After the WGA and SAG-AFTRA Strikes: Six Months of No Work
Photo Credit: Mark Abramson/The New York Times via Vanity Fair
On May 2, the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) strike began. On July 14, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined the writers, leading to a combined strike that lasted until Nov. 9.
When the WGA and SAG-AFTRA unions renewed their contracts recently, ending the strike, they requested increased residuals, protection from AI, and better safety. Still, weeks later, the effects of the strikes continue. The aim of the strike was to fight the large corporations that control the film industry, but it also led to many non-union workers losing jobs and independent companies going out of business.
There are many International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) workers that function within the film industry. This includes jobs such as catering, cinematography, lighting, assistant work, prop making, etc. here are also non-union workers, like VFX artists and producers. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes caused many of these people to either lose their jobs or be temporarily laid off, because without writers or actors, the only media being consistently made were unscripted shows, mainly reality television. According to Variety, below-the-line workers had been losing houses, cars, and even spouses as divorce rates spiked as soon as the strike began. Some people even left the industry for good.
Variety also stated that struggling workers’ took a total of over $60 million was taken from their retirement funds to use to support their families. Hollywood’s economy was not the only one damaged, as cancelled and postponed films resulted in many locations used for filming losing millions of dollars. This included many US states, like Montana, and cities in Canada, the UK, and India. Reuters reported that the US’s national economy has lost over $6 billion as a result of the strike.
Large companies let go of huge amounts of employees in order to save money. This led to even more people without jobs, including VFX and animation workers. According to the 2023 Animation Industry Layoff Tracker provided by Cartoon Brew, Disney’s Industrial Light & Magic shut down its animation and VFX production facilities in Singapore, which impacted over 300 employees.
Scanline, a VFX studio in Vancouver, began a mass exodus and Outpost, a VFX and editing company in Quebec, began cutting salaries by 20 per cent. According to The Hollywood Reporter, over 45,000 workers lost their jobs over the course of the strike.
Photo Credit: Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times
Smaller animation and VFX companies also began to lay off employees, and tried to preserve their funds until the strike ended. However, many VFX artists who do have work still get underpaid, according to Collider, with long working hours and no paid overtime. According to Cartoon Brew, incidents such as Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer only crediting 27 VFX workers out of hundreds, have been a large hit to morale.
The VFX industry remains unprotected from situations like this due to a lack of a proper union. The reason for this stems largely from a lack of organization- with VFX artists and companies scattered all over the world, the industry is too large and complicated to create unions country by country. There is also fear that if only one country has a VFX union, then large companies will begin to avoid working with anyone in that union and reach out to companies in other countries instead.
Still, according to Indiewire, with nine out of ten VFX workers believing that they have no ways to negotiate for their rights, this strike has begun to energize the movement again. Recently, for example, Marvel Studios’ VFX workers voted to unionize with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, as a way to gain overtime pay, more feasible deadlines, and job security.