The Writers Guild of America (WGA) will be taking its strike to Amazon’s biggest sales event of the year: “Prime Day.” Starting on July 11, Amazon “Prime Day” offers some of the best deals the retail behemoth has to offer, with some deals going as high as 65 percent off. The WGA will be reframing this as “Crime Day,” the WGA will be picketing at the Amazon Culver City Studios on Wednesday, according to Deadline.
“We won’t let Amazon turn Hollywood into a gig economy with its Silicon Valley business practices,” the WGA negotiating committee told members on Saturday as the strike enters its 68th day.
“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,” they added. “With the rise of streaming, writers are asked to do more work in less time for less money.”
The WGA added that it wants companies like Amazon to give contracts that will guarantee writers to have a sustainable career.
“For Amazon, the cost of our proposals is just $32 million per year, 0.006% of the conglomerate’s annual revenue,” it said. “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.”
“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,” it continued.
Paul Bois / Breitbart News
Hollywood went on shutdown in early May after the WGA enacted an industrywide strike on both coasts due to a breakdown of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). One of the chief issues raised was residuals from streaming, with companies like Netflix and Amazon being the biggest targets.
Some striking writers have further claimed that streaming services have hollowed out the work to such a degree that they now feel like Uber drivers in a gig economy rather than creatives with a career that supports them.
“The streamers don’t care about anything, they think we’re Uber drivers: ‘Come in, do your job, go home, that’s great. You’re free,’” Marjorie David, the vice president of the Writers Guild of America, West, told The Daily Beast.
Paul Roland Bois joined Breitbart News in 2021. He also directed the award-winning feature film, EXEMPLUM, which can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. A high-quality, ad-free stream can also be purchased on Google Play or Vimeo on Demand. Follow him on Twitter @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.