Binged anything recently? You may want to pace yourself because popular shows like “Stranger Things” and “The Last of Us” have been delayed indefinitely.
“I love superhero movies, fantasy, all those fun things,” Quinn Vachereau ‘27 said. “The third ‘Spider Man’ movie was pushed back another two years. So I gotta wait. I’m on the edge of my seat!”
The Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) was on strike from May to the end of September and the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG-AFTRA), which is still on strike, joined them in July. The two unions are negotiating for actors and writers to be paid more for shows and movies on streaming platforms and for the regulation of AI as it becomes more prevalent in the industry, among other issues. Some BHS students are frustrated about the delays but sympathetic towards the cause.
“It’s such an annoying thing when there’s a show that you like, or a movie that you really were excited for. But I mean, at the end of the day, you got to pay your workers man,” Ella Jeffers ‘27 said.
Vachereau is irritated that a strike became necessary in the first place.
“I’m not mad at the writers, I’m more pissed off at the big companies like Netflix and Disney who aren’t paying their writers and actors enough to put on these shows,” Vachereau said.
The WGA strike is at an end, with union leaders negotiating an “exceptional” deal, and SAG may not be far behind.
“What we’ve really seen in this strike is what corporate greed can do if it’s allowed to run unchecked,” Jon Snow, a SAG-AFTRA member and LA-based actor said. “And that is a big problem not just for our industry, but the United States in general. There has been a lot of emphasis on taking care of corporate interests over citizen interests.”
Students at BHS agree.
“We need to unionize, we need to unite,” Vachereau said.
“I think they’re dope [unions] and they should do them,” Jeffers added.
Hollywood isn’t the only place workers are on strike right now. The United Auto Workers are striking against the “Big Three” American automakers, Stellantis, GM and Ford, for better pay and benefits. But although 453,000 workers have gone on strike across the country so far this year, unionization rates have gone down massively since the 80s as employers spend millions on hiring union-avoidance consultants. President Biden’s National Labor Relations Board has just cracked down on union busting in an attempt to better enforce laws already in place to stop this.
Michelle Sagalchik, BHS Civics teacher and BEA Teachers’ Union Grievance Chair, says that places where unions are strong are very different from those without union protections.
Sagalchik detailed how the unions involved at BHS, including the teachers’ union, custodial staff union, administration union and principals’ union improve the quality of education for BHS students.
“There are examples of states that don’t have a unionized teaching force,” Sagalchik said. “And you see a lot of differences in the length of the school day in how many courses teachers are expected to teach and how much time they have to actually work with students. There are also things like salary which then affects what kinds of teachers are willing to do the job. So a lot of aspects of the job are uplifted by the presence of a union.”
Snow re-emphasized the importance of young people knowing their rights and protections as they enter the labor force.
“We need to get a handle on this now,” Snow said. “And people need to be made aware of it now so that they can protect themselves as they move into the future. Especially for people who are in high school or in college.”
