The Writers Guild of America (WGA) called on their members to launch a strike on May 1st after the contract negotiation period with major studios ended without a new deal in place. “The survival of writing as a profession is at stake in this negotiation,” The WGA said “Driven in large part by the shift to streaming, writers are finding their work devalued in every part of the business. While company profits have remained high and spending on content has grown, writers are falling behind.” It’s unclear how long the current strike will continue, but the previous one lasted over three months. Which is why many believe this one is expected to last as long or even longer.
First, the people in charge see money as the source of their money. Their money makes money and they throw money at things and get money back and they cut exploitative deals to take more money than they put into the thing that made the money. Any of that money going to anyone but them is an existential risk because, for the most part, they’re not creative. They don’t know how creativity works. They’re Wall Street Goons in sneakers.
Second, the studios have been planning for this for a while so they have been stockpiling scripts. They know how big their script inventory is and how long it will be before they start losing real money. They won’t negotiate in good faith till they get close to that date. The streamers can probably go the rest of the year before they’re affected. The broadcast networks will be hurting in the fall if the strike isn’t settled soon.
And look, they most definitely see a worker’s passion as a weakness to exploit. They act like people should want to work just for the joy of working, or to create just for the sake of creating. Which is why they call you lazy if you say you’re not going to work for servant wages. “YOU SHOULD WANT TO WORK.” People work to earn money that they can enjoy their lives with. Nobody’s coming to work for you just because they like working for you. I’m sure writers enjoy writing and creating, but if it didn’t pay anything they would get another job and write on the side. Most people do want to work hard and take pride in what they do, it’s just not going to be the highest priority in their lives. Sure, there are some who will gladly take advantage of everything they can, but that’s a relatively low portion of the workforce. Most people work hard for an employer that treats them fairly. I suspect this is true to a greater extent for creative professions like writing because the work itself is fulfilling, but even when your job isn’t fulfilling most people have a natural desire to still do it well.
We’ll know when ChatGPT has achieved full sentience. It’ll demand collective bargaining rights. Hold out until you get every last drop, writers.