The WGA Strike and What This Means for Your Internship
On Monday, the Writer’s Guild of America voted yes on a strike authorization with 96.3% in support. It was also the Guild’s largest turnout ever for a vote, with 67.5% of eligible members coming out to vote. This means that if the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP, who represent the studios) do not reach a deal by May 1st, writers in film and television will go on strike this Tuesday, May 2nd. If they do reach a deal by then, the strike will not occur. So the pressure’s on.
The WGA is (rightfully) fighting for quite a lot here. One of their main issues is their fight for proper health care, which is looking at a deficit, plus their fight for proper family leave and a secure pension plan. There biggest issue though is proper compensation. While studio profits have gone up in recent years, writer’s wages have actually gone down. This is primarily an effect of the “Peak TV” era we live in: while there are over 400 scripted shows being made right now, writers are usually contractually tied to one, being paid per episode of the show instead of per weeks they worked. In the past most shows made 22 episodes a year and worked roughly 22–30 weeks a year. But in today’s “Peak TV” world, many shows are only making 10–13 episodes a year and yet the writers are still working 22–30 weeks. This means that they are making half of what they used to make for the same amount of work. “Peak TV” also means a less likely chance of a show going into syndication, an area that used to make writers quite a bit of money in residual checks.
If the strike does start on Tuesday, production on all scripted shows will stop immediately. This will especially hit late night hard-so if you were really excited about your “Last Week Tonight” summer internship, then I have some bad news for you buddy. It’s likely that filming of in-progress scripts will go on, however no fresh scripts will be written and this could also mean that movies go into production without a completed script like the Transformers sequel in 2007. Summer TV will be screwed as well and even production for fall shows will most likely be delayed, screwing up not just your summer internship, but your fall internship as well.
Now it’s unclear just how long this strike could last. Writer’s strikes in the past have lasted anywhere from two weeks and twenty-two weeks (5 and a half months). The last strike was 10 years ago in 2007, lasted 100 days, and greatly increased the trend of watching away from broadcast TV. However, there’s no way to be certain so I would be cautious when applying to internships for the fall. And for those of you who have a late-night summer internship…well I would start looking into something else real quickly if I were you. Just in case.
