WGA Update: “Writing is Our Home”
A message from WGA Negotiating Committee Co-Chair Chris Keyser.
A message from WGA Negotiating Committee Co-Chair Chris Keyser.
As the strike has entered its 13th week, the WGA sent out this video featuring Chris Keyser to its members. It’s a must-watch for anyone interested in where things stand and what this work stoppage is really about.
A quote from the video about the AMPTP:
“Their strategy has failed them. Now they’re in the midst of a streaming war with each other, an admittedly difficult transition. And as they face the future, their interests and business models could not be more different from Disney to Sony to Netflix to Amazon. We root for their success, all of them, they root for each other’s failure. We are the creative ammunition through which they will succeed. They are each other’s apex predators and yet, in a singular shared dedication to denying labor they have shackled themselves together in what increasingly seems like a mutual suicide pact.”
It’s amazing to me than any of the Hollywood legacy studio would be aligned with Netflix whose business model is designed to destroy that type of competition. Amazon and Apple? They make so much damn money from other retail efforts, their streaming services are miniscule in comparison.
But Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros.? What the hell are they thinking? Netflix is under minimal pressure to make a deal. They have so many fingers in international programming pies and reality TV series, they’d probably be okay with the strike to last into 2024. And while the studios may enjoy a positive cash flow due to slashed spending, that is only a short term thing.
At some point — hopefully soon — the studios will need to cut a deal. What if Netflix says no? What if they’re not ready?
Honestly, I don’t think the studios have much a clue what they’re doing and certainly no united plan of action. But the WGA and SAG-AFTRA do as manifest in the specific set of proposals both made to the AMPTP. Their reply?
To which Chris Keyser responds with these closing comments:
“But if you insist instead on the same threatening rhetoric on saying you would rather starve us than pay us, I would remind you of this. You are fighting for a dollar, we are fighting for survival. We are fighting for our home, writing is where we live. and we will defend that home with a bravery and stamina and ferocity that you will come to understand someday. Which is why you cannot break us. You cannot outlast us, you cannot. And not just because we have the will, because we have power. Nothing in this business happens until we start to write. And we will not start to write until we are paid. Union now. Union forever.”
#WGAStrong, #WritersStrike, #SAGAFTRAstrong, #SAGAFTRAStrike
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