Hollywood drama: Actors join writers in striking against producers

talk about a real-life Hollywood drama the  nation's entertainment industry this weekend   is beset with labor woes Tracy Smith now on the  issues and the impact [Music] it's a showstopper   all right no actors both The Writers Guild of  America and the Screen Actors Guild are on strike   and Hollywood is effectively shut down the last  time this happened was in 1960 when Ronald Reagan   was President of the actors Union the apartment  was best picture so you're pretty good with that   racket you should see my backhand and the actors  were holding out for more money in the form of   residuals for movies shown on TV 53 years later  with the industry facing severe economic headwinds   Rising costs and shrinking movie attendance the  unions are again pushing for better pay but this   time with streaming and other platforms disrupting  the industry they're also looking for some   guarantees that new technologies like artificial  intelligence or AI won't ruin their careers   for the record some CBS News staff are SAG-AFTRA  members but they work under a different contract   than the actors and are not affected by the  strike the writers have been out here since   May the actors joined them on the picket lines  on Friday and when the actors announced that   they were going to strike there was as  you might imagine a whole lot of drama   we are the victims here actors Union president  Fran Drescher I am shocked by the way the people   that we have been in business with are treating us  the group that represents the studios the alliance   of motion picture and television producers or  amptp didn't respond to our request to appear on   camera but issued a statement saying in part that  the amptp presented a deal that offered historic   pay and residual increases substantially higher  caps on pension and health contributions audition   protections shortened series option periods and  a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors   digital likenesses for sag-aftra members they also  said the union has regrettably chosen a path that   will lead to financial hardship for countless  thousands of people who depend on the industry   so now the battle lines are drawn and it  seems neither side is ready to back down   on day one of the strike last week  Union president and former Nanny   Fran Drescher greeted the troops  in front of the Netflix offices she stopped long enough to tell us just what she  thought of the people who run the studios we are   being system s out of our livelihood unrealistic  what you're asking is that unrealistic it's   realistic what the hell are we doing moving  furniture around on the Titanic we're all going   down unless we rescue ourselves right here and  now from people that really are doing bad things   to good people the writers Union is in much the  same boat they've watched their pay erode in the   era of streaming TV well you cannot turn down  50 for a six Dollar Ride in years past a staff   of writers for network shows like Seinfeld would  typically stay with the show throughout production   which could mean years of steady paychecks now  they say streaming has cut the number of writers   for each show and the length of time they're  hired in other words it's harder than ever   for them to make a living comedian Carol Leifer  wrote for Seinfeld and even made an appearance   now and again that's her behind the reception  desk you owe 150. what for well you canceled   on Tuesday and our policy is 24 hours notice for  all cancellations she remembers the old system of   pay and residuals the money they get for reruns  and she says they're fighting to get some of it   back I've worked on Seinfeld 30 years ago and  I'm still receiving residuals from that that's   gone now so it's a very very different world back  in today's environment do you think you you could   launch the career the way you did back then if  that makes sense I don't no no because they're   not they don't make enough the studios say they've  offered Riders the largest pay increase in decades   but writers say it's still well below what they  deserve screenwriter John August and TV showrunner   Yahlin Chang are negotiators for the writers  Guild they said that the increase that they   offered the writers Guild is the largest increase  that they've offered new writers in 25 years   and that's not enough our friend Betsy Thomas  who's our secretary treasurer she says if someone   steals your wallet and then gives you five  dollars back you're not five dollars richer   they still stole your wallet and uh and that's  sort of what it feels like for the writers is   like you know yeah you can give us some of that  money back but that's still not making us whole   and then there's the matter of artificial  intelligence programs actors don't want   their likenesses used without their consent and  writers want to guarantee that AI won't be used   to generate scripts for obvious reasons but also  because they say quality will suffer you'll see   very unoriginal kind of mediocre bad stuff because  AI has never held a baby AI has never fallen in   love you know and so you'll end up with something  stolen and pretty bad the studios say they're   willing to talk about the use of AI but have not  ruled it out if it's cheaper for chat GPT to write   a show what's the incentive for Studios to even  bargain with the writers well that's exactly the   core of the issue here Professor Robert Reich was  labor secretary under President Clinton what's   the incentive of CEOs to negotiate with workers  when workers are losing power and workers can be   replaced by AI or many other Technologies and the  answer is we have a country in which we depend on   people having enough money to buy all the stuff  that all of the companies create and if they   don't have enough money in their pockets to buy  everything that is capable of being created the   economy can't function so at some point we've got  to understand that we are all in this together   and for most of the picketers we spoke with money  was the main issue Jeanie Bergen had a number of   TV writing jobs but she's still living hand to  mouth for the first time ever after nine years of   being a television reader I applied for the food  stamp program have you had people say oh maybe   it's time to give up on your dream I am a writer  that's what I'm supposed to be doing and it's the   career that I have built so I don't plan on giving  up I'm not going to give up I've never given up a   day in my life so even before the strike she says  she was Finding creative ways like dog walking to   pay the bills there's this idea that oh if you  don't have money you're lazy my colleagues are   some of the hardest working people I know and we  should have beefed okay it's okay I'm not trying   to live in a mansion out by Malibu I just want  to be able to pay my rent pay my bills and make   sure that if I have a Health crisis I can afford  to take care of myself the amptp says unions are   to blame for shutting Hollywood down the unions  say they'd like to keep negotiating but for now   they're letting their feet and their signs do the  talking as everybody knows if it ain't on the page   it ain't on the stage it ain't on the TV it ain't  in movies so we don't want to be devalued we want   to be valued for the resource that we are and uh  if I have to get a thousand more steps in I'll do   it every day and I try with you know I always  recommend people have a funny song [Laughter]

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 105,788

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, hollywood, SAG-AFTRA, strike, actors, WGA, tracy smith

Id: nNNi3Vc0oTw

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 16 2023