Hello...I'm Willis. I'm a Hudson Valley resident. I'm an actor and I support the current WGA strike. In case you're not aware, the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike is an ongoing labor dispute between the Writers Guild of America labor union (which represents approximately 11,500 people) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

What's your favorite tv show or your favorite film? The writers are the creative geniuses that bring your beloved fictional characters to life in theaters and in your home. To really drive the point home, the last writer's strike was in 2007. Writers stopped working for 100 days and this had a huge impact on TV and film production, delaying many TV shows, shortening others, and resulting in some of the worst films of the decade being shown on the big screen.

On Tuesday, May 9th, I drove from Dutchess County to Brooklyn, to participate in the strike and walk on the picket line. I'm a member of SAG-AFTRA — the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is a labor union formed in 1933 to represent actors in film, television, and radio. It is the largest professional union in the United States. The union represents more than 160,000 members from every state in the nation. As a member of SAG-AFTRA, I cannot go on strike. It's part of our current agreement. However, WE CAN support the writers of the WGA and walk with them. At the location we were picketing, we walked and chanted outside a studio where a very popular A-list celebrity was inside filming. For three hours, we walked, talked, chanted, cheered, and shared a common goal: FAIR WAGES for the writers.

This is all about money, plain and simple. That is why these strikes are located throughout NYC in front of sound stages and corporate offices (HBO, Netflix) and on the West Coast in front of major studios. If the picket line can shut down filming, that's a win. Word around the campfire is that the second season of the Pretty Little Liars spinoff was just shut down in Newburgh because of the picket line.

Imagine your employer making record profits, demanding more work from you and not giving you any increases in your wages. That's the situation here. The WGA has calculated that industry profits have ballooned from $5 billion in 2000 to $28-$30 billion from 2017-2021. Spending on original streaming content grew from $5 billion in 2019 to $19 billion in 2023. Netflix was the clear-cut leader, with $6 billion in operating profits in 2021 and $5.6 billion in 2022. The writers are dealing with greedy corporations, low wages, and most recently, the threat of AI replacing them.

In 2022, the Hollywood film industry made earnings of up to $5.99 billion. The writers are asking for approximately 2% of those earnings. That's not a typo. THEY ONLY WANT TWO PERCENT of $5.99 billion.

If you think this strike is bad, the DGA (Director's Guild of America) contract and SAG-AFTRA’s contract each expire on June 30th. Hollywood could be in a heap of trouble. With that being said, I will continue to drive to Brooklyn or Manhattan every week, grab a sign, walk on the line, and chant "NO WAGES, NO PAGES" until a deal is made. I'm an actor and without the writers, I have nothing to say.

Willis Williams

Rhinebeck