Hollywood writers vote to authorize a strike. What’s next?

Hollywood writers are officially prepared to strike if they’re unable to reach a contract with the top film and tv studios, the Writers Guild of America announced Monday. The union has been negotiating for big changes, primarily to the pay structure for writers, arguing that the prevalence of streaming has decimated writers’ pay.

Film and television writers who are unionized with the Guild have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, with 97.85% of voting members saying “yes” to strike authorization. That vote doesn’t set off a strike right away, but allows the union to strike if it’s unable to reach an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a trade association that represents more than 350 Hollywood film- and TV-production companies, including Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, Netflix, and Apple+.

The current three-year contract between writers and Hollywood studios is set to expire May 1; if the two sides are unable to reach an agreement by that date, the WGA could call a strike. The last Hollywood writers strike took place in 2007—and lasted 100 days, into 2008. (In 2017, the Guild voted to authorize a strike but did not end up striking.)

For this strike authorization vote, more than 9,200 total ballots were cast, representing 78.79% of eligible WGA members. (Fast Company’s editorial newsroom is unionized through the Writers Guild of America East but was not eligible to vote in this election.) Of those votes, 9,020, or 97.85% of voting members, cast a yes ballot to authorize a strike; 198 members, or just 2.15% of votes cast, voted no. The AMPTP called the ratification of the strike authorization vote “inevitable” in a statement, and added that its goal is it to “reach a fair and reasonable agreement.”

Those results have set a new record “for both turnout and the percentage of support in a strike authorization vote,” the WGA said on its website for its 2023 contract negotiations. “Our membership has spoken. Writers have expressed our collective strength, solidarity, and the demand for meaningful change in overwhelming numbers,” the union continued. “Armed with this undeniable demonstration of unity and resolve, we will continue to work at the negotiating table to achieve a fair contract for all writers.”

Throughout the past week, as the strike authorization vote was open, multiple Hollywood writers and actors spoke up in support of authorizing a strike, and in favor of the demands that the union is making for writers in this contract-negotiation process. Writers have talked about the negative impact of streaming on their incomes as well as the abuse of “mini-rooms,” or shrunken writers rooms, which mean fewer overall jobs in the industry.

One writer, Alex Blagg, previously told Fast Company “A phrase I see that keeps going around with writers on Twitter, and in member meetings with the Guild, is that this particular negotiation feels like it’s existential.” Blagg, who cocreated Comedy Central’s @midnight and worked as a staff writer on Workaholics, added, “And that our entire career, our way of life, the traditional ways in which writers have been able to create a livelihood for themselves, feels like it’s crumbling—and it feels like it’s escalating quickly.”