Disney's recently-reinstated CEO Bob Iger has chimed in on the striking writers, soon to be joined by striking actors, calling the situation with the WGA "very disturbing" and "disruptive" in an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box [via Collider].
Iger backed up his comments, saying that the industry is still not fully recovered from COVID. "This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption," he said. "I understand any labour organization's desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver."
Iger continued, "We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the Directors' Guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we'd like to do the same thing with the actors. There's a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic.
"And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive."
Iger isn't the only studio executive with little compassion for the striking writers. One insider told Deadline that the studios' plan is to allow the strike to "drag on'' until writers start "losing their apartments" in a tactic described as "a cruel but necessary evil."
Iger's comments were made shortly after the deadline for contract negotiations between actors represented by the union SAG-AFTRA and studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) came and went, leaving actors contract-less and prompting them to gear up for their own strike. This would be the first time in 60 years that both actors and writers in Hollywood go on strike at the same time.
The Writers' Guild of Canada continues to stand in solidarity with the WGA, and have set rules to ensure Canadian writers cannot take the work of striking WGA writers.
Iger backed up his comments, saying that the industry is still not fully recovered from COVID. "This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption," he said. "I understand any labour organization's desire to work on behalf of its members to get the most compensation and be compensated fairly based on the value that they deliver."
Iger continued, "We managed, as an industry, to negotiate a very good deal with the Directors' Guild that reflects the value that the directors contribute to this great business. We wanted to do the same thing with the writers, and we'd like to do the same thing with the actors. There's a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic.
"And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive."
Iger isn't the only studio executive with little compassion for the striking writers. One insider told Deadline that the studios' plan is to allow the strike to "drag on'' until writers start "losing their apartments" in a tactic described as "a cruel but necessary evil."
Iger's comments were made shortly after the deadline for contract negotiations between actors represented by the union SAG-AFTRA and studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) came and went, leaving actors contract-less and prompting them to gear up for their own strike. This would be the first time in 60 years that both actors and writers in Hollywood go on strike at the same time.
The Writers' Guild of Canada continues to stand in solidarity with the WGA, and have set rules to ensure Canadian writers cannot take the work of striking WGA writers.