Los Angeles – Hollywood writers met with studio executives Friday for the first time since the Writer’s Guild of America strike a little over three months ago.
The WGA’s more than 11,000 film and television writers have been on strike since early May. In mid-July they were joined on the picket lines of the approximately 65,000 actors of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, SAG-AFTRA, a move that brought almost all script production in Hollywood to a standstill.
It is the first time since 1960 that both guilds have gone on strike at the same time. The economic impact is particularly bad in California, where film and television production accounts for more than 700,000 jobs and nearly $70 billion in annual wages, according to the California Film Commission.
“We’re really fighting for the rights of the people who work and live in the city,” Burbank Mayor Konstantine Anthony told CBS News. “And that is exactly what I represent. I wasn’t chosen by the studios.”
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Anthony is also an actor and mayor of Burbank, home to several studios including Disney and Warner Bros.
“If people aren’t coming to work, if people are on strike, they’re not spending money at the local grocery store,” Anthony said. “All of these secondary industries are badly affected by the loss of income.”
This includes Alex Uceda’s catering company, which caters to Hollywood production crews.
“At the end of last year we were working about 10, 11 jobs every day,” Uceda said. “It’s down to maybe a job or two now.”
Uceda, which estimates it lost about 70% of its business during that time, has had to lay off nearly half its employees since the WGA strike began.
Several big stars – including Oprah, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson – have each donated of US$1 million or more for the SAG-AFTRA financial assistance program.
“I’m begging all the people in the studio, please make it happen, you know, for the good of everyone,” Uceda said.
Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA negotiate separately with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group representing all major Hollywood studios. Among the most contentious issues for both groups are backlogs of streaming services and their usage artificial intelligence.
Earlier this week, the WGA informed its members that Carol Lombardini, AMPTP President, had been in touch and “sought” Friday’s meeting “to discuss negotiations.”
“I think it’s hopeful because there were crickets and it’s been quiet for a long time,” SAG-AFTRA member Chad Coe told CBS News of Friday’s gathering.
Paramount Pictures, one of the studios involved in the negotiations, and CBS News are both part of Paramount Global. Some CBS News employees are SAG-AFTRA or Writers Guild members, but their contracts are unaffected by the strikes.
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Jonathan Vigliotti
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