Since May 2nd, members of the Writers Guild in the US have been on strike, fighting for the future of film and television against increasingly greedy streaming networks and corporate giants. The WGA is fighting for fairness, and today, affiliated entities around the world, including the New Zealand Writers Guild, are standing in solidarity.

It used to be you could work on a show all year on a 22 episode season, and get paid residuals every time an episode aired. These days you're lucky to get more than 6 episodes of anything, and the success of a show on a streaming platform does not translate into any additional payments to the writers. You need two or three jobs a year to maintain even a vaguely steady income. That puts up a huge financial barrier to entry, making it impossible for new and deserving voices to get a toehold in this industry.

It doesn't look like the strike will be going anywhere soon. I hope that the studios who pay their CEOs hundreds of millions of dollars a year realise that failing to invest in the next generation of writers is ultimately just cutting off their nose to spite their face.

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