COLUMBUS, Ohio — With three unions on strike, the summer of 2023 has become the summer of strikes. The Writer’s Guild of America (WAG) has been on strike since May, SAG-AFTRA actors have been on strike since July, and the UAW was the latest to join in last week.
The motives behind the strikes are similar: mainly better pay and better health care benefits.
In Columbus, the local SAG-AFTRA members gathered on the campus of The Ohio State University on Tuesday in a rally.
WAG and SAG-AFTRA members have been on strike in a fight against the use of artificial intelligence. They don’t want production houses to use AI to copy their name, image and likeness and write scripts. Streaming platforms have also changed the industry. Writers and actors typically get residual payments from airtime and syndication and want it to work the same way for streaming.
Former Ohio State stand-out athlete and now-actor Otis Winston said their health care hasn’t kept up with other industries.
"It's not fair that 87% of actors and 92% of writers don't qualify to health insurance. That's ridiculous to me,” he said.
He said, it doesn’t matter if it’s SAG-AFTRA, WAG, or the UAW, they’re all standing together to push back.
"It's the working people that make the studios and the car industry what it is. They aren't there without the people clocking in every day and every night,” Winston said.
In Ohio, UAW workers walked out of the Jeep plant in Toledo as part of the first wave of a “stand-up strike” slowly taking plants offline. Plants in Detroit and Wentzville, Missouri are also at a standstill.
The UAW President, Shawn Fain, released a video Monday night. He said if the automakers don’t come to an agreement by Friday, more UAW members in other plants will walk.
"We're going to keep hitting the company where we need to when we need to, and we're not going to keep waiting around forever while they drag this out,” said Fain.
After a week, some UAW members in Toledo are getting anxious about making ends meet.”
"Some people are nervous because they're paycheck to paycheck,” said James Neu, the UAW strike lead in Toledo.
He said regardless of how long it lasts, they are willing to stand out there.
"It's our turn to get a little piece of the pie. We're not asking for the whole pie, we're just asking for more than a crumb,” Neu said.