A Victory For The Unions Of Hollywood Has Wider Outcomes.

There is a stalemate engulfing Hollywood.

Agents and Writers cannot agree on the fine details of the contracts that have encapsulated their working agreements for decades.

The unions and industry bodies are in all-out war and there is no end in sight.

As someone who is not physically located within the boundaries of either Hollywood, Los Angeles or New York (the catchments for the WGA West and East) nor have any known association with anyone involved in the dispute, nor do I have a full grasp of exactly what is going on between the parties, I am naturally the best person to comment.

From what I can see, the discrepancy originates with the writers and their case for better pay outcomes for their members. I don’t really have a comment to add to the ongoing dispute except to say the following -

I am very curious to see the outcome on behalf of the unions — collective bargaining is one of the only weapons a lot of industries have in combating conditions and pay disputes and to see it used in an industry that is often frivolous with the rules is making me sit up and pay close attention.

If writers from the united states can band together and win their dispute, it will not only be a massive win for their future contracts (and contracts in general across LA) and agent negotiations going forward, the win will show Americans the true power of collective bargaining.

Even in a town as exciting as Hollywood, the need for collective bargaining and unity in the workplace is a must for any key industry to not just survive, but thrive and flourish. Once again, given the town is notorious for its misuse of the rules (i.e Breaking of laws).

If this can be used as a test case, perhaps the actors and directors guilds could take note.

From there, the excitement of collective bargaining could start a wave of copycat enterprise agreements sparking up around the country.

I’m careful to make comment pending an outcome, but I watch this dispute with bated breath and heavy intrigue. Could we possibly live in a world where Agents won’t exist and contracts will revert to legal representation? Making the content creators more powerful in negotiations as they will be able to represent themselves in future negotiations?

Will lawyers become the new agents? Albeit with less say.