An all-out strike brings Hollywood to a halt
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the negotiating body for the studios, expired on June 30th, but the sides decided to extend negotiations until July 12th. No deal was reached. On the first morning of the strike, picket lines in Los Angeles and New York swelled with performers.
Cars honking their horns in support of picketers could be heard blocks from Netflix’s corporate offices in Hollywood, even above the din of the 101 freeway. Hundreds of picketers marched around the block, carrying signs for SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America (WGA), the union of screenwriters, who launched their own strike back in May. It is the first time both unions have been on strike at the same time since 1960.
“Y’all bankrupt Blockbuster for this?" one placard taunted, referring to a defunct video-rental giant. Both strikes are a result of the ways in which streaming has upended television and film. Indeed, the writers’ strike has come to be known as the “Netflix strike". Actors and writers alike claim they can no longer make a living on residuals, or the money they get each time something they worked on is rebroadcast.
(How to even define “rebroadcast", in an era when viewers can binge on their favourite shows and films endlessly?) They complain that the streamers keep viewership data a secret, making it impossible to understand why a show got cancelled, if a series went viral, and whether artists should be asking for more money for hits. “This is a strike of the working-class actor," says Vanessa Chester, who has been acting since the age of three. “And we’re about to be eradicated." The rise of generative AI also has actors worried about being replaced by simulations of themselves.
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