More than 100 days after the start of the Writers Guild of America strike began, SAG-AFTRA has decided to stop granting filming or promoting permissions to films written under WGA contracts. In recent weeks, 207 productions had been the exception, with their development moving forward during the ongoing conflict, as the independent studios agreed to all of the union’s terms. However, in a show of solidarity, SAG-AFTRA will not grant any future agreements for productions using WGA scripts. Some members of the guilds believed these special permissions were reducing the impact the strike is having across the industry.
The WGA has been on strike since May 2 following the AMPTP‘s refusal to meet their terms for living wages and safer working conditions. When it was apparent that this issue went beyond the writers and their guild, and the AMPTP also failed to meet SAG-AFTRA ‘s terms the actors guild decided to join their fight in July. With the joint effort, the people behind the films and TV shows the world loves hope to receive a better deal sooner rather than later, even if the strike has been one of the largest the industry has ever seen.
In addition to the wages received by actors and writers not being enough to even pay rent in many cases, ever since streaming platforms became a popular choice for consuming movies and television, the people who worked on said titles hadn’t received proper compensation for the immense amount of attention the platforms were generating. Wages and residuals turned out to be the central focus points of the strike, alongside protections against AI.
How Does the Strike Affect Hollywood?
While SAG will no longer be granting interim agreements for WGA written scripts, the 207 projects already given the green light will not be affected. Meanwhile, major productions, like Deadpool 3 and the final season of Stranger Things, are on hold during the dual strike. If studios want their content to be distributed soon, they need to pay their workers a fair wage. Otherwise, movies like Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will continue to be delayed until they can provide both actors and writers a fair deal.
via Collider