Does anyone really care about the SAG-AFTRA strike?
Christopher Tremoglie
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Hollywood is on strike, and the writers of some of your favorite shows want you to care.
The current standoff has the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Screen Actors Guild against the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The strike has lasted nearly eight weeks, which has caused the production of shows and movies to shut down. But, after close to two months of striking, does anyone really care about it?
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Most polls show the majority of people support the strikes and have an unfavorable view of the movie studios and producers. But what does that really mean? And, more importantly, does it do anything to help the strikers of SAG-AFTRA? Honestly, I don’t think it does.
While most people support SAG-AFTRA, it also seems they know very little about why its members are striking. A standard answer is “they want fair contracts,” but hardly anyone knows what exactly that is — or what wasn’t fair about their old contract. It’s tough to find anyone knowledgeable about the facts of the situation.
They just seem to be repeating union talking points without being all that informed.
Actress Fran Drescher, the current SAG-AFTRA president, was interviewed by NPR about the work stoppage, as the Washington Examiner’s Jenny Goldsberry previously reported. She detailed the issues keeping the sides apart and her hopes for a resolution. And, as to be expected, she blamed the opposition’s “greed” and the “insatiable appetite for money” as the reason for the standoff.
“They’re still not seeing that the culture needs to change, that they need to change. This conversation is bigger than our contract,” Drescher said. “It’s about caring. It’s about being empathic. It’s about making money, but not at the expense. Don’t step on me, climb on my shoulders, beat me down just so that you can make an extra shekel. Sorry, but that is no longer acceptable.”
But this is where Dresher loses me and probably many other people. It’s hard to feel sorry for her when she makes the luxurious salaries and lifestyles of entertainers like her sound like the rigors of working in a coal mine. Her statements about “no longer acceptable” to stand on her shoulders and beat her down to “make an extra shekel” are borderline ridiculous. Fran Drescher has a net worth of $25 million. That’s more than most people in the country will likely see in their lifetimes.
“The only standstill is that I think that they’re not wanting to come to the table because they’re hoping that they can hold out longer than we can hold out,” Drescher said of the studios. “But that is not in the spirit of negotiation.”
Not in the spirit of negotiation? This is hogwash. Drescher and those striking aren’t guaranteed a right to engage in “the spirit of negotiation” just because it is what her side wants. That is the risk people take when they strike. Drescher’s statement sounds like another example of entitlement.
People want entertainment. However, there is a surplus of that. With a myriad of streaming sites, a plethora of movies and shows from all over the world are instantly accessible with the click of a remote. Plus, given the ultra-left-wing, radical, “woke” pivot that entertainment has taken in recent years that alienates about half the country, it’s hard to see how that many people care about millionaires arguing with millionaires.
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Other issues, particularly pertaining to the writers of shows and movies, are on the table. However, when the typical working-class, middle-class family struggles to make ends meet because of Bidenomics and the high prices of gas, groceries, and utilities that come with it, I don’t think people are too worried about a bunch of Hollywood elites arguing.
And with the NFL season about to start and Major League Baseball’s postseason beginning in about a month, millions of Americans are going to have plenty of entertainment options for the next several months. I don’t think the public is all that interested in this strike.