Hollywood’s workers are on the edge of their seats, waiting to hear whether they will be going on a picket line. Eight days ago, 98% of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees members who voted chose to authorize a strike if the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers doesn’t offer them a better deal. With 60,000 IATSE members covered by the movie and TV contracts being negotiated—in jobs like makeup artist and set designer, grip and editor—a walkout could cripple the entertainment industry.
“It’s very ominous,” says Sarah May Guenther from the set of the forthcoming HBO Max limited series Love and Death, where she is a second camera assistant. She is also on the national executive board of the International Cinematographers Guild, which means every ring of the phone could bring the news that changes everything for her and her colleagues. “I was going out to take a call, and my director of photography came up to me and he was just like, ‘Are we going on strike?’” Guenther says. “‘Should I be preparing for this?’”
It’s hard to see how Hollywood could adequately prepare for a walkout of this size, as it would encompass workers from preproduction all the way through to postproduction.
“They’re the one union that could strike and it would actually be incredibly powerful—they are everything!” says the showrunner of a popular streaming series. “It would be a disaster,” argues Sue Naegle, chief creative officer of Annapurna, which produces both television and movies. “If there is a strike, we’ll have a certain warning so we can get everybody wrapped and then support our crew.” What’s the backup plan? “There is no backup plan.”
Studio and streaming executives are closely monitoring the situation. There are rumors that some productions are currently working seven-day weeks in anticipation of a strike, hustling to get shooting done. Many productions are already on such tight schedules or have such narrow time frames with A-list actors that even a short walkout could spell disaster.
As for IATSE members, Guenther says, “We’ve definitely been told by our union to start saving up and be prepared for no income.”
IATSE and AMPTP have been at the negotiating table all this week. “We’re hoping we can get a deal to prevent having to figure out how disruptive [a strike] is,” says IATSE communications director Jonas Loeb. In a statement, AMPTP spokesperson Jarryd Gonzales says the organization “remains committed to reaching an agreement that will keep the industry working,” arguing that “a deal can be made at the bargaining table, but it will require both parties working together in good faith with a willingness to compromise and to explore new solutions to resolve the open issues.”
Hollywood has long been a progressive beacon, albeit one that doesn’t always live up to its ideals. Productions divide workers into two stark categories: above the line (generally stars, directors, producers, and writers) and below the line (everyone else). Many of the issues under discussion by below-the-line workers are both primal and familiar to many Americans, whether they are gig workers or fully employed. IATSE members are demanding reasonable working hours, rest periods, sufficient health insurance, and a safe work environment, among other things.
Not known for drama, the 128-year-old IATSE has never before authorized a national strike. Its members are the workhorses of Hollywood, many of whom traditionally prided themselves on their toughness and endurance.
“All of us have been conditioned into this [idea] that we’re making magic —a ‘we’ll do anything,’ can-do attitude,” says Marisa Shipley, an art department and set decoration coordinator who has worked on Roseanne and Grace and Frankie. She’s also vice president of Local 871, which she says represents some of the lowest-paid workers. “We’re groomed into the expectation of the industry that you’re gonna have to work for free and the hours are gonna be ridiculous…. But it becomes like self-harm in a way.”
When the pandemic shut down Hollywood, Shipley says, it left many television and film people without work for many months. It also allowed some of her colleagues to take a step back and see their situation more clearly. “The shutdown was the first extended rest that some [of these workers] have gotten!” Suddenly, the ordinary grind people endured behind the scenes began to seem less…ordinary.
Sarah May Guenther was one of those people questioning the hardships she and her colleagues put themselves through. In November 2019, she crashed her car into a wall on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway after a long “Fraturday” shoot—Fraturday being crews’ nickname for a very long shoot that stretches from Friday afternoon to the wee hours of Saturday morning. “I was tired and I was on the phone with a coworker trying to keep myself awake, because I knew that it was going to be a risky drive,” she recalls.
Although she wasn’t injured, her car was totaled—and she was embarrassed. “I felt like I had failed at trying to survive the conditions I was [expected to] uphold,” Guenther says. Back on set, a colleague consoled her: “Hey, it’s okay, I’ve done this four times. Welcome to the club!”
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