Writers strike looms after members vote to shut down film and TV production
Writers in the movie and television industry is staring at a possible writers' strike.
Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) voted overwhelmingly to strike when their contract expires on May 1st.
The vote announced Monday afternoon showed 97.9% of participating union members voting to approve a potential strike. The WGA has more than eleven thousand members.
The union is seeking more pay and better health and pension benefits. The alliance of motion picture and television producers says it is trying to work out a fair contract and avoid a strike.
The WGA wants to factor the growth of streaming into compensation packages for its members. Residual fees when a film or series is rerun or aired on broadcast has helped pad the wallets of writers for years. But those fees are vanishing in the streaming era.
With the artificial intelligence revolution, the WGA is also asking for studios to establish standards around the use of the technology. It wants the use of AI regulated, in terms of material created for the studios.
If a strike happens, it would be the first in the industry since 2007, and it would bring production on many shows and films to a halt. The 2007 strike lasted 100 days.
