However Tinseltown’s mighty content material manufacturing machine might grind to an entire halt subsequent month ought to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) authorizes a strike, and voting begins in the present day. A profitable consequence would offer the commerce union with heightened leverage in ongoing wage talks, however would additionally escalate tensions which may set off a possible showdown with the trade’s highly effective studios. 

“The survival of our occupation is at stake,” the WGA wrote final week, asserting the strike poll.

Over the previous decade, the businesses embraced enterprise practices that slashed our compensation and undermined our working situations. We’re asking to revive author pay & situations to mirror our worth to this trade. The survival of our occupation is at stake. #WGAStrong 3/3

— Writers Guild of America West (@WGAWest) April 3, 2023

Neither the WGA nor the consultant physique for the studios, the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers (AMPTP), might be instantly reached by Fortune for remark.

What might seem to be a minor labor dispute involving a comparatively small variety of staff might have large repercussions for the leisure trade. The final time WGA’s members selected to picket employers greater than 15 years in the past, they left studios and broadcasters devoid of entertaining scripts, derailing quite a few promising movies and TV collection within the course of. 

In early November 2007, writers staged a walkout that lasted 100 days in a crippling strike that price California $2.1 billion, in response to analysis by the Milken Institute, an financial assume tank.

This yr’s labor talks revolve round quite a lot of points concerning the advanced approach writers are compensated for his or her inventive expertise. However on the coronary heart of the negotiations is the difficulty of a gradual wage squeeze within the new streaming age. In line with a survey of WGA members, half now obtain absolutely the minimal charge required in contrast with solely a 3rd 10 years in the past. 

“Writers are demanding protections that tackle all of the methods the studios have reduce pay, squeezed extra work into much less time or onto fewer writers, and demanded extra work without cost,” the guild mentioned in a press release to the Los Angeles Instances. 

“There is no such thing as a story with out us,” WGA member @chareeuh discusses what’s on the road for writers in 2023’s contract negotiations with the studios #WGAstrong #1u pic.twitter.com/D1BD7ZXHl1

— Writers Guild of America West (@WGAWest) April 7, 2023

In the meantime, studios like Disney are underneath heavy strain from traders to finish monetary hemorrhaging after years of splurging on new content material in a bid to win the streaming wars and compete with trade heavyweight Netflix. 

Whereas this week’s WGA poll solely requires a easy 50%-plus-one-vote to go, the union urged its members on each the East and West Coasts to vote in favor in numbers massive sufficient to boost the strain on employers forward of Could 1, the finish of their 2020 contract.

“An amazing majority is important to ship a robust message to the studios that the membership is united in help of the bargaining agenda,” the group wrote.

On-line voting begins at 8:30 am native time on each East and West coasts, and ends on April 17, two weeks previous to the expiration of the prevailing contract.

in case you are within the #wga i strongly, strongly implore you to vote sure on the strike authorization. it’s the solely method to present the businesses that we have now the leverage and imply enterprise. with out this energy, there isn’t any method to get what we’re value.

— javier grillo-marxuach (@OKBJGM) April 7, 2023

The final time tensions got here to a head was six years in the past

A vote in favor of picketing doesn’t essentially imply writers will undergo with a strike. An identical authorization achieved 96% help again in 2017, however the two sides managed to avert a dangerous walkout on the final second.

Ought to the inventive minds behind the digital camera comply with by way of, nevertheless, the repercussions for studios already affected by a drop within the theater-going public might be extreme.

In an interview, Daniel Craig resorted to four-letter expletives when recalling his frustration after the 2007 strike left the Hollywood star caught rewriting components of a “naked bones” script himself in his forgettable second outing because the fictional British spy James Bond. Actor Christian Bale likewise pointed to it as partly liable for the weak, action-heavy plot in Terminator Salvation.

In the meantime TV reveals didn’t fare higher higher, and truncated seasons the norm on the time. Many followers of the TV present Heroes blame the strike 15 years in the past, which noticed creator Tim Kring picket his personal present, for the sharp drop-off in high quality that doomed the vastly widespread collection after its first season. When the walkout lastly ended, late night time host David Letterman celebrated by having his beard, grown through the undesirable hiatus, shaven off on air.