Poll: More Americans support striking actors and writers than studios

Just 7% sympathize more with the entertainment and media corporations represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

As a bitter labor battle continues to roil Hollywood, the public is paying attention, and Americans are feeling more sympathy toward striking actors and writers than to the studios, networks and streamers, a new poll for the Los Angeles Times finds.

The historic double strike by two of the entertainment industry’s most powerful unions — the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA — has brought film and TV production to a virtual standstill, generating a high degree of public awareness.

Nearly 3 out of 4 Americans surveyed said they were aware of the strike and 60% said they were at least “somewhat aware” of the issues in the dispute, according to the survey, which was conducted for The Times by Leger, a Canadian-based polling firm with experience in U.S. surveys.

I’m not surprised public awareness of the strike is this high. The fact that both the writers and actors are walking the picket lines has generated a lot of press. Plus, both guild members have been using social media to keep pushing the story to people.

As they weigh those issues, the public generally feels more sympathy toward the actors and writers than the studios, networks and streamers, the Times/Leger poll found.

Thirty-eight percent of respondents say they sympathize more with the striking actors and writers, while just 7% sympathize more with the entertainment and media corporations represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

But sympathy for the unions falls short of a majority: Most respondents are either ambivalent or unsure; 29% say they sympathize with both sides equally and 25% said they don’t know which side they favor.

While 38% is not a majority of people, but 7% for the AMPTP companies is laughable. I suspect a lot of that derives from the consistent messaging that the CEOs are a bunch of overpaid suits.

Today WGA reps are meeting with people from the AMPTP to talk about if they will continue talking. I find it funny how the AMPTP scheduled to the meeting at their Sherman Oaks HQ … on a Friday … at 4PM. That’s just about the worst time for writers to take meetings. Horrific traffic on the 405. Everybody is ready for the weekend. But here we are.

In an email to Guild membership yesterday, the negotiating committee sent a note of caution:

The rumors of backchannel talks were rampant this week, entirely driven by management, and only because they see it as a useful tactic. Give the town hope, soften us up, and try to use the suffering of other workers and businesses to pressure us to settle. Get us to throw away the power we have collectively accumulated and make us accept a bad deal. It is all part of the playbook. Every move they make at the bargaining table and every rumor away from it needs to be evaluated through the lens of their attempts to get us to accept less. 
 
We’re not falling for it. Writers — screenwriters, Appendix A writers, episodic television writers, all writers — have marched together for 94 days now. We have struck to make writing a viable profession for all of us, now and in the future. We have not come all this way, and sacrificed this much, to half-save ourselves. 
 
Therefore, we challenge the studios and AMPTP to come to the meeting they called for this Friday with a new playbook: Be willing to make a fair deal and begin to repair the damage your strikes and your business practices have caused the workers in this industry.
 
Until then, our fellow writers, we will see you on the lines.

I’m not confident this meeting is anything other than a ploy. When the WGA rejects the intransigence of the AMPTP reps and walks away, that provides the companies a chance to complain about the “unreasonable Guild.”

But who knows?

Fingers and toes crossed.

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

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

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