New poll discovers impact of Hollywood strikes on UK film industry
A new poll surrounding staff from the film and TV industries in the UK has discovered that over half of workers are still struggling to find jobs almost a year after the conclusion of the Hollywood actors and writers strikes, which ground the entertainment world to a halt in 2023.
The media and entertainment union Bectu, who conducted the survey, have claimed that a number of individuals who work within film and television are thinking about leaving the industry and that there is currently a “drought” in being able to find suitable jobs.
Bectu’s survey featured 2,300 workers participants, and found 52 per cent of those involved were currently out of work, and only 6 per cent said that they had managed to find normal levels of work akin to how they had been before the strikes. Furthermore, 38 per cent said they were thinking about quitting the industry in the next few years.
It’s around a year now since the actors of Hollywood joined film and TV writers in going on strike, which caused the American entertainment industry to come to a sudden stop. The strikes largely occurred because of the way that actors and writers were being paid by streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video, with those companies refusing to pay workers more if their films and shows were a success.
As a result, several TV programmes and movie productions were postponed, while several award ceremonies and movie releases were also pushed back. Many actors and writers refused to attend said events and spent several months protesting instead.
Also, at the core of the protests was a backlash against AI technologies, which threatened to put actors and writers out of work. Official strikes did not take place in the UK, but the industry was also heavily disrupted as a result of Hollywood action.
Following new agreements between Hollywood entertainment industry bosses and the unions SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America, the strikes came to an end, but according to Bectu, there is still an aftershock being felt in the UK.
Philippa Childs, head of Bectu, told Sky News: “The film and TV workforce has already faced incredible and unprecedented hardships throughout and following the pandemic and has now been hit by a second crisis that shows little signs of abating.”
She added, “Clearly, little has materially improved for the workforce and these discussions must be laser-focused on how we can collectively make things better for workers, who are critical to the sector’s success but continue to bear the brunt of industry changes.”
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