Add Category
When Australian writer David Koutsouridis relocated to the United States this year, he planned to start working on a feature film and television series he was attached to.
But months after the award-winning comedy writer landed Stateside, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike, meaning his plans were put on ice.
Eleven-thousand Hollywood writers walked off the job in May for the first time in 15 years after a breakdown in negotiations between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which bargains on behalf of studios and streaming services.
Koutsouridis, who has written for Ten's The Project and ABC TV's Hard Quiz, said he could not even get work as a barista because his visa is restrictive, meaning he's got no way of earning money to support himself.
"It is a massive curveball that I did not expect," he said.
Speaking to ABC News from the picket lines in Los Angeles, Koutsouridis said he hoped the strike would have an effect beyond Hollywood.
"When I started to talk to writers, and I read up about it, and I informed myself, I realised how pivotal this fight is, not just for America, but the global entertainment industry and particularly in Australia," Koutsouridis said.
"I've realised, Australia is a sitting duck now, so I'm here to not just support my American colleagues, but I'm also here to raise the alarm for Australia."
With Australians among the audience for Hollywood content, Koutsouridis said the issue went directly to the quality of the shows available to Australians.
"The reason American content is consumed globally is because it's so high quality," Koutsouridis said.
"And the reason it is so revered is because of that quality. And that quality has been able to be nurtured over decades and decades because America has had a healthy industry.
"So, writers have been afforded the opportunity to make a career for themselves, hone their craft, and pass on that knowledge to the next generation of writers and the next generation of writers. And writers' rooms are a great training ground.
"That whole system is about to fall apart if the streamers achieve what they want to achieve here."
Koutsouridis said he would love to work in Australia again but said the industry was already on a lifeline and would slump further if the country did not get ahead of these issues now.
"The reality is, with these corporations now getting a foothold in the country, you've got Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, Paramount now owns Network 10, and Australia has no protections. So, basically, now we're relying on these companies and their goodwill to comply with the recommendations of the Writers Guild, and it's been proven in America right now they're not willing to comply.
"The American writers have one of the strongest trade unions in the country and the streamers are still standing their ground on these issues and trying to suffocate writers."
Koutsouridis said one of the key issues was that writers wanted regulation around Artificial Intelligence, but streaming services wanted AI to remain on the table.
"The studios will probably want AI to punch out a first draft, because that first draft is what is the most expensive for a studio. So, the writer will make the most amount of money from the first draft of a screenplay, for example," Koutsouridis said.
"And then they'll pay a human writer a reduced rewrite fee, because the rewrites always cost less for them, even though that human writer would probably end up having to start all over again because I assume the first draft would be barely comprehensible because the technology is just not there."
Koutsouridis said there were other issues with AI.
"I write queer stories," he said.
"I write from the heart. And I write things that are very personal to me. And to even consider an AI trying to replace some part of that process is just so insane."
The Directors Guild of America has reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood studios, while the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) begins bargaining on June 7 (US time).
SAG-AFTRA has authorised a strike, meaning actors could join writers on the picket line if favourable conditions aren't agreed to for its members.
What do writers want?
Ashley Gable is a member of the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America West and is on the negotiating committee.
Gable joined the Guild in 1996 and has worked as a writer mainly in network television for the past 27 years and on shows including The Mentalist, starring Australian actor Simon Baker.
"We're basically fighting for the middle-class writer," Gable told ABC News from the picket lines.
"Los Angeles is a very expensive town. And people are struggling just to make a living to live the American dream and buy a house and raise children here.
"And TV has sort of been systematically devalued and kind of decimated by changes that have occurred."
Gable said the number of episodes per season for most shows had dropped dramatically and the length of episodes were often shorter these days too.
"It started with premium cable, places like HBO, they started to have shorter, shorter seasons.
"The Sopranos, as you may recall, was about 13 episodes per season.
"And so, since writers get paid typically by the episode, that has resulted in less income.
"And that was kind of accelerated when streaming shows began to occur, because now you might have, I think Chernobyl was six episodes [and] you have even shorter episodes, and with streaming, the companies have started hiring people just for a number of weeks, instead of through to the end of production [despite the fact] writing actually happens at all stages of production."
Gable said often the work writers did was the most important work of the series, but when you separate writing from production, wages dropped dramatically.
"People coming up, I don't know how they're going to make a career out of this. Because as a staff writer, I know staff writers who've had to find jobs waiting tables, because they're not making enough money as a staff writer.
"And this is the next generation of showrunners.
"This is the next generation of people creating things like Succession and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Barry.
"We generate billions and billions of dollars in profit for the studios.
"I think last year, they had $US28 billion dollars [$42 billion] in profit from entertainment products which we create.
"And so, I think writers should be paid what they're worth.
"We make billions of dollars for these companies. And we should get a tiny, tiny fraction of it."
Delays to programming
WGA says numerous programs had halted production or writing, or were set to begin writing soon for an upcoming season.
This is about the future of the industry
Jim Adler has worked as a writer and co-executive producer for shows such as The Good Doctor and MacGyver.
He agrees that it makes little sense for streaming services to separate writing from production.
"In American television production, writing and producing is inextricably intertwined," Adler said.
"When it comes to making television shows those two things do not exist independent of each other."
Also speaking to ABC News from the picket lines, Adler said the way things had been going for the past few years could not continue.
"There needs to be a very dramatic change in the way that writers are compensated for the work that we do," he said.
Adler had only been in the Writers Guild for about two weeks when the 2007 writers' strike was called.
He said some important wins came out of that strike, which meant companies that didn't exist in their current forms back then (Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Apple) had to employ writers from the guild.
And now those writers were fighting for their livelihoods.
"I think all the writers that are out here on the picket lines are not only in it for themselves, but for the future of this as a viable profession," Adler said.
"We have a lot of new members who have come into the guild in the last five years.
"And not everyone is independently wealthy. And to be able to pursue this career, they need to be able to pay their bills and learn the craft.
"And the only way that they're going to be able to do that is if the companies as a whole pay them a sustainable wage."