Today’s links Hollywood is the single best example of mature labor power in America: Unions don’t just improve wages, they create stable careers. On the Media on the enshittification (pt 1): The power of a great interlocutor. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013 Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading Hollywood is the single best example of mature labor power in America (permalink) The Writers Guild is on strike. Hollywood is closed for business. The union’s bargaining documents reveal a cartel of studios that refused to negotiate on a single position. This could go on for a long-ass time: https://www.wga.org/uploadedfiles/members/member_info/contract-2023/WGA_proposals.pdf The writers are up for it. A lot of people are saying this is the first writers’ strike since 2007/8, but that’s not quite right. That was the last time the writers went on strike against the studios, but in 2019, the writers struck against their own talent agents – within the space of a week, all 7,000 writers in Hollywood fired their agents. They struck against the agencies for 22 months. https://deadline.com/2023/04/hollywood-strike-writers-guild-studios-talent-agencies-1235333516/ The agencies had consolidated down to four major firms, two backed by private equity who loaded them up with debt that could only be repaid if the agencies figured out how to vastly increase their profits. They did so, by unilaterally switching the way they did business with their clients. Instead of taking a 10% commission on the creative wages they bargained for, the agencies started…Pluralistic: Hollywood is the single best example of mature labor power in America; On the Media on the enshittification (pt 1) (06 May 2023)