The Disruption Series (Sadly) Resumed: WGA, I Think Your 'Allies' In SAG-AFTRA Just Stabbed You In The Front

I was really hoping that I was done with this series when the WGA settled their strike two weeks ago. As I mentioned before, I was filled with an incredible amount of rage towards both sides but in all honesty, I was infinitely more pissed at the WGA for their attitude over the last five months.

This did not improve when I heard what the WGA claimed was part of their ‘immense victory’. One of their major achievements seems to have been gaining a minimum raise increase of 5 percent, 4 percent and 3.5 percent over the course of the contract. For the record, this was the same increase the DGA accepted when they negotiated their contract a full month before the work stoppage in the first place. John Oliver said in his first episode back that he was infuriated that the studios wasted 148 days with an offer they could have given on ‘day f—ing one”.  As this spells out, that is in fact exactly what the studios did – and the WGA chose to spend 148 days to get that same achievement.  The studios suggests that’s one of the things the studios offered SAG-AFTRA in their most recent deal.

What the WGA also seems to have gotten were other gains that seemed less beneficial. Minimum staffing requirements for a writer’s room really doesn’t seem the kind of think that helps a show long term considering how few episodes there are in the average series these days. There were supposedly quotes from showrunners in August about how upset they were that this was a sticking point for the membership that the WGA said was misinformation by the studios. I’m now beginning to think they might have legitimate. Perhaps the most important thing they gained were regulations on the use of A.I in writing, which will be helpful going forward, though I have to say it really does seem like they were trying to hold back the tide on that. The foreign residuals formula helped.

Hearing all of these gains, however, I’m still kind of pissed at the WGA for taking this long to achieve so little for their future.  I learned that 11,500 members went on strike, which to be clear was fewer than I thought the membership was and makes their sense of entitlement actually seem worse for what they have achieved.  It makes me more certain that this had nothing to do with the future of the industry and everything to do with a cash grab before the lights go out.  This has already done a lot to destabilize a shaky industry and fundamentally does nothing to ensure that TV and movies will last any longer. I don’t believe that this does anything to help Hollywood long term and I’m not convinced it was worth it.

But the thing is I genuinely thought that this had to be the end of the it. SAG-AFTRA went to the bargaining table last week and I figure they would be inclined to negotiate too. The WGA and DGA have agreed to terms and SAG-AFTRA is all that’s left. And to be clear as little as I think the WGA gained from all this, I could understand far better why they spent so much time on the picket line even I don’t agree with why. They are the forces that make the industry work. Peak TV would not exist without them and every actor in the world knows it. With the two major guilds gone, they have less room to maneuver anyway.

For the last week there had been quiet. I was inclined to take this as a good sign: the WGA had been quiet for more than a week before they came away with a tentative deal. And then, this afternoon I learned that SAG-AFTRA had halted talks because the gap ‘between the parties is too great’ and accused the studios of putting out ‘bully tactics.”

I don’t know what the terms were, but I’ll be honest: even without knowing the studios terms, I call bullshit. Not just on a SAG-AFTRA but the entire Hollywood work stoppage for the last six months. None of this is about some kind of greater future for the industry, none of this is about assuring protections. It’s all about greed.

I’m not saying the studios offers to the SAG-AFTRA was genuine but let’s look at it and say ii is. I’m inclined to believe the minimum rate increases are the same as they were for the WGA and DGA because the studios would figure it would be good enough.  Let’s say the foreign residuals was the same because I think that was true.  Based on the AI regulations, which include written consent from performers and replicas that can not be used without consent, I think that sounds reasonable. There’s also the possibility that the increase in health and pension would be more important to actors then it would be to writers or directors. What it seems to have come down to fundamentally is the streaming revenue proposal which the studio claims is a sticking point because of the financial burden.

I realize this is heresy to the guilds but I still agree with the studios standpoint on this because as I’ve said over and over and over, I don’t know how anybody can be making a profit on any streaming service. We all know that Netflix has been making up its numbers for years, Amazon has more than enough outside revenue to make up for what it might loose from streaming, ditto Apple and Hulu’s first ads bragged about how ridiculous it was they were offering this much TV for nothing.  The guilds have been arguing that streaming have not being paying them what they were due. To be clear,  no one said they didn’t get paid for work on House of Cards or The Handmaid’s Tale. They were pissed because, unlike everything else, there were no residuals to make up for the millions of people watching their series.  The idea that there very well might be less money or almost none was nonexistent because the corporations were rich.

For the writers one could make the argument – slim though it might be – that what they were doing had some merit.  There isn’t nearly as much stability in the writer’s room and they make the shows and film work. I’d argue that their efforts were pennywise and pound-foolish and I don’t know how they can justify what they got for five months on the picket line but at least they had more of reason.

For SAG-AFTRA I have no sympathy at all. I don’t know if its possible to have negative sympathy but I do.  I’m now beginning to think that their efforts at walking a picket line for two months in support with the WGA was little more than a performance piece. Why not? What did it cost them to support? Part of me is beginning to wonder if members of SAG-AFTRA went out of their way to whisper in the writers ears to keep a firm stance even past the point it was becoming a zero-sum game.  

I think they walked the picket line the two months before they themselves went on strike out of pure selfishness. As long as they appeared to support ‘their’ writers, they knew that when SAG-AFTRA went on strike, the WGA would have their full support. I mean, one hand washes the other, right? For all we know – and we may not find out until years after the fact – the WGA might very well have gotten the same offer they eventually settled for a month ago and SAG-AFTRA persuaded them to turn it down.  They knew the moment the WGA accepted the offer; they would lose leverage with the studios. There’s no evidence that there’s any substantial difference between the offer the studios gave a month ago or the one they finally accepted. But they were savvy enough to know that both sides were becoming increasingly desperate to find a solution and they would stay at the table until they came up with something.

So when the WGA agreed to the terms two weeks ago SAG-AFTRA knew that the WGA would continue to support them on the picket lines until they studios came to them with a deal. Which is what happened. In that sense SAG-AFTRA’s decision to walk away from the deal that the studios offered – which seems to be in essence what both the WGA and DGA accepted – can only be seen as a stunning betrayal of everyone involved.

All the support the actors claimed to have for the writers for the past several months is little more than performance.  And why shouldn’t it have been? By and large, the members of SAG-AFTRA are not only more wealthy, they have a far more important card to play with the studios.

Okay creative people, this is going to hurt but it has to be said: no one in the world gave a damn about you when you were on the picket line. You were marching for two months and after it got started, nobody cared. But when Fran Drescher gave the speech announcing that SAG-AFTRA was going on strike, it went viral. She was called the face or organized labor by the media and the left, even though you guys had been on strike for two months.

And you know  why. A D-list actor or actress is far more photogenic than an A-list writer.  That is the truth of the industry you work in. Really, you guys should have known this going in. All the months you guys were on strike, just how many times was one of your most famous writers interviewed?  Did anyone care when Shawn Ryan said he had received a dime for The Night Agent? Most people don’t know who he is. But when Dwayne Johnson donated $10 million in support of you guys everybody paid attention.  The media that covered your picket lines for five months, they weren’t there to see you guys. Because no one wanted to cross a picket line, Hollywood shut down. No actor could attend a premiere or discuss a project. There were no film festivals, no TV premieres, no red carpets.

So the only place to find celebrities was on a picket line. And SAG-AFTRA knew it.  They didn’t come up to support you: I imagine many of their interviews dropped at lease one reference to the SAG-AFTRA strike that might come forward.  But because you needed them for publicity and attention you took it because the studios would be inclined to negotiate with you if the actors were striking too.

But they were never in it to help you any more than you were in it to help future generations of writers. This was all about leveraging and getting as much money as they could.  So they took the offer that you were willing to accept – what you labored on five months to get – and collectively shat on it.

 And the studios are eventually going to have come back with more money for them, certainly a better deal than you got.  To be clear, far more of the members of SAG-AFTRA are in a less precarious financial situation than you guys are but that’s exactly why they’ll be more inclined to wait it out.  And the studios will have to pay through the nose because of the indisputable fact that you can’t pretend exists; on every one studio set, on every PR trek, on every carpet, the media always turns out to see the actors. You guys in the writer’s room aren’t even second thoughts; your a third or fourth one  at best.

Your ‘brothers-in-arms’ on the picket line betrayed you. The deal you worked so hard to get might give you pay and benefits but until the actors are willing to appear on set, you still can’t go beyond the writer’s room. You still won’t be able to do anything until the actors – who need the money far less than most of you – decide to come back to work.  And the longer they stay on strike, there will be repercussions. I imagine more series will be cancelled, fewer shows will start back up, there’ll be more deals scrapped. And while you may end up losing a steady source of income, may never even get back to work again, the actors will be fine.  Actors always find new jobs when their shows ends; writers have to struggle far longer.  And they will be hailed as the heroes when this is over because as we all know, when they say the left embraces Hollywood, it’s the actors that they care about, not the people who write their scripts.

Not to tell you what to do, but if I were you I would spit in SAG-AFTRA’s collective face. I know very well you can do that; the actors have always had more power than you guys have in the system and they always will.  But right now, it’s hard for me not to see their decision to walk away from the table as selfish.

 I think you’re at least entitled not to support them any longer. You could walk away from the picket line and leave them to it. The media will still cover it more than you guys got when they weren’t part of the package – it’s where the famous people are – but your representatives could make a collective statement saying that we think it is time to go back to work or something that is an unsupportive statement of support. You’re writers; you should be able to come up with something to that effect.

At the very least it would be a sign that they look selfish and elitist, which has always been a problem that actors have had to deal with, and the last thing they need is bad publicity. Is it somewhat duplicitous? I don’t think so. You’ve gotten your deal; you’re just there to support them. At the very least, you should consider calling a vote and let the actors know that your support is now conditional on them going back to the studios as soon as possible.

Hell, it might even make you look better. For months, you’ve been saying that without you guys, Hollywood doesn’t work.  Now the actors seem to be arguing that you were lying and without them it doesn’t work. I’ve argued that a lot of this was about a fundamental hypocrisy about a problem in your industry. Now you can say: the writers are going back to work. Our directors are ready to shoot. The studios are making a fair offer. Why won’t the actors accept what was good enough for us?

Would all of this be viewed as just a lot of vicious backstabbing? Probably. But it’s Hollywood. We’d expect nothing less.