Daily Digest Exclusive: Writer-Directors Launch Union Solidarity Coalition
The goal is to financially support below-the-line crew impacted by the strike
As the writers strike grinds on, a high-profile group of writer-directors is teaming up with the Motion Picture Television Fund to raise funds to support IATSE members, Teamsters and other entertainment industry workers who are getting financially hit.
Girls creator Lena Dunham and The Spy Who Dumped Me writer-director Susanna Fogel both hopped on the phone Tuesday to tell me more about the fund — The Union Solidarity Coalition, or TUSC for short. The pair are two of the founders in a group that includes Crystal Moselle, Rachel Lee Goldenberg, Tara Miele, Alex Winter, Josh Locy, Paul Scheer, Amy Seimetz, Tony Phelan, Zoe Lister-Jones, Justine Bateman and Sarah Adina Smith.
Their plan, they told me, began with a WhatsApp thread of writer-directors.
In this group, Fogel said, “Their writer identity was on strike; their director identity wasn't sure what to do and what not to do.”
Through the work stoppage, Fogel and Dunham peeled off into a sub-group of that initial WhatsApp thread, thinking over the idea of a fundraiser for those impacted by choosing not to cross picket lines on set.
That led to a Zoom meetup between the writer-director group and several gaffers, the multi-hyphenates checking in on their below-the-line counterparts and chatting about the strike from their different perspectives.
“It was such a nice sense of community that everybody felt. And on that Zoom, those gaffers admitted that they often don't meet writers. Some of them are like, ‘You know, we've never met this many writers before.’ And, yet, it was our strike that was majorly impacting the whole business and their lives very, very directly,” said Fogel. “That inspired us to talk about ways that we could come together with the crew, because for those of us on set, that's our family, and moments like this can get really divided and factionalized.”
As the strike stretches through Day 58, the financial reality of the work stoppage is hitting industrywide — not just for the writers, but for support staffers, crews, production companies and management agencies across town.
“We see the sacrifice that they're making to honor our picket lines,” said Dunham, who dialed in around midnight from London. “It really started as a desire just to write a letter and express our gratitude and our solidarity, and the fact that we understood how this was impacting them. But then, it seemed like the only way to really back something like that up was to try to support them where it was hurting right now, and one of the pieces of feedback we heard was how much fear people had around health care.”
The Motion Picture Television Fund will administer the resources raised by TUSC — “We understand that we're writer-directors, not insurance experts,” Dunham quipped — and cover health insurance premiums for anyone who needs the assistance.
MPTF CEO and president Bob Beitcher said the organization’s help hotline currently fields between 50 to 100 calls a day, up from 15 a day before the strike began. Most of the calls come from those who are at risk and are struggling with mental health issues or other problems, he said.
“People came out of a pandemic draining their bank acts,” said Beitcher. “They had a couple good years… so maybe they caught up, maybe they thought it’d stay that way forever, then the door slams on them again.”
The first fundraising event in the series — featuring a performance by Fishbone — will take place on Saturday, July 15 at a TBD spot in L.A., hosted by a committee that includes Natasha Lyonne, Ben Stiller, Lulu Wang, Sian Heder and dozens of other writers, directors and actors. (You can RSVP at TUSCfundraiser.rsvpify.com.) Admission is free for crew members and $30 for everyone else. TUSC is also launching an ongoing online auction that will allow attendees to bid on items such as signed scripts, script consultations with The Blacklist and Zoom coffees with filmmakers (where creative brains can be picked), etc.
“It's a solidarity coalition that we hope can also extend to PAs, runners, people that aren't protected by a union and are definitely struggling to figure out how to [get] things like coverage or health care premiums, but also who want to connect,” said Fogel. “We want to form connections across these lines.”
Today in Strike News
The View just can’t seem to catch a break these days: White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre backed out of a scheduled appearance today on the daytime talk show “out of respect for striking writers.” (Deadline)
Should SAG-AFTRA go on strike as well, it’s not just actors that will face a precipitous loss of work: prop houses, florists, costume suppliers, caterers and other small businesses will have to deal with the fallout that the writers strike initiated. “You’ve got people who have barely recovered from COVID,” says an insurance broker for rental houses and production and audio/visual companies. “They really don’t have the reserves that they had four years ago, pre-COVID, to help them survive this potentially extended period.” (Reuters)
With Netflix and other streamers likely turning to foreign countries like South Korea for content, questions have been raised about the treatment of writers abroad. The creator of Squid Game, Hwang Dong-hyuk, for example, didn’t get rich off his immensely popular series, after not receiving any residuals and losing the rights to the IP. (Los Angeles Times)
Season two of The Witcher has begun filming in the U.K. with no writers on set, something series creator and outspoken WGA advocate Neil Gaiman has admitted will hurt the show’s quality. (What’s On Netflix)
Outside 30 Rock today, the WGA held a Latine Salon picket, where Kathleen Bedoya, creator of Hulu’s East Los High, was the group’s main speaker. “We are tired of being second-class citizens in this country,” she said to a crowd of about 60 people. “We have so much talent out there. There are so many of us that want to write, that want to tell our stories.” (Deadline)
Should consumers boycott streaming services like Netflix? It’s unlikely that such a movement would ever get off the ground in a meaningful way, but the potential of it has become an interesting thought in the minds of striking writers. (Los Angeles Times)
Picket Sign of the Day
Bugging out.
Additional reporting by Matthew Frank.
It is frustrating to me that the unions and rank and file have not been part of the greater healthcare for all movement. PNHP (Physicians for National Healthcare Plan) have been slogging along for decades. The companies too would profit by not having to pay healthcare. You wouldn't have to fear losing your healthcare if you lost your job. I lobbied in D.C. in 2009 and, yes, got scoffed at by my Senators for advocating for Single Payer. Perhaps the idea of Mutual Aid societies like in the 19th century should be looked at. This rally for support of healthcare for below the line crew is commendable and somewhat like mutual aid but with a bit of Go Fund Me. At least strike speakers should point out the stupidity of the US system which is unlike any other industrial nation. Imagine if we were negotiating for better pay and better working conditions without the scary fear of losing. insurance.