NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood film and television writers declared Monday night that they will begin an industry-wide strike for the first time in 15 years. The strike could have potentially widespread ramifications in a fight for fair wages in the streaming age.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) said its 11,500 members will begin the strike on Tuesday. Negotiations between the studios and the writers, which began in March, failed to reach a new contract before the writers’ current agreement expired shortly after midnight, at 12:01 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday. All screenwriting will cease immediately, the guild informed its members.
The WGA’s board of directors, which includes both a Western and an Eastern branch, voted unanimously to call a strike, starting at midnight. The writers, they said, are facing an “existential crisis.”
“The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy within a unionized workforce, and their steadfast stance in this bargain has betrayed a commitment and further devalued the profession of screenwriting,” the WGA said in a statement.