Never Cross a Picket Line: Support the WGA Strike
May 16, 2023
You may have noted a lack of a newsletter last week. We here at the DFGRR decided to skip it in solidarity with the Writers' Guild of America (WGA), which has been on strike since May 2nd.
Why are they on strike?
The usual reason: management doesn't want to pay up. More specifically, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the WGA couldn't come to an agreement on how much writers should get in residuals when their shows get streamed online. (More details are available here.)
What's this got to do with us?
This blog is made possible by the existence of scripted media. Writers deserve to get paid fairly for making those.
Running the DFGRR has also gotten much simpler since streaming services took off. It took me nearly 6 years to watch enough Bonanza that I could blog about it, but only 2 years to get through the Stargate franchise. In years gone by I had to track down physical media at public and private libraries. While I adore libraries (and get my money's worth out of them), the invention of the Roku has been a huge help. But I hasten to point out that the shows stay the same, whether I schlep to Columbia University's media room to find them or just hit the search bar on my Roku. The writers of a show should be paid equally regardless of which format I watch it in.
On a personal note, all of my day jobs are part-time and none of them get cost-of-living adjustments that keep up with inflation. (And by "all of my day jobs," I mean that I have had 5 so far this year, with at least 3 more lined up for summer and fall, because adjunct professors only get hired semester-to-semester.) I like the variety and excitement involved in shuffling my jobs around every 2 months, but it's a tricky way to earn a living. I can therefore sympathize with writers whose pay has fallen 23% in the past decade, while contract lengths shrink to 4 weeks at a stretch.
For all 3 reasons, therefore, I am fully on the WGA's side, here. Pay your workers fairly and they'll work.
What are you going to do?
Make this post, donate to the Entertainment Community Fund, and settle in to wait for the AMPTP to make a decent offer.
Until then, keep your sexy lamps burning.