If this question is searing through your daily thoughts as you go about your work in the entertainment industry, you’re asking the wrong question. 

What you should be asking is… why should the Writers Guild of America members have to strike to gain the appropriate remuneration and working conditions they merit for performing the primary creative endeavor that supports everything else that happens in entertainment the industry?

Some of you may remember me from the days when Creative Screenwriting Magazine was a print magazine. I had come to the magazine after spending eleven years writing scripts for some of the top series on network television and developing projects for nearly every studio in Hollywood. During those years, I’d chaired numerous committees at the Writers Guild of America west and served a two-year term on the WGA Board of Directors. I’m still active in the guild as a member of four committees and Chair of the Career Longevity Committee. 

So, the fact that I am an ardent supporter of my labor union should go without saying. Yet, what often goes unsaid – and what needs to be shouted loud and clear right now – is that without the Writers Guild of America, every screenwriter would still be working under the same terrible conditions that created the momentum to start a union more than ninety years ago. 

WGA Ensures Decent Pay And Work Conditions For Writers

The initial goal of the Screenwriters Guild was to make sure screenwriters were paid enough to afford a decent quality of life, as well as to determine screen credits that would factually represent the creative contribution of the screenwriter(s) to the resulting motion picture. The result of that is a mature contract that stipulates the minimum salary that can be paid to a writer at each step of the process. It also ensures a strong credit arbitration system where members of the guild read, analyze, and determine which writer(s) contribution resulted in the story you see on screen. This is a financial necessity because all subsequent income from a project generates from the ‘written by’ credit. Those credits also influence the progress a writer can make in obtaining subsequent writing assignments and pay hikes.

In the decades that followed our guild’s origin, screenwriters still struggled to gain respect. Often, the benefits of respect needed to be won in a hard-fought strike. Our creative “ancestors” went on strike for things that writers often take for granted now – residuals, a pension, and health insurance. If you’re young and taking baby steps in your writing career, these issues are most likely not part of your daily considerations. Yet, I can assure you that these hard won benefits may be the key to your future. 

My first son is alive ONLY because of our health care plan. He was injured by medical negligence when he was born, then transferred to a local Children’s Hospital. When I arrived at that NICU, the neonatologist told me, “You shouldn’t have come. There’s nothing we can do – go home and we’ll call you when he dies.” I told her that if my son only had a few hours to live, I was going to spend it with him. Then I told her that he had a million dollars of health insurance from the Writers Guild and begged her to spare no expense keeping him from feeling pain. She turned to me with a smile and said, “Oh, we thought he was a paper patient (the technical term for a patient with no health insurance). There’s so much we can do.” My husband and I spent the next five and one half months living in that NICU with our son – and every night I thanked God for the writers who went on strike so that I could earn the insurance that kept my son alive.

Catherine Clinch

Remember the hit television series I mentioned earlier? Hunter, Jake & The Fatman, Knight Rider, The Love Boat, and Hart To Hart have never stopped airing on television somewhere in the world since their initial run on broadcast networks. Writers (and other industry creatives) often joke about the paltry sums we earn in residuals. But a cumulative tally of the residual income I’ve earned from writing scripts for those series exceeds $160,000. THIS is why residuals are so important.

This brings us to working conditions. Things have improved immensely since I joined the guild in 1980. In those years, nobody had used the words “diversity” or “inclusion” correctly in a sentence. Gender bias was not just tolerated, but sometimes celebrated. The parental leave plan was called, “You’re fired.” And for those of us girls who managed to break through the A-list white boys club to work on these series, sexual harassment was just another day at the office. 

Since those days, the guild has built a remarkable staff of specialists in the areas of Inclusion and Equity – all working under exceptionally devoted leadership of that department. Great progress has been made by most members of the protected classes. The unfortunate exception to this progress involves older writers. Ageism is the last socially-acceptable form of discrimination and it is rampant in our industry – even against Emmy winners and older showrunners. So, there are still fights to be fought, although not all of them can be handled during the current contract negotiations. 

Which brings us to the current list of demands on behalf of screenwriters in this contract negotiation. During my first decade in the guild, we had THREE strikes. 1981, 1985 and 1988 – the last of which lasted for five months. The most recent WGA strike was held in 2007-8 and lasted for three months.

In retrospect, an argument could be made that we had conflicted leadership and chief negotiators who might have risen to their personal ‘Peter Principle.’ Since those days, we have been able to make significant improvements to our benefits and working conditions without a strike. These have been accomplished by strong leadership that has been united behind common goals. 

Our negotiating committee is filled with high-level, produced writers in all of the categories that need to be covered under our new contract. Due to the sudden medical leave of the guild’s Executive Director, we have the benefit of our Assistant Executive Director moving into the role of Chief Negotiator. Her mastery of facts and numbers is impressive and we are in the best hands possible for this negotiation. 

On April 17, 97.8% of all Active Current status members who are eligible to vote approved a Strike Authorization Vote. THIS IS NOT A VOTE TO STRIKE! It is a vote that authorizes the negotiating committee – working with guild leadership, officers and board members – to call a strike if it becomes apparent that there is a standstill in negotiations that cannot be overcome. It is not a responsibility that any member of our team will take lightly. It is a tool that offers the leverage of an industry awareness that virtually every writer they have working for them will honor a work stoppage. 

First Rule Of Strike Club

That’s where you come in. If you are a guild member, you know all the rules. You cannot perform any writing work or seek employment during a strike.

But if you are not yet a guild member, you also cannot perform any writing work during a strike. Violating this rule renders you “a scab writer” who will ultimately be exposed and then denied entry into the guild when you do earn enough points to join. 

If there is a strike – and that is still a very big IF – you can still write spec scripts and novels and make short films and take classes and do every other creative venture you choose to pursue. But you cannot perform writing services for any member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) against whom the WGA is striking. You cannot pitch – in person or via Zoom –  or submit your scripts to them, either. Think of it as paying it forward to serve your own future best interests when you finally become a professional writer.

Last, but certainly not least, should you still have any doubts about the importance of respecting the WGA during a work stoppage, take a look at the “opportunities”  that are available to non-union screenwriters. They usually offer as little as $5,000 for a finished screenplay with no guarantees about anything beyond that. This scenario is not an opportunity for anybody but the person trying to take advantage of you.

But without our guild to negotiate the Minimum Basic Agreement we work under, we’d all be fighting over those $5,000 gigs. So, IF the writers do go on strike (which is still a great big “IF”) and you happen to be driving past a picket line, honk your horn, wave and shout “Thank you!”