LWorking America is returning to the path of large-scale social conflicts, the likes of which even France has not experienced for a long time. While auto workers set up pickets in front of the gates of Ford or Stellantis factories, Hollywood screenwriters raised theirs at the foot of the buildings and studios of Disney, Warner or Universal. After five days of uninterrupted negotiations, unions and management reached an agreement taking up a large part of the demands of the convicts of the pen.
Actors could soon follow suit, ending one of the largest strikes in American film history. An exemplary conflict that could be emulated. It affects the most emblematic and famous American economic activity, that of entertainment. A service industry which largely employs independent workers and whose “dream factories” have nothing to do with the Detroit automobile chains. The sector employs, according to the New York Times, nearly 440,000 people directly, but it supports many more.
Challenges
The writers’ guild, the Writers Guild of America, represents only 11,500 screenwriters, but its power is considerable. Witness this strike which began on May 2 and which brought the entire profession to its knees with damage estimated at several billion dollars for the Californian economy. Film releases have been postponed until 2024, but it is mainly television series and shows that have suffered from this movement. The arrival of online television, while it has weakened the classic cable channels, has also created a tremendous call for more content, financed with billions by the new moguls Netflix, Amazon and Apple. And no content without screenwriters. At least until now.
Emblematic of a post-industrial and digital strike, this is also the first to openly put the subject of artificial intelligence on the table. Among the grievances were, alongside the classic salary demands, protective measures against the arrival of robot writers.
The screenwriters are asking for a limitation of its use, which is causing cries from the bosses of Disney, Warner and Comcast, who are personally involved in the discussions. The authors want a minimum number of humans in the design of film and television shows, and control over the use of their ideas by computers. This gives an overview of the challenges that await all content professions, that is to say a huge part of our economy, including employment, which will soon be threatened by machines.