Yahoo News Writers’ Unexpected Solace During the Strike: Themed Pickets
Montserrat Luna-Ballantyne is walking in circles, picket sign raised high, with a scant group outside an NBCUniversal gate on a Thursday morning that is beginning to turn warm. The striking Writers Guild of America member (With Love) comes to NBCUniversal frequently — it’s nearby to where to she lives, and she can take the bus — but this morning is slightly different, less dutiful, than a typical three-hour shift.
As songs like Sixpence None the Richer’s “Kiss Me” and Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” play on a speaker at the gate, Luna-Ballantyne is doing the circuit, from one sidewalk to another, nearby one writer in a Xena: Warrior Princess t-shirt and another in a spaghetti strap dress. She herself is wearing butterfly clips, a choker and earrings shaped like the cartoon cat Luna from Sailor Moon. “I enjoy coming to themed pickets — it mixes it up a little bit,” she says while pausing. “We would love to be working, so anything we can do to lift the mood up a little bit really helps.”
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It’s the “Back to the ‘90s” picket at NBCUniversal, just one of the many themed demonstrations that striking members of the Hollywood writers’ union are conceiving and executing in an effort to keep morale high and telegraph strength, unity and, often, a sense of humor during their 2023 strike. Since the WGA’s strike began on May 2, members and non-members alike have organized a kaleidoscopic array of these events — one demonstration devoted to Beyoncé, another to the 1980s Dolly Parton starrer 9 to 5, yet another that is emo-themed. This creative touch differentiates the 2023 strike from its predecessor 15 years earlier, when the union held some themed pickets (including one horror-themed event where writers memorably “exorcised” Warner Bros.) but nowhere near as many demonstrations devoted to pop culture touchstones and/or issues near and dear to scribes’ hearts.
“Anyone who’s walked in circles for four hours every day, day after day after day, [knows] it can get tedious,” explains The Boys executive producer Judalina Neira, who is an NBCU lot coordinator during the strike. “And so the fun, the novelty of new music or performances, just keeps the energy up, which is what we want to do.”
The process for getting these themed events off the ground has been streamlined over the course of the strike. Members or non-members generate the ideas and can bring them to the lot coordinators (WGA member volunteers who steward picketing at specific lots) at the studio or streamer strike location where they would like to set the event. Once the organizer fills out the WGA’s “special picket notification form,” and once the lot coordinator approves the event — considerations include whether neighboring lots have recently had a similar themed event, to avoid competition — then an event can be added to the union’s special pickets calendar.
Unlike during the 2007-2008 strike, WGA members are not assigned to particular lots during the strike, and so are able to move about from lot to lot — and themed event to themed event — as they choose. Social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter help spread the word quickly about events. “We started just putting basic information on flyers [shared on social] and the fact that it was getting re-amplified by celebrities, by people who stood with us, by outside organizations, drove us to do more and more social media outreach to keep our members engaged,” says Netflix lot coordinator Danny Tolli (Roswell, New Mexico). “It catches like wildfire.”
The themed demonstrations also “help draw those of us out that are picketing in solidarity,” adds The Animation Guild member Becky Wangberg. During the ‘90s-themed picket at NBCUniversal, the writer was picketing with her writing partner Sarah Eisenberg (“the Bergs,” as they call themselves, worked on Muppet Babies) in retro looks. “There’s incentive enough, but it does help that. It makes it fun,” she says.
While many of the events that have been staged so far during the 2023 strike have been lighthearted in theme, or involved reunions of some kind (of a college or writers’ room, for instance), others seek have sought to raise awareness for more serious issues. In mid-May, for instance, the union’s Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Writers Subcommittee attracted hundreds with a “Trans Takeover” event at Netflix that in part sought to encourage other WGA members as well as executives to hire more trans writers when they undertake trans storylines. A little over a month later, a coalition of showrunners that has been calling on entertainment companies to provide their workers with stronger protection in states that have criminalized or banned abortion organized an Amazon Studios picket featuring celebrity attorney Gloria Allred and speakers from Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Some organizers just pick a theme, set a date and put together a playlist; others go the extra mile. During a recent veterans picket, showrunners from military-themed shows chipped in to donate a 10-piece marching band, while several other pickets have involved karaoke. WGA captain Jeane Phan Wong was one of a few organizers who put together “Taylor Tuesday,” honoring Taylor Swift, at NBCUniversal in late May. She and her co-organizers fronted the funds to help create tee shirts for the event, profits from which were donated to the Entertainment Community Fund. “It was a risk,” she admits — one that ultimately paid off, as the organizers made their money back in pre-sales and ended up donating over $2,700 to ECF. (Another Swift-dedicated picket, called “Pay Now,” is scheduled for July 7. T-shirts are again for sale.)
The popularity of certain themed pickets can sometimes create logistical challenges. Writer Rob Forman (iZombie), another NBCU lot coordinator, notes that when one location hosts a well-attended picket, lot coordinators at nearby lots can find it difficult to staff all the gates they want to man. On those days, lot coordinators respond with “just rank desperation,” Forman says, and sometimes tweet out that they need some more help. For some WGA members, though, the lack of crowds at particular locations is a plus, not a minus: “Many writers are by nature introverts,” Forman notes, saying that certain people are attracted to less busy locations.
On popular theme days, member leaders also pay extra attention to safety. During one K-Pop-themed event Wong helped organize, due to the amount of dancing happening on the line, “We were like parents, like, ‘Everyone, water break, water break, please don’t get dehydrated.’ “ During the June 29 9 to 5-themed picket in front of Hollywood’s Netflix offices, a crowded affair featuring speeches from film stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin and performances from drag queens, WGA captains and lot coordinators could be seen occasionally shooing attendees out of the street or off shrubbery surrounding the building.
As the WGA passes the 10-week mark for its strike against studios and streamers, with no end yet in sight, the themed pickets are helping to vary the days. And for those marching the often-exposed sidewalks around L.A. studio lots, the rising temperatures as summer progresses are foreboding. “As the weather gets warmer, it’s going to get a little more difficult,” admits Luna-Ballantyne. “So anything that keeps things fresh, we’ve got to keep doing.”
Then there’s the creative outlet that themed pickets provide for writers who haven’t been pursuing their craft for weeks during the work stoppage. “TV is a communal creative force, and so these events are just an extension of that,” says Neira. “We’re already always talking with each other and bouncing ideas. It’s what we do in the writer’s room every day. So we’re just bringing that same energy to the picket line.”
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