LOS ANGELES—For the first time in 15 years, entertainment industry writers walked picket lines May 2 as their union remained at an impasse with Hollywood studios over a host of labor issues, most notably residuals for streaming content, staffing levels in writing rooms and the use of artificial intelligence.
The leaders of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) West Coast and East Coast branches announced Monday night that contract talks had again broken down, and the union officially went on strike when its contract expired at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
Picketing began at 1 p.m. outside numerous studios, including Amazon’s in Culver City, CBS’ Studio City lot, Television City, The Walt Disney Co.’s corporate headquarters in Burbank, the Fox Studio Lot, Netflix’s Hollywood headquarters, Paramount Studios in Hollywood, Sony Studios in Culver City, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros. in Burbank….