Marking the end of the first month of the ongoing writers’ strike, on Friday two members of the Los Angeles City Council who represent most of Hollywood introduced a resolution in support of striking writers. If the resolution is passed, the city’s legislative body would formally call on studios to return to the negotiating table with the Writers Guild of America.
The bill was introduced by Hugo Soto-Martinez, who represents District 12 (which includes parts of Hollywood where Netflix and Paramount are based), and Katy Yaroslavsky of District 5, which covers a significant portion of the west side of the city and also includes the headquarters of FOX and CBS.
Yaroslavsky said the resolution would serve as “a proud declaration of solidarity with working families across Los Angeles,” according to Spectrum. Soto-Martinez called it “a fight for the future of Hollywood.”
Read the full text of the proposed resolution below:
WHEREAS, the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) (jointly WGA), which collectively represent over 11,500 writers in film and television across the country, are currently without a contract and on strike; and
WHEREAS, the WGA’s reasonable demands to the major media companies that employ their members – including Disney, NBC Universal, Paramount, Netflix, Apple and Amazon – have not been met; and
WHEREAS, writers are facing the most comprehensive assault on their compensation and working conditions in a generation. Media companies have taken advantage of the industry’s transition to global streaming to underpay workers. As a result, writers are doing more work for less pay and with less job security; and
WHEREAS, this erosion of writer pay and working conditions has happened while their employers collected almost $30 billion in entertainment operating profits each year from 2017 to 2021; and
WHEREAS, without writers, the entertainment industry would not have stories to tell; and
WHEREAS, Los Angeles is the entertainment capital of the world, and has a vested interest in the sustainability of that industry’s workforce; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that by the adoption of this resolution, the Los Angeles City Council urges the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to come to the bargaining table and reach a fair deal with the workers of the WGA.
The writer’s strike began May 2 when talks between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, broke down.
For all of TheWrap’s WGA strike coverage, click here.
