Happy Cinco de Mayo War & Peaceniks! It’s time to take sides.
It’s incredibly tempting to see the current WGA Writers Strike against Hollywood’s powerful studios as a war between rich, pampered Los Angelenos, who intermittently fast, drive Teslas and freak out when it rains.
It’s not. (Although they all do freak out when it rains.)
As Josh Gondelman says in the video above, it’s actually about thousands of mostly middle class workers (whose work makes literally billions of dollars for some of the biggest companies in the history of humans) asking for sustainable wages, from multi-millionaire Hollywood CEOs, who refuse to even negotiate.
“The guild spelled out its proposal for a TV staffing minimum, which would range from 6 to 12 writers per show, based on the number of episodes. The studios declined to make a counter-offer.
The guild also wants a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment per season, ranging from 10 to 52 weeks. The studios likewise rejected that, and did not make a …
