Hollywood Writers Are Striking Over Pay, Stopping Production on Shows

• The Writers Guild of America will go on strike from Tuesday in protest of low pay. 
• 11,500 members of the WGA are expected to strike, the organisation told Insider.
• The WGA’s press release added that picketing would begin on Tuesday afternoon.

Hollywood writers have declared a strike from Tuesday after failing to reach agreements for higher pay from production studios.

The strike will halt production for numerous TV shows. More than 11,500 members from the Writers Guild of America are expected to go on strike, the organization told Insider.

In a press release on Monday, the Writers Guild of America said that they had called the strike after “six weeks of negotiations with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount, and Sony under the umbrella of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).”

“The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing,” the release said.

It added that picketing would begin on Tuesday afternoon.

Deadline reported that nightly talk shows, including “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” are all expected to go on hiatus because of the strike.

Rumors of a writers’ strike have been looming amid talks between union negotiators and media and tech companies.

In April, Writers Guild of America members voted 98% in favor of striking if no deal was met before their contract expired at 11.59 p.m., Pacific Time, on Monday.

A representative for the AMPTP told Insider that negotiations with the Writers Guild of America “concluded without an agreement” on Monday. 

“The AMPTP presented a comprehensive package proposal to the Guild last night which included generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals,” the Alliance told Insider.

The representative added that the organization’s member companies “remain united in their desire to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry.”

“The AMPTP is willing to engage in discussions with the WGA in an effort to break this logjam,” the organization added.