The Writers Guild of America, one of the most influential unions in the nation has finally announced the end of one of the most draining periods in the history of film and cinema. The strike lasted around 150 days and it has caused a mass backup of film, T.V. shows and other media forms
This has been a long discourse between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television who have been against the writers for many years now. The Alliance includes many massive players in the media game such as Disney, Netflix, NBC, Amazon and Warner Bros. These companies have produced some of the most popular films and T.V. shows out there.
The strike was an inevitable possibility as the two titans could not agree on payment for the writers on the work they do. This led to a mass walkout by the Writers Guild in early May, which created a following by the end of the month.
With the strike, many crew members of different productions were out of jobs for a couple months because the writers refused to work. The strike has caused a massive halt to the film and media economic states in places such as New York and California. “California’s economy has lost about five billion dollars due to the strike,” (L.A. Times).
With the loss of economic income for the Alliance and the states, there was a need to end this quickly. People need their stable income to return.
Finally, there was a solution. There was a deal in place that the Guild took. It has been that significant progress has been made but there just needs to be a finalized agreement.
The actors also went on strike because their union combined with the Guild. This caused a massive stop to any new talk shows, movies or new T.V. However, the actors union is still on strike even after an agreement was reached on Tuesday night. There have been “no negotiations yet on the horizon,” (AP).
With the deal, the talk shows will be resuming first in the upcoming weeks. Also, the shows that were previously postponed are currently in the works for being brought back. Many people have been affected because their favorite shows were postponed for months. This is significant because the shows and series were shut down in the summer
Students at Westerville North have been showing some frustration. Kaelym Chapman (2025) has experienced the effects of the strike.
“Saturday Night Live, one of my favorite shows is just fun to watch and has been a good way to spend my weekend,” Chapman said.
Many massive names have been pumped out of the hit show and with the lack of writers, that show cannot continue with new material so it has been shut down since May.
Another student at our school, Rory Pretorious (2026) is also a fan of Saturday Night Live and has been waiting for the show to come back because of the humor.
“The writers should be paid for these big time shows, “ Pretorious said.
Even Westerville North High School’s staff witnessed the strike. English Teacher Michelle Feige also has thoughts on this event.
“It is always the boss being paid more than the workers. It is always that way with strikes. They are trying to find that balance,” Feige said.
One of the many reasons why the writers and actors went on strike was because of the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
“The massive streaming shows and being replaced by A.I. like Chat GPT have been leading to thoughts of replacement,” Feige said. Actors and writers are worried about being replaced by a robot which is leading them to push for an agreement with the big media companies. There has always been these thoughts of pushing the authority figures back for equality and for better working conditions.
Another example of this is in the automotive and education industry. Auto workers and teachers have been striking for better wages. The automotive workers have led partial walkouts to help demonstrate their threats and are trying to also gain leverage for better benefits.
