Hollywood Writers’ Unions Vote to Authorize Strike Against Producers -<br />By BROOKS BARNESAPRIL 24, 2017<br />LOS ANGELES — Unions representing 12,000 Hollywood writers said on Monday<br />that members had overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike, bringing show business closer to its first production shutdown in a decade.<br />In part because it provides extremely generous benefits — by some measures, studios say, better than coverage<br />offered to other Hollywood unions — the writers’ health fund has begun to run steep deficits.<br />But leaders of the two writers’ unions, which bargain as one, say<br />that the middle-class majority of their members are struggling as never before, even as television production booms in the video-streaming age and some blockbusters take in more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office.<br />Leaders of the Writers Guild of America, East, and the Writers Guild of America, West,<br />announced the results of an online strike authorization vote in an email to members.<br />The unions said that 6,310 eligible members voted; 96 percent of the vote was in favor of a strike.<br />Networks are ordering fewer episodes per season — as few as 10 compared with 22<br />just a few years ago — so series writing jobs pay less than they once did.
