Lights, Camera, Labor Action: The WGA and SAG strikes
BY: Sebastian Bergman
The Writers Guild of America (“WGA”) and the Screen Actors Guild (“SAG”) received unprecedented coverage compared to most other unions when on strike. They may not be essential workers, but they certainly are high profile, commanding the attention of the average American regularly.
In the latest episode of a long labor battle that started in 1933, the WGA and SAG went on strike for 148 and 118 days respectively over multiple issues like streaming residuals, mini-rooms, and more. Behind the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the strikes were over issues that many on the outside looking in can relate to. In large part, the unions fought for the things that unions always fought for, better job security and higher pay.
The WGA, for example, won a 12.5% increase in the Minimum Basic Agreement. The unions also fought back against the “gigification” of their employment. While the gig economy has been a blessing for some, its pervasive influence has eroded job security and forced many to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
That wasn’t all that was on the bargaining table as the unions faced the latest innovation and newest threat to the labor market: artificial intelligence. Robotic automation, long thought confined to the factory floor, has stormed onto the art scene in a very disruptive way. Services like MidJourney and ChatGPT are controversial for many reasons ranging from training to use, the WGA fought to explicitly exclude AI chatbots from the writers’ room, and SAG sought to prevent digital recreations of actors’ likenesses from replacing the flesh and blood they recreate. The WGA was largely successful in their negotiations on the issue, the principal concession being that studios cannot train chatbots on the writers’ work, and chatbots cannot write or rewrite literary material.
While writers successfully reduced ChatGPT to a tool to assist human writing, the SGA negotiations resulted in a more mixed bag. They did prevent the worst excesses, namely studios creating and using digital recreations without the actor’s consent, but they ultimately had to allow these digital replicas to exist. The agreement requires the actor’s consent to create a replica and minimum compensation for their use, but studios have won the right to remove the actors from the equation if they are willing to jump through some hoops. It is unclear how studios will take advantage of this, just as it is unclear what lessons other unions across America, ranging from nationwide to university-specific, will learn from one of the highest-profile American union strikes in recent years.
Key Sources:
https://www.sagaftra.org/files/sa_documents/TV-Theatrical_23_Summary_Agreement_Final.pdf
WGA Contract 2023 (June 15, 2023) https://www.wgacontract2023.org/member-voices/why-we-strike
Why We Strike: SAG- Aftra Strike, SAG (2023), https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/why-we-strike
Catherine Collison & Heidi Cho, Post-Pandemic Realities: The Retirement Outlook of the Multigeneration Workforce, Transamerica Center for Retierment Studies
John Horn, TV and Movie Writers Strike Over ‘Gig Economy’ Conditions. What’s At Stake In The WGA Walkout, LAist (May 4, 2023)
Andre Dua et all, Freelance, Side Hustles, and Gigs: Many more Americans have become Independent Workers, McKinsey & Company (August 23, 2022) https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/sustainable-inclusive-growth/future-of-america/freelance-side-hustles-and-gigs-many-more-americans-have-become-independent-workers#/
Summary of the 2023 WGA MBA, WGA Contract 2023 (2023) https://www.wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba