The End Of The WGA Writer’s Strike: Important Lessons And (Distressing) Insights

When an underdog succeeds, it’s worth celebrating. It’s a big reason why sports movies and superhero movies have so much appeal. Most audiences just love it when an underdog triumphs over daunting odds. And they love cheering with them when they ultimately succeed.

In that spirit, we should cheer the recent news surrounding the WGA strike that has been going on since mid-July 2023. According to the Associated Press, a tentative deal between the WGA and the major studios has been reached. While that doesn’t mean the strike is completely over, it marks a critical step in getting people back to work in an industry that was already reeling from the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

AP: Writers’ union reaches tentative deal with Hollywood studios to end historic strike

As someone who loves movies, TV, and mindless entertainment as much as the next consumer, this is great news. This strike was bound to do more and more damage the longer it went on. We probably won’t know the full extent of that damage until a few years from now when we can look back at the impacts with the benefit of hindsight.

There’s also a personal element to this strike. I have multiple family members who work in the entertainment industry, mostly in the film and production side of things. They, more than most, felt the impact of this strike. Early on, a few even told me that this strike had the potential to last a long time. One even said they didn’t expect a resolution until late November. There was even a possibility it could continue well into 2024.

Thankfully, that no longer appears to be the case. This tentative deal, assuming it gets ratified, will provide some overdue benefits to the writers who play a big part in making the shows and movies we love so much. They deserve a deal that allows them to reap the fruits of their creative labor. You don’t have to look hard to find out just how much they were getting screwed over by a changing entertainment industry that studio executives and CEOs were exploiting to the utmost.

And therein lies an important lesson that’s worth highlighting, even as the strike comes to an end. This whole issue happened because the entertainment industry was changing. The old system that relied on residual income from broadcast TV and DVD sales just wasn’t going to cut it in an era of streaming media. The writers and actors behind some of these successful shows just weren’t getting the same share of the profits. And the studios were very much aware of this.

They could’ve adapted to ensure that those involved in the production could continue to be compensated fairly, even as consumers switched from traditional outlets to streaming.

They could’ve been open, honest, and transparent with the new economics of producing successful TV shows and movies in the post-COVID world.

They could’ve even explained why it was considerably difficult to pay generous residuals in a world of streaming media wherein profit margins were just too thin, if there even were profits to begin with.

But they didn’t. The executives, the CEOs, and those with the real power within these entertainment companies chose not to be proactive. Instead, they prioritized the price of their company stock and the investors who owned that stock. This is to be expected, as that tends to be the default reflex of publicly traded companies.

Call it callous in that it blatantly disregards the real work and toil of those producing the content.

Call it greed in the shallowest possible sense.

But at the moment, that’s simply how the incentives align in the entertainment industry, if not most industries in the global economy. There’s just too much money to be made by the rich and well-connected to do anything else. They are not going to do right by their workers unless they’re forced to, if not by law than by organized labor.

That may come off as cynical, but it’s also an important insight and one that every worker in every industry would be wise to remember. Because over the course of this strike, it quickly became clear how out of touch and callous these billionaire CEOs and executives were. They kept demanding that writers be reasonable with their requests. But at the same time, they were making hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and millions more in stock options.

These are not people capable of identifying with the life and struggles of working people.

These are people who might as well live on a different planet with respect to wealth, privlidge, and access.

Men Like David Zazlav and Bob Iger will never have to worry about paying a mortgage on time, falling behind on their bills, or ending up homeless because they cannot afford the outrageous rents in cities like Los Angeles and New York. So, how can we possibly expect them to empathize, let alone understand, the struggles of the writers and workers who help make their companies successful.

Most of these executives never set foot on a production stage, nor do they write or edit a single script. They just sit in offices, make demands/decisions, allocate money, and deal directly with investors whose primary focus is seeing a return on their investment.

And even if the company were to fail completely, these people would still end up with millions upon millions of dollars in their bank accounts. If they wanted to, they could never work a day for the rest of their lives. But those who actually work for them would be completely screwed.

It’s an unequal, unfair situation full of misaligned incentives. The executive and CEO class holds the power, the cards, and the money. They will not do the right things as a first recourse. They will only ever do what investors and their own self-interests incentive, by default. No matter how much money they have, they’ll keep trying to make more. And if that means screwing over their workers in any possible way, they’ll do it.

Remember that the next time labor issues come up. This doesn’t just apply to the entertainment industry, either. Any industry with a similar incentive structure will have the same issues. If there are rich, well-connected CEOs with shareholders to please, don’t expect them to prioritize workers beyond what they can legally and logistically get away with.

The only true counter to this uneven dynamic is that, despite all the power and money executives weird, they still need workers. They still need consumers. They still need to be credible in the eyes of the public to some extent. That kind of leverage is critical to maintain and appreciate.

Because the world will continue to change.

Every industry, from entertainment to making widgets, will continue to change with society and technology.

Those doing the work need to change with it because those with the money and power sure as hell won’t do right by anyone but themselves, unless they have to. And only those doing the work can make that happen.