Boots Riley brought the fire. Lindsay Dougherty brought the Teamsters. And top leaders of SAG-AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, American Federation of Musicians and other area unions gathered by the hundreds Wednesday to show solidarity with striking writers at the WGA Strong March and Rally for a Fair Contract held at the La Brea Tar Pits.
Riley, the auteur behind 2018’s “Sorry to Bother You” and the upcoming Amazon Prime series “I’m a Virgo,” noted that he was once a member of the Teamsters during his days working for UPS.
“We’re not just fighting for us right now. In the last three years there’s been over 2,900 strikes in the U.S.,” Riley told the cheering crowd. “They’re scared of what’s going on,” Riley said of American corporations. “They’re scared of how militant, how ready to fight we’ve become.”
Dougherty, who heads the Teamsters’ powerful Local 399, has a reputation for shooting from the lip and she didn’t hold back.
“What we need to do with the AMPTP is make them fucking extinct,” she said. “They declared war on Hollywood labor, and it’s a war they are going to get.”
WGA West board member Liz Alper addressed the crowd by saying that the expectations for the volume and time frame of writing work in TV and film are out of touch with reality. “We are forced to write at a break-neck, unsustainable pace” now that the largest media conglomerates have “exploited the changing landscape” with the push to direct-to-consumer streaming.
“We are heading into our 51st day on strike. 51 days of our employers choosing to inflict damage instead of ending this strike by negotiating,” Alper said.
The rally began at 10:30 a.m. PT at Pan Pacific Park, with the crowd then moving along Third Street and Fairfax Avenue toward the La Brea Tar Pits off Wilshire Boulevard, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art complex. The neighborhood’s telltale smell of methane (all that buried oil has the unmistakable aroma of rotten eggs) was wafting strong through the open area of the Tar Pits where the crowd began to gather around 11:15 a.m. PT as the first wave of marchers arrived with picket signs, strollers, dogs, bicycles and many more accoutrements.
The WGA’s first big public rally outside of its regular picket locations at the studios also comes as members of the Directors Guild of America are in the final days of a ratification vote on a three-year contract that the guild reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. And SAG-AFTRA is in the midst of complicated contract negotiations that could lead the performers union to its first industry-wide strike in more than 40 years.
Adam Conover, comedian and WGA negotiating committee member, served as a saucy emcee for the roughly hour-long presentation. “They have nothing without us,” Conover assured the crowd about the major studios and platforms. “Every dollar they make begins with us, and we are going to be out here until they remember that.”
David Goodman, former WGA West president and co-head of the guild’s contract negotiating committee, told Variety that the outpouring of support for the WGA strike, which began May 2, from fellow entertainment unions has been hugely significant.
“Obviously we’re being joined by so many other unions in this rally. It’s a signal that this fight isn’t just about us,” Goodman said. “Everybody recognizes this fight is about all the unions and all the workers in this business.”
On the tension within the industry about the DGA deal and whether directors pushed hard enough for gains amid the leverage created by the strike, Goodman observed: “They recognized that whatever deal they made is not the deal we need,” he said, noting that former DGA president Thomas Schlamme was soon to speak at the rally.
“I don’t think it covered the issues we raised. I appreciate they made a deal they feel works for their membership. It doesn’t work for our membership. It doesn’t address any of the major issues we raised,” Goodman said.
Schlamme received strong applause upon taking the stage, amid some sotto voce grumbling in the crowd.
“After SAG has hopefully wrestled them to the ground and gotten what they deserve, [it’s time for AMPTP] to get off their asses and get back in the room with the WGA,” Schlamme said. “The companies know they cannot do this alone and certainly not without you. And they are scared as hell about this. It’s long past time that they give you the deal you so rightly deserve. That’s why we support your fight and we support SAG-AFTRA’s fight.”
Goodman would not hazard a guess on the state of SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations, which began June 7.
“Does SAG go on strike? That’s a question I can’t answer,” he said. “In either case, if SAG gets a deal or goes on strike, there are going to be issues that aren’t going to be covered in that negotiation either. The companies still have to come back to us to make a deal with us.”
Now past the 50-day milestone, the 2023 work stoppage will last at least half as long as the 100-day strike in 2007-2008. WGA members are definitely feeling the pinch of lost work and paychecks. But it was hard to find signs of strike fatigue in the crowd. If anything, rally participants said that time spent walking picket lines with fellow writers has only strengthened their resolve as individuals realize that they’re not alone in struggling to maintain income levels of a decade ago.
“A couple years ago I had a rough year. I thought it was me and my career, and since the strike started, so many people have been telling their stories and I realized it’s not me. It’s endemic to the whole system of how the business has been taken apart over the last handful of years,” Seth Sherwood, film and TV writer, told Variety. “It feels good to have community, but at the same time you’re seeing everyone is having as hard a time as you. If it weren’t for that, you wouldn’t have as much hope that we can make a difference.”
Sherwood acknowledged “everyone has a theory” about how long the strike will run. “It’s a game, asking each other how long you think it’ll go for,” he said. “Some people think they just want to break our spirit.”
Paul Scheer, the actor-writer known for “Black Monday” and “Fresh Off the Boat,” said industry insiders have grown accustomed to stretching budgets through long periods of no work, despite the rise in the overall number of series in production.
“We’re living in a time where people are going two months, four months, six months between jobs. So we’re used to this,” Scheer told Variety. “The resilience is higher because people are used to being out of work for a longer period of time. And we also know that we’re not going to be settling for a mediocre contract.”
Lynn Roth, longtime TV and film writer and former WGA West board member, said the stepped-up activity among unions around the country has been inspiring. The WGA’s cheering sections at the Tar Pits included several dozen members of LIUNA, the union that represents a range of workers in construction and energy sectors as well as public employees.
“This is one of those moments when the future is changing, and if we don’t do something right now, we will pay the price forever,” Roth told Variety. “There have to be rules — first within our union, and at the governmental level, on AI. That has the capacity to change things that would make residuals and mini rooms and everything moot — if that really proliferates.”
On stage, singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc performed a cover of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” as well as his songs “I Need a Dollar” and “My Way,” before which he noted, “This song helped me when I was dealing with my own issue with the record labels, trying to figure out how to get out of my contract, be independent and do things my way,” he said.
Riley, who is not only a writer, director and actor but also musician but the WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA member known for making 2018’s “Sorry to Bother You,” also performed an a capella version of the fiery “Everythang,” a song by his political hip-hop group The Coup.
To keep spirits high leading up to the event, and to wind down after the lineup of speakers and performers, writers and their supporters danced to a live DJ set that featured the “Golden Girls” theme song, Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul,” Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution.” A track from Disney’s 2008 telepic “High School Musical” even got a spin; appropriately, it was the finale number “We’re All in This Together.”
Charna Flam contributed to this report.