'You’ll Be Lucky If You’re Working By January 2024': Readers Share Their Stories

Delayed weddings, expiring unemployment, stalled careers

NEW YORK SUN Performers on the picket line outside of 30 Rock on Wednesday after a rainy morning. (credit: Elaine Low)

I’m in New York for a spell, checking in with folks on the pickets out here. A very rainy morning did not dispirit the nine or so striking SAG-AFTRA members outside the Paramount offices in Times Square, or the two dozen picketers outside 30 Rock. I’ll have more from the East Coast tomorrow, but for now, wanted to share just a few of the emails I’ve received from Strikegeist readers from all over the industry.

Here’s an actor who has been told they won’t find work until next calendar year:

I’m an actor in one of the biggest releases of the year. For months, my representatives were working hard to leverage that into more opportunities, but overnight, it went from “You’ll be having meetings with all the major networks and studios” to “You’ll be lucky if you’re working by January 2024.” I’ve had to cobble together random supplementary work and although that’s unpleasant and frustrating, basically everyone in our business is resourceful and accustomed to some version of that — that’s actually not the hard part. The hard part is the emotional toll. Seeing that the people we work for are all too happy to let us suffer and that they’ll torch the entire business before they negotiate in good faith with the artists that give their platforms value… everyone I speak to from writers to actors to crew says that’s by far the hardest pill to swallow here. We’re all scrappy people that can figure out the practicalities of how to get by. The much heavier cross to bear is that we’ve now seen in print and in action that our bosses don’t mind if we’re homeless. How do you forgive that?

I also heard from a member of the Producers Guild, which unlike the writers and actors unions is not an advocacy group, and does not offer healthcare or other benefits:

I’m a producer without an overhead deal. The effects of the strikes manifested well before the strikes actually took effect as getting productions bonded and insured became insurmountable obstacles. So I had multiples projects set for Spring shoots onward hit the skids. And there goes my income for the year as once the strike ends, it’s not like production starts the next day. Nope, it will take months just to get things back to where they where in January. Then to add insult to injury, producers don’t get basic things like other guilds get like health care, pensions, producer fee protections and the delivery of developments fees. So, this strike that I didn’t vote for has massively affected me and is eating into my rainy day fund and it sucks. It sucks practically, it sucks for my family and quite frankly, the entire state of the business sucks right now.

And here’s a 20-something PA on a late-night show:

I am a full-time, salaried Production Assistant at a late night show, currently on unpaid furlough. This summer has been an enormous financial strain on me, and I say this with full-throated support for both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The first month-or-two of unemployment was fun and relaxing, but that began to sour when my savings dwindled and my credit card debt began to mount. Unemployment will expire in November, and even now it only accounts for half of what I was making while I was working: just barely covering my rent in New York.

I've tried to find temporary employment since July, but there isn't much available at the moment. We've come a long way since the "Nobody Wants to Work Anymore" Summer of 2022. I've been rejected from coffee shop jobs because they found more qualified applicants. At a bar I applied to work at, I was told they didn't have any positions open because they had just hired an out-of-work actor. I signed up for a temp agency, but the jobs are few and far between, and the ones I do get called for are filled with out-of-work production staff. At one job, I spent the day packing shoes into boxes for minimum wage with a Production Coordinator who had some impressive credits. Never mind jobs within the industry in which I am actually experienced; as far as I know, there is very little going on right now, even non-union productions like commercials.

Needless to say, things are looking bleak. What started out as a fun, unemployed summer has rapidly turned into a more dire situation. I have seriously considered leaving the industry on more than one occasion, but I don't have much experience doing anything else. At the end of the day, it goes without saying, I don't blame either union for putting me in my current situation, as I know that what is ultimately good for one worker is good for every worker, and that things have to get worse, labor-wise, before they get better. At the same time, it is frustrating to feel like I am partly bearing the consequences of a labor dispute that I have nothing to do with. I blame the studios for those consequences.

So, in summation, the last four months of my year are entirely dependent on how quickly the strikes get resolved. And, even if they were resolved tomorrow, it will take me several months to a year to pay off my debts, catch up on rent, and ultimately recoup my lost income. My personal trajectory as a PA is deeply uncertain. I am in my late twenties and am still in an "entry-level" production job; this industry-wide work stoppage has been no help on that front. Sometimes I wonder, considering that these negotiations may go into next year, if my time would be better spent starting over from the bottom in a new industry, rather than waiting around for my job to come back and making no money in the meantime.

This manager is postponing their wedding until the strikes are over:

I am frustrated that it took the studios so long to provide their first counter.  I am also frustrated that so much of the trade press has not pointed out that it is on the studios to respond to the writers latest counter.  The guild asks are reasonable and would move the industry towards a more stable future.  On the home front I am waiting to plan my wedding until the strike is resolved as I fear that it will go on through the end of the year, as much as I do hope for a resolution by October.  If the strike is resolved by October there is hope that the wheels can begin turning for a productive 2024.  If the studios do not come to their senses before then I fear the bottom will really start falling out of the business. 

There are many, many more stories like this, which I’ll share in the days to come.

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Today in Strike News

• Venice Film Festival jury members Damien Chazelle, Martin McDonagh, and Laura Poitras donned t-shirts in support of the WGA at the event’s first press conference on Wednesday. “I think there is a basic idea that each work of art has value unto itself, and is not only a piece of content to be put into a pipeline,” Chazelle said. “That basic idea has been eroded in the past years. That’s the core issue for me.” (The Hollywood Reporter)

• The onset of the actors strike marked a devastating blow for Venice, but festival director Alberto Barbera has relied on films from non-struck companies, controversial directors Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, and highly anticipated films like The Killer and Maestro, whose stars won’t be able to attend. “I had closed the lineup, so you can imagine with what spirit I faced the following week,” Barbera said of his reaction to the SAG-AFTRA strike. “I was ready to throw it all up in the air and rethink everything!” (Variety)

• Kevin Klowden, chief global strategist at the Milken Institute, previously estimated the impact of the strikes on the national economy at $4 billion. Now, he has the total at a whopping $5 billion-plus. “The main thing we’re really factoring into it is the lost wages,” he says. (Yahoo! Finance)

• Residuals and A.I. have hogged much of the spotlight, but one of writers and actors’ main concerns remains health insurance, which could become an even bigger point of contention as those without work fall below the minimum requirements for it. (NPR)

• Jimmy Kimmel was seriously exploring retirement prior to the strike, but the work stoppage has caused him to reconsider, he revealed on the new “Strike Force Five” podcast. “I was very intent on retiring right around the time where the strike started,” Kimmel said. “And now, I realize, Oh yeah, it’s kind of nice to work.” (Variety)

• Only Murders in the Building star Selena Gomez was accused of breaking SAG-AFTRA strike rules with an Instagram post that tagged the Hulu show’s account and appeared to be from the set of the series currently airing its third season. (Variety)

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Picket Scene of the Day

A small but dedicated group outside Paramount in New York in the rain.

Additional reporting for Today in Strike News by Matthew Frank.

Disclosure: Elaine Low is an inactive member of SAG-AFTRA.