The International Confederation of Audiovisual Authors (AVACI) has launched an international support campaign for the strike being carried out by their American colleagues affiliated with the Writers Guild of America (WGA). The strike is demanding better wages.
In recent days, authors from around the world are following with expectation the actions carried out by their colleagues in the United States and, in this context, AVACI -as well as the Federation of Societies of Latin American Audiovisual Authors (FESAAL)- express their support for the fight of the Hollywood scriptwriters who demand better financial compensation, liquidation of copyright, audience data and medical insurance.
It is worth noting that film and television screenwriters in Hollywood began an indefinite strike on May 2, 2023, in response to complaints about low wages and insufficient remuneration for the distribution of their works on various platforms such as Netflix, HBO, and Disney, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Photos - Striking WGA workers picket outside the Sunset Bronson Studios building in Los Angeles Getty Images - WGA (Los Angeles Times)
In this context, more than 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) voted in favor of the strike, denouncing a 23% decline in wages in the past decade and strongly criticizing major television networks that hire smaller teams to write increasingly shorter series.
The previous writers' strike, which lasted for 100 days, occurred in 2007 and cost the industry $2 billion. Variety magazine and website highlight that “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another issue of serious concern to the writers, as they demand that all content generated by electronic computation be declared 'non-literary,' and they also seek an increase in ‘residuals’, an additional payment they receive when that content is aired on a medium other than the original one”.
It is worth considering that the reasons behind the strike of American authors are issues that are replicated in writer and screenwriter societies in different parts of the world. These societies have been heavily impacted by the precariousness resulting from the surge in original production for streaming platforms, which has reduced their job opportunities, affecting both salaries and the professional development of authors.
