The Writers Strike Is Over: WGA Votes to Lift Strike Order After 148 Days
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike will end at 12:01 a.m. PT on Wednesday.
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/writers-strike-over-wga-votes-end-work-stoppage-1235735512/Open linkView original on kbin.social278
Comments13
Bad move by the WGA boards. While I hope the TA is good and meets all demands, the workers literally haven't seen it yet, let alone voted on it. You always want to have the strongest strike possible, and part of that is that no work gets done until a new contract is delivered, approved, and put in place. This puts the union in a weak position if the TA gets voted down.
While that may be true, they are probably also weighing that this has been a long strike. I don't know about you, but if I had to go 100+ days without working, my finances would be a wreck. Reality is, people gotta eat
Not sure how the WGA operates but it's pretty common to have reserve funds for strikes as well as doing fundraisers and whatnot
Most/all unions keep a “war chest” to pay members during strikes, but the pay rates are usually far below members’ normal earnings.
I was in a UFCW strike when I was young, and the union paid us all minimum wage. For most of us, this was less than half what we’d been earning.
I literally have no idea, but I assume that the strike cannot go on forever. Though, since I made my previous comment I've learned that the striking members are still able to work, so long as it isn't WGA specific stuff (which seems fairly obvious, and I feel dumb for not realizing it). So, while it's lesser paying stuff, those who really need it can still get work to hold them over.
As a Teamster, if I strike I get 80% of my pay (well above minimum wage) and I get their health care. Starting day one of the strike. Used to have to be on strike for two weeks, but it changed.
Not just the writers either, the entire industry is at a standstill while this plays out, and now they've gotta wait for the writers to actually write before productions start back up again. Lots of people will be out of work until spring probably.
Unless the board is just lying, it sounds like they got everything that they were asking for?
If that's the case, how is it a bad move?
It sounds like everything they were asking for. I don't think they'd move forward so aggressively if the deal was weak.
Saying that the strike failed is playing into the studio's hands. WGA considers the strike a victory, and furthermore, the studio downplaying the strike's agreement is a disinformation campaign they had done before.
Twitter thread by David Slack @/slack2thefuture:
FYI I never said that the strike had failed or anything to that effect, I just said it was a bad move by union leadership to call off the pickets before the TA had been agreed on or even been given to members (which it hadn't at the time I posted this). It's also fair to critique union leadership if they're putting forward tactics that are weak. Weak tactics and bad leadership play into the boss' hands far more than critique.
However, all of that said, now that the details of the TA are out, it does seem to be a really solid deal and WGA members should absolutely be celebrating. This was a hell of a fight and they've earned it.
Going from Neil Gaiman's tumblr (easy guess which show i'm hoping will continue :D) he's being very cautious and also advocating staying on the picket line for SAG. And he's not updating twitter yet, hmmm.
Are there examples of this happening before?