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The Writers Will Script This Strike Ending

With the AMPTP chief reluctant and the Writers Guild recalcitrant, Friday’s meeting was doomed from the start. A historical look at why Hollywood union bargaining is so difficult.

When the meeting arrived, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman and general counsel Tony Segall told Lombardini there would be no further negotiations unless the companies were willing to engage with all of the guild’s demands
When the meeting arrived, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman and general counsel Tony Segall told Lombardini there would be no further negotiations unless the companies were willing to engage with all of the guild’s demands Photo: Chris Delmas/Getty Images
Jonathan Handel
August 7, 2023

When I first joined the Writers Guild’s legal staff, in 1993, my onboarding memorably featured an orientation video with black-and-white footage of the 1950s blacklist, and that extolled the courage of writers who resisted. An us-versus-them ethos pervaded the reel, and on some level, that worldview still persists 30 years and two industry-halting strikes later. Writers have never forgotten a classic studio mogul’s alleged characterization of screen scribes as “schmucks with Underwoods,” a reference to a contemporaneous typewriter. (Today’s version would be “schmucks with Final Draft.”) Alas, from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the boom of Peak TV, writers have seldom felt respected.