An Inside Look at the WGA Strike

On September 27, 2023 the Writer’s Guild Of America (WGA) achieved a landmark contract with the major Hollywood studios, television networks and streaming services, after a strike that lasted five months.

The terms of the settlement, the gains won, and the implications for both the entertainment industry and the greater labor movement were the basis of a recent webinar moderated by Harry Katz, Jack Sheinkman Professor and Director of the Scheinman Institute.

His panelists included ILR Associate Professor Adam Seth Litwin, the author of the NY Times essay, “Hollywood’s Deal With Screenwriters Just Rewrote the Rules Around A.I.,” and Ellen Stutzman ’04, Executive Director of the WGA West and Chief Negotiator for the WGA.

Stutuzman noted that one of the key gains for the union included protections against the use of artificial intelligence. She explained that at the beginning of the strike the studios wouldn’t even discuss A.I., and it was only in the last week before settlement that this issue was addressed.

The resulting historic agreement included provisions that A.I. can’t take the place of a WGA writer and it can only be used with the permission of the writer.

Litwin, whose expertise includes how technology affects the labor market, stressed that because the WGA was successful in determining how artificial intelligence will be used in their workplace, other unions who will now have a precedent in determining how technology impacts their workers.

Learn more and view the webinar here.