and cut to the chase:

Everyone knew streaming platforms broke the traditional business model of television and film at the expense of those who actually make television and film even as the salary gap between the executive suite and the soundstages had widened to “Meg 2: The Trench”-like proportions.

Did they think the WGA and SAG-AFTRA weren’t going to rise up, teeth gnashing, in response?

I deeply fear that, like so many of the conniving and oblivious characters we love to despise, the studios thought they could use chaos to their own advantage and then call it back when they were done. Sure, let the writers strike; we’ll use the shutdown to burn off certain contracts and projects, and goose quarterly reports before offering the guilds just enough (but not too much) to send everyone back to work.

Except it has not worked out like that. At all.

Now, after major victories by UPS workers and airline pilots, among other groups agitating during this “hot labor summer,” what the AMPTP has so far treated as concessions can be recognized for what they are: lowball offers. And as both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have proved, they are not interested in half measures of that sort, especially as the writers’ strike heads into its fifth month. Why would they? No writer or actor wants to be forced to strike again in another four years, and the only way to prevent that is to make reasonable gains on all the key issues this time around.

Which, if they are the great business minds they claim to be, the studio heads should understand.

So far, however, they continue to insist that down is up, wrong is right and all they need to get through this is a better PR team.

Guys, you’ve lost the war. The best thing to do now is negotiate the terms of surrender.

Years ago when I first broke into the business, one of my agents referred to all the bluster and posturing that goes in negotiating deals in Hollywood as a “d*ck-measuring contest.” My fear is that the CEOs are looking at the writers in that light: It’s just a contest of who’s got the biggest d*ick.

For the writers, this is not a contest. This is about survival.

Every single day this goes on without the AMPTP engaging the Guild in meaningful negotiations means more heartache, anxiety, and pain for hundreds of thousands of people who make a living as part of the film and television business.

I agree with Mary McNamara. D*ck-measuring contest or not, they’ve lost.

For the rest of the L.A. Times column, go here.

#WGAStrong

For the latest updates on the strike and news resources, go here.

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