Writers Guild Strike reaches Manhattan Beach Studios
by Wrigley Zbyszewski
The Writers Guild of America is on strike for the first time in 15 years, and after seven weeks of the strike, writers can now be seen picketing out front of the Manhattan Beach Studios lot.
The Writers Strike began May 1, the result of stalled contract talks. Negotiations, which take place every three years, are between the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), which is the major union of television, film, and new media writers, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents major production studios such as Disney, Paramount, and Warner Discovery. This year’s negotiations brought up major conflicts concerning compensation and regulation of emerging technologies, specifically, Artificial Intelligence.
Writer and strike captain for the Manhattan Beach location, Nick Geisler, emphasized the urgency of resolving these issues. A.I. threatens to potentially automate some of the writers’ tasks, while streaming has entirely transformed the industry, particularly since the pandemic.
“Right now, the problems are so entrenched that if we can’t fix them soon, we may never be able to fix them,” Geisler said. “Entertainment, in general, is undergoing a period of uncertainty — the profitability of streamers, and a wave of mergers and acquisitions, competition from social and short-form content — and we need to ensure that writers have a say in how these changes are navigated.”
According to the WGA, the two sides are over $300 million apart in terms of compensation issues, much of this related to the ongoing income writers receive for the reuse of shows they have written, known as residuals. Streaming content’s growing reach has created a new, larger marketplace, hence writers are arguing for increased compensation. AMPTP, which in early May took the unusual step of publicly issuing a document regarding the WGA strike, claims the 2020 contract addressed already significantly addressed this issue.
“In the most recent contract (2020), the WGA negotiated a 46 percent increase in residuals for streaming programs to take effect starting in 2022,” the AMPTP said. “In many cases, writers have only recently begun to see these increases in their paychecks. Under the current formula for a one-hour series produced for Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, a writer receives
$72,000 in residuals for one episode over three years. Over five years, that amount grows to $99,000, and then to $114,000 over seven years. The companies’ most recent offer further improves on these amounts.”
The WGA seeks several safeguards against what it argues is an emerging “gig economy” in which writers are essentially disposable, without any duration guaranteed on many projects. But a larger threat looms with the possibility of A.I. generated content. The WGA seeks to regulate use of AI.
In a list of its demands, the WGA directly addressed this issue: “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and MBA-covered material can’t be used to train AI.”
AMPTP has rejected such regulation, agreeing only to meet regarding the issue yearly.
“We’re creative companies and we value the work of creatives,” the AMPTP statement said. “The best stories are original, insightful and often come from people’s own experiences. AI raises hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone.”
As negotiations continue not only with the WGA but also with other film and television unions, such as the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG), the writers aim to halt the production of different shows and movies by refusing to work and picketing locations in the hopes their sister unions, like the Teamsters, who drive production trucks, will not cross strike lines.
“This disrupts production workflow, and sometimes delays or even prevents filming, because the equipment and supplies inside that truck don’t get to their intended destination,” said writer, executive producer, and showrunner Melinda Hsu Taylor, who could be seen on the picket lines in Manhattan Beach earlier last week. “That costs the studios money, which adds to the pressure on the studios to come back to the negotiating table.”
As the weeks wear on, writers remain focused on achieving what they believe to be a fair contract, as evident in their new picketing location out front of Manhattan Beach Studios. Over the past two decades, this location has been home to the production of several major films and shows, such as The Mandalorian, Avatar, Iron Man, CSI: Miami and the show, Medium, which Hsu Taylor worked on as a writer.
“First and foremost, we want to send a message that we’re not only still out here going strong, but we’re growing stronger,” said Geisler. “We have an incredible base of support all across town, and going to Manhattan Beach is our way of showing that reach. It’s seven weeks in and we’re not dropping sites, but opening new ones.”
Getting the Manhattan Beach Studios lot location approved by the WGA also means shorter commutes and easier accessibility to picketing opportunities for the dense population of writers in the South Bay. For South Bay native writers such as David DiGilio, writer, executive producer, and showrunner of the Amazon show, The Terminal List, this new location means expanding exposure to the WGA strike.
“I’m picketing Manhattan Beach Studios because as a resident of the South Bay since 2001, I’m happy to help bring awareness of the writer’s strike to the Beach Cities,” said DiGilio. “We tend to live in a bubble down here, but there are tons of entertainment professionals — not just writers — who call South Bay home. And we have some of the biggest shows in the world shooting in our backyard.”
As the strike continues into the summer months, writers can be seen more frequently in Manhattan Beach. A few dozen protestors picket at the MB Studios lot on any given day. While writers are the driving force of the strike, members of other entertainment unions, such as the Screen Actors Guild, can also be seen striking alongside the writers. The Screen Actors Guild contract with the AMPTP expires on June 30th. The WGA contract expired May 1.
“We had to strike now in order to prevent our long-term working environment from getting worse,” Hsu Taylor said. “Everything we’re doing now is with an eye to safeguarding our future. Since the WGA contract is only negotiated once every three years, we can’t wait another three years to say no to studio practices.” ER