United States: Hollywood screenwriters denounce the uberization of their industry

Audio 01:32

The striking writers marched in front of the offices of several major groups in the entertainment industry such as Fox Studios, on May 2, 2023 in Los Angeles. AP - Ashley Landis

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Hollywood screenwriters are on strike and the first pickets began Tuesday, May 2 in Los Angeles, as well as in New York. Negotiations started in mid-March, but no agreement was reached with studios and streaming platforms before the May 1 deadline. Screenwriters consider that they are not treated at their fair value in the age of streaming.

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With our correspondent in Los Angeles, Loïc Pialat

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No contract, no scenario ": this is one of the slogans repeated throughout the afternoon of Tuesday, at the foot of the offices of Netflix, on the first day of the strike of the scriptwriters. The giant embodies the rise of streaming. And the entertainment industry is always looking to adapt.

Alex Harris is among the strikers. "Low copyright on platforms and their lack of transparency on audiences is a problem. It feels like they're taking advantage of a relatively new model," he says.

Hollywood has never been an easy environment. But for Danielle Sanchez-Witzel, who negotiated directly with the studios, too many authors are forced to have a second job, in an industry in the process of uberization: "All of our requests represent less than 2% of the studios' profits. In short, they try to pay us as little as possible, for as little time as possible, and get as much from us as possible. I think this is a situation that speaks to other workers in other union struggles.

Another concern that the studios did not respond to during the discussions: the future role of artificial intelligence. "Personally, it scares me a lot. If they start using computers instead of a human being to write the first draft of a screenplay, it will eliminate jobs. And I think it will affect the quality," said Parker Deay, a screenwriter for Disney.

The impact of the start of the strike was immediate. On Tuesday, May 2, viewers were unable to watch the usual evening talk shows. The previous major writers' strike, in 2007, lasted 100 days and cost the Los Angeles area $2 billion.

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Read on on the same topics:

• United States
• Culture
• Cinema
• Employment and Labour
• Unions
• Social issues