#ScreenwritersEverywhere: Media & entertainment unions in global solidarity with WGA

On 14 June, unions representing media, entertainment and arts workers around the world are coming together for Screenwriters Everywhere, a day of global solidarity and action to support striking U.S. screenwriters.

Actions, organized by the Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE), International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG), UNI Global Union, and others, will be held in 35 countries in support of the 11,500 members of Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East, who have been on strike since 2 May. The organizations represent approximately 67,000 professional film and television writers and more than 500,000 other creatives, technicians and behind-the-scenes workers worldwide – including the U.S. writers’ unions who are members of UNI.

Planned events range from pickets of local Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) member offices, rallies at sets, to membership discussions and social media campaigns. In many instances, actors, directors, crew, musicians and other cultural workers and unions will join screenwriters.

A coalition of the ITUC, TUAC and global unions federations – representing 200 million workers worldwide – released a statement “in solidarity with the WGA in their fight for fair pay, decent working conditions and the protection of writers’ rights in the digital environment. This is a global fight.”

“Workers in our industry – above and below the line – have been squeezed during the ongoing transformation to the streaming model. The WGA and unions everywhere fight higher work pressure, unsustainable remuneration models, unsafe working hours and deadlines. On this global day of solidarity, the global community of media, entertainment and arts unions stands in solidarity with the WGA in their fight for fair pay and decent working conditions,” said Matthew D. Loeb President of UNI’s Media, Entertainment & Arts sector (UNI MEI) and of the IATSE.

“Screenwriters in Europe are in awe of the organization, determination and solidarity of our friends and colleagues in the Writers Guilds of America, East and West, in their fight to defend and protect their profession from the sustained assaults they are currently facing. We are all too familiar with the attacks that threaten to make a career as a screenwriter unsustainable. In Europe, and across the globe, screenwriters are exploited for their commitment to their work. We enthusiastically support the WGA strike. Their fight is our fight – we will share in their victory,” said German Screenwriter and FSE President Carolin Otto.

“The members of the IAWG, made up of Guilds from Europe, America, Canada, India, Africa, Korea, New Zealand and Israel, stand in solidarity with our sister Guilds in America, the WGA-East and the WGA-West. The companies that seek to exploit and diminish writers are global, our response is global, and the victory gained in America will be a victory for screenwriters everywhere. Union now, union forever,” said Irish Screenwriter and IAWG Chair Thomas McLaughlin.

Screen and television writers in the U.S. have been on strike since 2 May because their employers like Disney, Netflix and Amazon are refusing to pay them fairly and to negotiate over key issues like staffing and artificial intelligence.

UNI Global Union General Secretary Christy Hoffman notes that these writers’ struggle to put guardrails on AI has a ripple effect beyond the entertainment industry.

“Generative AI models could touch millions of jobs over the next decade. By launching the first strike ever where AI is a key bargaining issue, the WGA are on the frontlines of determining whether workers will share in the benefits of digitalization, or whether generative AI will be yet another tool to drive inequality,” she said. “Now is the time to do it.”

Media companies have made billions from the work of writers and all the other workers who make movies and series, but they are refusing to share that value with workers. The struggle for fair compensation and protections against these global streaming companies is shared by all members of these international worker organizations.

The Federation of Screenwriters in Europe (FSE) brings together 31 screenwriters’ organizations from 25 European countries.

 The International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG) has 14 members from 12 countries.

 UNI Global Union’s Media, Entertainment and Arts (UNI MEI) unites over 140 unions and guilds.

For more information on individual events, please visit:

https://www.wgacontract2023.org/take-action/screenwriters-everywhere-international-day-of-solidarity.