The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously today to approve a resolution in support of the Writers Guild’s ongoing strike and urged the studios “to come to the bargaining table and reach a fair deal with the workers of the WGA.” The strike is now in its 60th day.
“The entertainment industry has long been considered the backbone of the region’s economy, and the WGA represents tens of thousands of Angelenos,” the Council said in a statement. “But the changing business model of the entertainment industry towards streaming services has left many underpaid and overworked. Now, writers are facing the largest assault on compensation and working conditions that they have seen in a generation, with other sectors of the industry like actors and stagehands also struggling to make ends meet.”
“This is a fight for the future of Hollywood,” said Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, who represents most of Hollywood, which includes the Netflix and Paramount studios. “As we hit day 60 of this strike, we can’t allow these big corporations to play games with the future of this industry and refuse to pay their workers a living wage.”
“This resolution is a proud declaration of solidarity with working families across Los Angeles,” said Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents a district that includes Fox and CBS studios. “WGA writers, like all workers, deserve to be paid what they are worth, and they deserve dignity in their work. It’s past time the studios recognize that, come back to the table, and end this strike now.”
Here is the full resolution:
WHEREAS, the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East, which collectively represent over 11,500 writers in film and television across the country, are currently without a contract and on strike; and
WHEREAS, the WGA’s reasonable demands to the major media companies that employ their members – including Disney, NBC Universal, Paramount, Netflix, Apple and Amazon – have not been met; and
WHEREAS, writers are facing the most comprehensive assault on their compensation and working conditions in a generation. Media companies have taken advantage of the industry’s transition to global streaming to underpay workers. As a result, writers are doing more work for less pay and with less job security; and
WHEREAS, this erosion of writer pay and working conditions has happened while their employers collected almost $30 billion in entertainment operating profits each year from 2017 to 2021; and
WHEREAS, without writers, the entertainment industry would not have stories to tell; and
WHEREAS, Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, and has a vested interest in the sustainability of that industry’s workforce; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that by the adoption of this resolution, the Los Angeles City Council urges the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to come to the bargaining table and reach a fair deal with the workers of the WGA.
