A Hollywood strike has been launched by the city’s writers in order to improve their contracts.
Here are 8 things to know about the move:
- The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has authorized a walkout in order to negotiate pay raises, better health benefits and a bigger piece of the pie from studios that are making bank.
- Roughly 96.3% of the WGA voted in favor of the strike–there were 6,310 ballots cast overall.
- The current three-year contract that the organization’s members are in will expire on May 1.
- The Hollywood strike may begin as soon as next week.
- The two parties making negotiations are the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
- The first parties affected by a walkout would be late-night talk shows and daytime operas as they won’t have writers to create its day-to-day shows for audiences.
- The last writers strike took place in 2007-08 and it lasted 100 days. It cost writers $287 million in compensation.
- The WGA noted that it is committed to making sure a deal is inked in a swift manner, as well as a contract that both parties can agree on.
It is unclear how long the strikes will go on, but they could prove to be quite costly once again, while also resulting in some workers losing their employment.
