Late last night, board members from the writers union (WGA) approved a contract agreement with studios, bringing the industry at least partly back from the historic work stoppage that stretched to nearly five months. This doesn’t mean the strike is over, as scripted shows will take longer to return. Actors are still on strike with no negotiations yet on the horizon.
The leadership of the WGA West and East unanimously voted to end the strike at 12.01am PT this morning, allowing writers to return to work, and recommending the agreement reached with studios. The tentative deal still has to be ratified by the union’s members, who will be able to vote on it in early October.
The three-year contract agreement with studios, producers and streaming services includes significant wins in the areas writers had fought for: compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence. The outcome matches or nearly equals what the writers had sought from the outset of the strike. That’s called collective action folks, and it does indeed work!
Side Items
Biden on the Picket Line: Joe Biden made history again this week (No, he didn’t fall off his bike again). Yesterday, ostensibly for the first time in this country’s history, the president of the US joined a picket line! Biden joined auto workers in Michigan as they continue to protest for fair pay and better working conditions. The dinosaur of a democrat encouraged workers to keep fighting at a time when CEO’s of car companies have seen inflated compensation and record profits
Chicago’s Manufactured “Migrant Crisis”: In the past year, approximately 29,000 Ukrainians have immigrated to Chicago. Yet somehow it’s only Central Americans and Venezuelans being housed in the police precincts. Take a quick walk around town and you’ll see them in the shelters, you’ll hear the government claim it has no ability to deal with them, but tens of thousands of Ukrainians can seemingly be mixed in seamlessly. Somehow there’s no narrative in the media that the Ukrainians are creating a crisis. Why not? Because the government is quietly integrating them with work permits and social benefits, benefits that somehow don’t apply to those immigrating from Central and South America
Classic Napoli Racism: The defending Italian soccer champions find themselves in a bit of trouble, but not on the field. The club made the baffling decision to mock its star forward, Victor Osimhen, on social media. Napoli posted, and quickly deleted, a video mocking Osimhen’s penalty-taking abilities as well as clowning his haircut and referring to him as a “coconut”. The player’s agent says Osimhen is considering taking action against his club as a result. The relationship between the player and the team has been under increased scrutiny as of late, and Osimhen deleted images and videos on his own social media featuring the team. There’s a good reason Italy is consistently considered the most racist professional soccer league on the planet