On strike since May 2, the Writers Guild of America announced a tentative agreement between the union and major studios that could end the strike.
WGA East and WGA West, in a Sept. 24 statement, said: “What we have won in this contract — most particularly, everything we have gained since May ...
Picketing has been suspended and writers are returning to work. The rank and file will be voting on the contract from Oct. 2 to Oct. 9.
While the language was being finalized, the union asked its members to join a picket line of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The actors represented by SAG-AFTRA are still on strike.
The new agreement reportedly addresses writers’ demands for a livable income, minimum staffing levels and guarantees their jobs will not be eliminated by artificial intelligence.
Here's their summary of their gains in the new agreement.
The required 2nd step, guaranteed 10 week employment and the minimum writers per episode bits are fantastic, as a big complaint that was often glossed over was the "mini-room" thing where they used hire series writers for the episodes and fire them before the series was even shooting.
Obviously I'm not a writer, but the agreement seems to address most of their complaints very well.
Solidarity shouldn’t be a quid pro quo deal. Some workers and other lower‐class people that you meet are going to have reactionary ideas—that’s simply an inevitability—but that isn’t a good enough reason to let them suffer. In fact, if they’re desperate for help then they’re more likely to reconsider their reactionary ideas. If a houseless American finds out that she’s been regularly receiving food and shelter from a communist, it may be hard for her to process at first, but she’ll almost certainly reeaxmine her anticommunism.
It's not very fair to lump all of them under that banner. At the end of the day they're still artists trying to pay rent, and I don't think "imperialist propaganda" describes the vast majority of low-pay low-prestige writers.
For every Avengers New Game+, there are plenty of small B movies, romcoms and other low success things that are pretty harmless and provide some happiness to somebody, for which these writers will be better compensated now.
There's also the occasional good stuff, like the new She-Ra (which is a netflix original so it's very relevant here), and I'm genuinely happy that the people who made that will get better compensation for future similar projects. I doubt anybody here can genuinely say they think every single contemporary work produced by a Yankee writer is a net negative, or that they don't have a couple hidden gems that they enjoy.
This is sounding like the Waffen-SS apologism doing the rounds lately. The Nazis were just people trying to survive, right? These are people who work in fucking Hollywood. Are you at all familiar with American movies?
and I don’t think “imperialist propaganda” describes the vast majority of low-pay low-prestige writers.
Why are you trying to paint these people as poor? Why are you focusing on these people?
For every Avengers New Game+, there are plenty of small B movies, romcoms and other low success things
And they will continue to be low success because they don't toe the line. The only things that will be successful are things that further the interests of the American empire. Manipulative propaganda about how great America is and how its soldiers feel sad after they murder around the world.
There’s also the occasional good stuff, like the new She-Ra...I doubt anybody here can genuinely say they think every single contemporary work produced
This is a cartoon from my childhood forty years ago. These scumbags can't even come up with anything original anymore, not even a new vehicle for Bono and Sean Penn.
Tell me, how poor was the writer who wrote this She-Ra shit? Do you even know?
And there we have it. Workers are only worth anything if their production is things, not ideas, eh comrade? Anyone who disagrees with your ridiculous, narrow ideology isn't a true "worker," is that it?