A Food Nerd vs. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers

It’s December 2022. I want you to picture a Black woman swaddled in a thick blue blanket. One arm is out reaching for her plate towering with homemade hot wings and ranch. There’s a marathon of cooking competitions playing in the background, and about 15 tabs of job applications open on a laptop. It sounds chaotic but there I was, mango chipotle glory all over my fingers and fresh off the high of finishing a successful contract with a multi-Emmy award winning show. It was time for me to grow into my next role, and I finally feel confident enough to take that next step. I’ve been a production assistant for five years too long, and an extra year would char my late-night tv writer/producer dreams. December was the perfect time to end, because January is known to be one of the few months where all the jobs flood in. But when January hit, the industry might as well have been a cricket orchestra. What the hell is going on? Massive layoffs? Hiring freezes? Are all of these productions really not happening anymore? I was mortified. January 31st, a friend informed me that an important bargaining period is coming up, and if a proper agreement for livable wages and worker protections are not met, the screenwriting sector of the WGA might go on strike. A Competitive Tongue My stomach dropped. It all started to make sense! Shows being canceled back to back sometimes before they finish production or before they even air; pre-WGA folks in support staff roles, myself included, unable to…