The Writers Guild will picket Amazon’s upcoming “Prime Day,” the retail giant’s biggest sales event of the year. Recasting it as “Crime Day,” the guild says it will take to social media to let the company know it “won’t let Amazon turn Hollywood into a gig economy with its Silicon Valley business practices.”
The guild, whose strike is now in its 68th day, also will picket Amazon’s Culver Studios on Wednesday.
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“Big Tech companies like Amazon have taken advantage of changes in the industry business model to hollow out the middle class of our profession in pursuit of growing profits,” the WGA’s negotiating committee told members on Saturday. “With the rise of streaming, writers are asked to do more work in less time for less money.”
The guild says its contract demands seek “reasonable protections that will guarantee that writing remains a sustainable career for current and future writers. For Amazon, the cost of our proposals is just $32 million per year, 0.006% of the conglomerate’s annual revenue.”
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“Amazon has gained a sizeable footprint in media in a short time by using the same anticompetitive playbook critical to its rise as a tech company,” the negotiating committee said in its latest communique. “It is positioning itself to be a new industry gatekeeper, growing through acquisitions and using its power to disadvantage competitors, raise prices for consumers, and to push down wages for writers. Unfortunately, our situation is not unique. Across the country, Big Tech has invaded nearly every industry, building gig economies where there were once sustainable careers. We are not alone in this fight.”
Speakers at Wednesday’s picket will include WGA West leaders, members, and a striking Amazon delivery driver.
Deadline has reached out to Amazon Studios for comment and will update when they respond.
Like someone else mentioned, COVID has shown that the studio can survive for 2 years if productions are shutdown. Now that there is no contract in place to pay the writers I feel the strike can last longer than 2 years
Some of us BTL workers live paycheck to paycheck. So, thanks, WGA, I am officially homeless as of today. Just got the notice to vacate an hour ago. Please don’t f—–g tell me it’s the AMPTP’s fault. You are stopping me from doing my job. I blame you.
It takes way longer than 56 days to evict someone. So I call bullshit on your post.
I owed back rent from COVID, like a lot of us, dope. Had an agreement to pay the balance without being late. Hope you’re happy. I won’t be the only one in this situation. The rent protections are gone in LA County. This is why everybody thinks writers are assholes. It’s also exactly why I’m going to just go ahead and cross your picket line. I don’t care what everyone else in my union does, I’m getting a paycheck. You people are unbelievable.
My mistake. Sorry to hear that.
I still call bullsht. Writers know everything! International politics, prison life, lawyering, economics, espionage, emergency rooms, crime fighting, alien life forms, etc while never actually ever having any these jobs! The world needs- nay- demands storytellers in order for us to know what to think! Oh wait, I forgot about this thing called the internet. Never mind.
“Crime Day?” Hell, yeah! I’m saving so much money, it should be a crime!
🏆
The WGA is heading for a Pyrrhic victory, it seems.
I listen to what the leaders are saying & the last thing it sounds like is bargaining. It’s things like “burn it down”. That is an agenda that is self-defeatng. They seem to think they are in some Super Hero movie instead of negotiating for their members. That mentality does not bring the other party to the table.
Then anyone who disagrees with them, or points this out, is a BOT or a shill or gets mocked. It’s a very weird strategy.
The Amazon Crime Day will be interesting to see unfold, I guess.
This is absolutely true!
The average Amazon Prime customer, isn’t interested in some little silly ass strike in Hollywood. The average consumer probably doesn’t even know what WGA stands for. They are interested in deals, that’s all. Same goes for the average viewer that actually consumes the product Hollywood makes, they will simply watch something else if their program isn’t on TV, as far as movies go, they will wait, they have been trained to wait through Covid, remember closed theaters and streaming? And if Disney’s experiment in films for theaters, during the next 4 months works others might just follow.