Brace yourselves: Writers Guild of America & Screen Actors Guild going on strike*

Here is how SAG-AFTRA explains it.

From Deadline.com

SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher, who also testified last week in Sacramento in support of SB 799, urged the picketers to contact their state legislators to press for its passage.

“Our survival should not depend on the whims and fragile egos of would-be dictators,” she told the cheering crowd. “And providing a lifeline for striking workers in the form of unemployment insurance helps to level the playing field in a small way. Withholding our labor from exploitive employers is our right, and we shouldn’t have to court financial ruin to exercise that right. If companies can only get workers to return to their jobs by starving them into submission, then something is very wrong with their business model.”

 

Interesting. The text of the proposed law:

1262.
(a) An individual is not eligible for unemployment compensation benefits, and these benefits shall not be payable, if the individual left work because of a trade dispute, other than a lockout in the establishment where the individual was employed. For purposes of this subdivision, “lockout” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1132.8 of the Labor Code.
(b) The ineligibility of an individual to receive benefits pursuant to subdivision (a) shall expire after the first two weeks of the trade dispute.
(c) This section shall not diminish the eligibility of individuals who were deprived of work as a result of an employer lockout or similar action under the principles set out in Coast Packing Co. v. California Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd. (1966) 64 Cal.2d 76.​

So my question is if an individual is not striking but is nevertheless unable to work because of a trade dispute (i.e. the majority of the film and TV industry at the moment), does that count as them having “left work” for this purpose? It’d sure be nice if it did (and would suck if it didn’t)…

​

 

Real strike Breakers.

 

All of us out of work due to the strike who are members of unions like IATSE that are not "on strike", but lack work because of the strike may receive unemployment benefits. We are not "voluntarily not working". I reopened my CA EDD claim last May after wrapping my last job. At that time the WGA was on strike but SAG-AFTRA had not yet gone on strike. My benefits will run out around early December. There is a petition going around asking the California state government to offer extended benefit beyond 26 weeks to those of us who still can't work due to the ongoing strike. At the time I signed I think there were around 10,000 signatories. I've heard nothing about this specifically being included in the bill that would offer benefits to striking WGA and SAG-AFTRA members. However, having just looked at the introductory language to the new bill, there is mention of extended benefits. However I see no specifics in the the language changes. The basic change is that no unemployment benefits will be available the first two weeks after a strike or lockout, after that one is eligible and may apply. I'll be looking into this further, as it's highly likely there will be no work until the new year barring a breakthrough in the next few weeks.

I've stated this before, but it's worth repeating: In anticipation of a possible WGA strike the Studios deliberately started a production slowdown last September 2022, and that accelerated in impact by November. I have a friend who does the exact same job as me who wrapped his last project in November 2022 and has not received a single call for work since. He's someone who's talented and works regularly, this is not normal. Fortunately for him his wife is an attorney and makes a good living, he'll survive.

I support a family of four and have just taken a hardship withdrawal from my east coast union benefit plan, and have my application in for the west coast plan too. To complete the west coast plan application I needed to stop by their office to have some documents verified and signed by both myself and my wife. On their first day open to see applicants we arrived a couple of hours after they began and there were dozens of couples waiting to be seen. The guard gave us a #36 slip, which likely would have had us waiting at least two hours which we couldn't do that day. We'll try again next week after the initial crush has died down. The workers are hurting badly, this pain is very real.

 

War of Words Breaks Out Between WGA and AMPTP as Guild Tries to Divide and Conquer Stubborn Studios


SAG-AFTRA Elections: Fran Drescher and Joely Fisher Will Return as President and Secretary-Treasurer

 

Thanks for the info. I’m glad to hear you have access to at least some assistance, and I hope that’ll be extended past December if it comes to that. Best wishes to you!

 

Thanks very much, your comments are most appreciated!

 

it,s getting more bitter every day.gonna be a long while til it,s settled i,m afraid.

 

For those taking such great personal offence at the striking writers and actors I find it amusing that you're still watching/paying for their product. The word hypocritical comes to mind.

 

I don't really care one way or the other. More power to them, whomever comes out ahead. We probably watch one movie in the theater per year. This year there were two we wanted to see. Hardly anything coming out of Hollywood is appealing these days. I enjoy watching RedLetterMedia reviews of new movies more than watching the new movies themselves. We are probably going to drop a couple of the streaming networks as well.

The good news is everyone is getting rid of their physical media for cheap, and there are tons of great old movies we haven't seen yet. I just bought an arms-length of classic old movies at an estate sale for $30. We'll have stuff to watch for months.

 

I get the feeling the main issue for these people is less product for couch potatoes to sit and consume. Why else would people be so in arms against people wanting a fair working situaton?

On this thread, we have one person who is giving an account of his own reality - striking and struggling, while others are apparently strung out on 'alternate' plane. I use the term 'alternate' fairly benevolently.

The only point I've read I thought might hold some value in opposition, is the knock on effect that it has on others who work in the industry but aren't in the scope of the unions striking.

 

That is the way many people feel. They are not overly impressed with the product that Hollywood is delivering.

The thing is, when a movie is substandard, the public does not thing of the writers, only the overall tone of the movie.

The more the writers insist on exposing themselves to the public, the more that this goes against them.

For example, WGA members who are handing leaflets to families going to theme parks only serves to remind them that these are the people who are writing the movies that they harbor a dislike for.

 

Drew Barrymore announces her talk show will return amid the SAG/WGA strikes

 

I don't mind her doing this. I support the writers but there are ton of other people working on these shows, like camera people and such, that aren't striking themselves but are still hurt by the strikes. Even after the strikes are over perhaps the writers will have better deals but the camera people won't. They just had a loss of income for quite a while.

 

The tech staff at the show are IBEW, who are not on strike. I think Drew is doing the right thing. Some of them are former co-workers.



Dan

 

I doubt it. How would you know what movies random people visiting Universal Studios park dislike? The point of the flyer is to remind families that the rides and attractions that they have come to experience are largely a product of successful movies they are based on, and which the writers helped create.

 

are they even talking yet?

 

Sounds like a no.

WGA Cancels Meeting With Kenya Barris, Noah Hawley and Other Showrunners Seeking to End Strike | Exclusive

The showrunners began to reach out for clarification last Tuesday, and the exchanges with WGA leadership was described to TheWrap by an individual with knowledge as intense and emotional, with phone calls between individual showrunners and guild leaders leading to fights, shouting matches and “screaming hangups,” as the individual put it.

The rising fear among some in the industry — including some high-ranking members of the writers’ community — is that the guild leadership is not interested in making a deal, but is intent on holding the line to get its first ask.​

That's not a "negotiation" that's an "ultimatum." Makes me wonder if either side even wants this strike to end.

 

Shoot. We're screwed. We're all screwed.

 

Drew Barrymore Slammed for Filming Talk Show Amid Strikes - Variety

Not everyone likes Drew's decision.

Guess they rather see the non-striking part of the crew starve.

 

Just remember majority of these people will not have jobs .
To comeback to.. Because present studio cuts within the system.
Hollywood has lived on excess for years.. It no longer live in that world.

 

Pretty soon, this Writers Guild strike will surpass the strike from 1988:

1988 Writers Guild of America strike - Wikipedia

 

The article is incorrect about Earth Girls Are Easy being filmed during that strike. It was filmed in the Summer of 1987.

 

Camera crew have their own union, International Cinematographers Guild (ICG). I'm sure they're keeping a close eye on how the strikes are affecting their members.