I'm a Striking TV Writer. Here's Why We're Doing This.

By now you've seen the scenes of young and middle-aged Americans wearing cargo shorts and Patagonia Baggies Brimmers in front of movie studios holding ironic picket signs, such as "Chat GPT doesn't have childhood trauma!" As the battle grinds into its 12th week, with no end in sight--and the actors' union now part of the strike too--it's easy to think that a fight between a bunch of "rich Hollywood writers" and the big studios and networks may mean nothing to you, but it's quite the opposite. This is the labor fight of our generation. While in the broader labor force, the share of union members has fallen from 34 percent in the 1950s to 10 percent today, Hollywood remains a devout union town. Except for reality TV and some indie films, the majority of all personnel involved in film and TV production are part of organized labor.