On May 2, the Writers Guild of America — a union that helps negotiate contracts for all writing members — went on strike; the first strike for the WGA in 15 years. Unrest among the union began in April when 97% of the guild’s members voted ‘yes’ for them to strike. 

“The rank and file, which I am among, we vote. If they don’t agree with us, we allow our negotiating committee to strike…If we don’t get some of the things we need, we are allowing the negotiating committee to strike. And then the negotiating meeting came back and said, ‘we’re not getting it’, so we went on strike,” WGA member Tom Musca said.

Due to the new era of streaming, writers in the entertainment industry have not been compensated for their work. Currently, the Minimum Basic Agreement has refused to meet the basic protections of the writers — wanting increased media compensation and residuals from streaming shows. 

“This strike is more serious in terms of the issues on the table. And there are some new issues that are just old issues. And it was about money. This is about things or you know, the air. And since no one really knows how that’s going to play. It’s also about streamers and certain new forms of distribution have come into play,” Musca said.

Artificial Intelligence is another facet of this issue as it is rapidly growing globally. Both the Screen Actor’s Guild and the WGA have advocated for the protection of human-created work. Studios like Netflix have even posted a job offering in their Machine Learning Platform team for $900,000 a year. 

“They don’t go on strike, AI doesn’t go on strike,” Musca said.

Later, on July 17, SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA on strike. This marked the first time both SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have been on strike together since 1960 when President Reagan was the head of SAG-AFTRA. The last time the WGA was on strike was in 2007 and 2008.