- No contract!
- [Protester] No peace!
- [Narrator] For the first time in 15 years,
more than 11,000 movie and television writers
in Hollywood's Writers Guild went on strike.
- This is absolutely an existential moment
for the writing profession.
- We want to ensure that working on "The Handmaid's Tale"
isn't the last good job that any of us has.
- [Narrator] The decision brought productions to a halt,
and dealt a blow to an industry that's been rocked
by the pandemic and the new ways
people watch movies and Television.
- The industry is saying, we're still not sure
where this is going.
We're losing money on these businesses.
This is not the time to be trying to squeeze us.
- [Narrator] As hundreds of writers from Los Angeles
to New York took to the picket lines,
we sat down with the writers and union members
at the center of the strike to understand
what led to this moment and what's next.
- [Protester] What do we want?
- [Protesters] Fair contracts!
- [Narrator] The strike has pitted
the Writers Guild of America, the WGA,
against the Alliance of Motion Picture
and Television Producers, the AMPTP,
which represents the major studios.
- We came to the table with all these issues,
and what we got back really felt kind of like gas lighting.
- [Narrator] Yahlin Chang is a showrunner
on the Hulu series, "The Handmaid's Tale."
- Blessed be the fruit.
- [Narrator] She's also a member
of the Writers Guild's negotiating committee.
She was in the room when negotiations
with the studios came to a head.
- The companies came back refusing to engage with us
on our core existential issues.
- [Narrator] The AMPTP did not respond
to requests for comment about Chang's
gas lighting accusations,
but studio executives say every effort was made
to engage in meaningful discussions and bargaining.
Many of the issues dividing the two sides
are tied to the ways streaming
has completely transformed the industry.
- As the studios move towards the streaming model,
it was an arms race.
- [Narrator] Justin Halpern is a board member
for the Writers Guild.
As well as a showrunner and writer
for the ABC sitcom, "Abbott Elementary."
- I've been teaching here at Abbott Elementary
for a year now.
The staff here is incredible.
- Everybody was trying to amass the most amount of content,
as many shows as they could possibly kind of pump out
to compete with all the other streaming services.
Then suddenly, the orders of shows became much smaller.
The amount of weeks that they were asking writers to work
also became much smaller.
- [Narrator] In a network television show
like "Abbott Elementary," a writer typically has
enough work to support themselves for an entire year.
- Because we make 22 episodes of "Abbott Elementary,"
our writers are able to make a good living
and live in Los Angeles.
We should not be the anomaly.
- [Narrator] But in the new world of streaming,
episode orders have declined to eight or 12.
And unlike network shows,
many stream shows don't go into production
until most of the scripts are completely mapped out.
- There's this thing called mini rooms,
which have taken over Hollywood
and it's the studios deciding,
hey, we're gonna put together a room of writers.
But you're not producing the show,
you're just like writing some scripts
and breaking out the season.
All of the hardest stuff there is to do in writing.
And because you're not producing,
we're not gonna pay you the producing fee.
We're gonna pay you the minimum,
which is the least amount of money they can legally pay us.
- [Narrator] In response to the WGA's concerns,
the studios agreed to increase minimum rates
for writers working in those types of development rooms.
Still, writers say this new production model
has made screenwriting more like a gig economy job.
- Between seasons one and two,
we had a writer who had to drive an Uber.
Most shows you'll have a writer who gets
a 10 week gig, or a 12 week gig,
and that could be it for the whole year.
That could be it for 18 months,
and a writer simply can't live on that.
- [Narrator] The studios say
that employment as a writer has almost nothing in common
with standard gig jobs.
- The studios would argue that this is not a gig economy.
For starters, the pension and health benefits
are a lot better, and secondly, you're employed
on a weekly episodic basis
and you're getting paid every week a set wage.
- [Narrator] The studios are also confronting
a rapidly changing business.
Subscriber growth for many
of the streaming companies has slowed,
and viewership has declined for network and cable shows.
- They're always looking for places
where they can trim costs,
whether it's reducing staffing within their own companies,
or finding ways to squeeze every penny
out of a production budget.
- [Narrator] The last time the Writers Guild of America
went on strike against the Hollywood Studios
was in November, 2007.
It lasted for a hundred days.
(horns honking)
The strike centered on the way DVD sales
and video on demand were quickly replacing rerun syndication
as a main source of revenue.
The writers wanted their fair share of those profits.
- We want our fair share!
We're here because we care!
- The '07-'08 strike was incredibly successful
because we won coverage of the internet.
So for all the shows that are streaming now,
it wouldn't be covered by our union if we had not struck.
- [Narrator] In the moments before the recent negotiations
reached a standstill, the writers say
they weren't the ones to end the talks.
- It was the studios who came back and said
if you don't give up on these countless proposals
that are essential in core to your negotiation,
then there's no point in talking anymore.
So they were the ones who walked away, not us.
We were there.
We were there, we had pizza, we were waiting.
- [Narrator] The studios say that they listened
to the WGA's proposals, and presented the writers
with a comprehensive offer.
- The studios have prospered enormously from our shows.
The budget for writing for each show has stagnated,
while show budgets have ballooned
- [Narrator] The WGA says
nearly half of Guild Writers working in television
are being paid minimum rates.
To address these concerns, the studios say
they offered a substantial wage increase,
and created a higher floor
for mid-level writers' compensation,
but the increases didn't meet the WGA's demands.
- The WGA is trying to put protections
into our contract for writers
so that we can get a guaranteed number of weeks of pay
at a minimum that allows us to live and work in Los Angeles.
- [Narrator] The AMPTP said in a statement
that its offer included
generous increases in compensation for writers,
and that it was willing to keep negotiating.
- The studios have offered increases in, you know,
starting wages for writers.
They would tell you we've offered our most
significant wage increase in, you know, like 25 years.
- [Protester] And then there's the issue of residuals,
which are like royalty payments for screenwriters.
Writers are typically paid less in residuals
for stream shows compared to those on broadcast TV.
- The streamers have been very protective of their data
so we have no idea how well shows are doing.
We have to take their word for it.
We would like some sort of compensation
that's tied to the success of the show.
- [Narrator] The AMPTP has provided some counter offers,
but they did not meet the WGA's demands.
- The studio streamers and networks,
they have offered raises on residuals and on minimum wages.
- [Narrator] Late night shows were the first to feel
the ripple effects of the strike,
with most heading into reruns.
- I also feel very strongly
that what the writers are asking for is not unreasonable.
- [Narrator] Some content providers are in a better position
than others to weather the Strike.
Streaming services like Netflix and HBO Max
all tend to make their shows far in advance.
But the fall TV season for broadcast networks
could be delayed.
- The Writer's Room for season three of "Abbott"
was supposed to start May 2nd, and we struck
and so we are not able to start our Writer's Room
and get to work.
- On "The Handmaids Tale," we were breaking
and writing our final season.
When the strike hit, we just all closed down the room.
It was heartbreaking.
- [Narrator] As the standoff continues,
writers throughout the industry
continue to take to the picket lines.
- None of us wanted this strike, but we are fighting.
- We wanna be writing "Abbott Elementary."
We all want to be making television shows.
We just want to be paid fairly by the studios for doing it.
(soft pensive music)