Hollywood Writers Strike 

This new agreement had additionally guaranteed the presence of writer’s rooms. This was a big deal for the WGA, since they had made the point that completely terminating TV series’ writing rooms would have affected the continuity of storylines and characters/character development. 

Along with the slew of other issues needing to be fixed, as well as the steady increase of AI generated media and programs, (such as ChatGPT, OpenAI, etc.) writers began to fear that this new-age uprising would overshadow the screenwriting industry. 

Both the WGA as well as SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) made it clear that restrictions were needed against the use of AI. In the official WGA and MBA (Master of Business Administration) agreement, they had outlined AI cannot write any sort of literary material, also stating that any media written by AI “will not be considered source material under the MBA”. 

This is the first writers strike in 16 years, when in November 5, 2007 to February 12, 2008, the WGA was striking against very similar things. They had sought increased salaries and residual rates based on the profits made from DVD sales and new media. This strike had only lasted an even 100 days, about 7 weeks fewer than the 2023 strike. 

The deplorable length of the 2023 WGA strike had a very substantial impact on writers around the country.

Since the halting of Hollywood studios due to loss of many of their actors and writers alike, a large portion of the WGA’s members were vulnerable to an economic fallout. 

Some had lost their jobs, and with no work to do, they were unable to support themselves financially. At that point in time, writers had fallen into poverty, resorting to picking up other occupations or side-hustles while they restlessly awaited their offers to be considered by higher powers. The WGA member’s financial crisis had peaked so much so that many strikers located in New York and New Jersey were able to qualify for unemployment. 

But their fight was over when on Sept. 27th, writers were able to return to work and were suspended from picketing by courtesy of the WGA’s leaders. 

While they can finally continue with their jobs, hopefully able to return back to life like normal before the crisis, the deal still has to be ratified by the union. Alongside this information, major Hollywood productions will still halt until the deal is completely finalized. 

Despite this, it still can’t bring down the exceedingly high spirits of the WGA.

One member and American Comedian, known for his truTV show Adam Ruins Everything, Adam Conover, stated his high hopes over a video made on TikTok . “I am so proud of us,” Conover says. “Thank you to every fellow worker who stood with us. We are gonna stand with you as well because what this proves is that when workers stand together, we win.”

The fight still isn’t over for the industry as a whole -- At the time this article was written, SAG-AFTRA currently continues their strike that began in July.  The union’s 160,000 members are striking to achieve many of their own goals, some of which include issues over strict nondisclosure contracts, and lack of residual pay. Many famous celebrities are included in the strike, refusing to appear in late night and early morning talk shows (which are being attempted to go back into production), because they don’t want to promote the shows until they have gained what they asked for. 

But SAG-AFTRA is hoping that with the WGA’s recent success with their requests, that the process will go along quicker for them moreover, though only time will tell.