Belgian screenwriters are supporting the strike of the Writers' Guild of America (WGA) – their first in 15 years – which is calling out the "existential crisis" of reduced work opportunities and declining pay, something which is also felt in Belgium.
More than 11,000 writers walked out after negotiations with companies failed, prompting many TV show and film productions to shut down immediately.
The issues that enrage American writers also concern their counterparts in Belgium, but with the added impairment that Belgian script authors do not have the possibility for collective bargaining and action.
The strike in the United States – branded with slogans such as "Netflix, don't chill – it's time to pay the bill!" – is being closely watched by the Belgian and global industry because it could set new standards.
"The Writers' Guild of America is so powerful, " Raf Njotea, screenwriter and co-chair of the Flemish Screenwriters' Guild, told the Brussels Times. "Indirectly it will have a positive impact on writers throughout the world because it underlines the importance of writers in an audiovisual project. Without one, the script is bad or nonexistent."
By the early hours of Wednesday, Australian, Canadian and British film and TV unions told their writers to also suspend work on American projects, Deadline reports. Writers' guilds in Italy, Israel, Swedish, and France have also firmly backed the collective action of their American peers.
Unconditional support
In Belgium, the Flemish Screenwriters' Guild has expressed "unconditional support" for the WGA strike in a statement. To the association's co-chair, Belgian screenwriters are in a vulnerable position as well.
The standards of American film companies heavily influence the conditions of film workers in Belgium.
"We all feel the power of the international big players coming over and imposing their way of working, their way of thinking on our markets," Njotea told the Brussels Times. The writer explained that streaming giants like Netflix prefer to buy all intellectual property rights from the start of a project and leave little to no room for workers to renegotiate their fees if a second season or a sequel is made.
While many film professionals in Belgium have collective conventions, screenwriters have long been excluded from these arrangements and are now being deprived of a minimum standard of compensation. Pay negotiations are not collective and they are not formally regulated, as is the case for the WGA.
Remuneration standards are guided by custom or by the practices in neighbouring countries, rather than formal regulation, Tanguy Roosen, Chief Legal Officer of the Belgian branch of the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SDAC) explained for Le Soir.
#soutien La Guilde française des scénaristes s’associe, à travers la @IAWGs et les Guildes membres, pour soutenir la @WGAWest dans sa négociation avec l’Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers pour faire avancer les droits des scénaristes : https://t.co/aDcGbhApW4 pic.twitter.com/AdxM3lvGbw
— La Guilde française des scénaristes (@GuildeScenar) April 6, 2023
For series financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, there is a de facto remuneration standard, which guarantees a minimum pay for screenwriters, according to Aurélie Wijnant, President of the Francophone Association of Audiovisual Screenwriters.
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The Flemish Audiovisual Fund has a similar policy, Njotea explained. There is not a pay level explicitly dedicated to writers, but the funds allocate resources to the first development phase of a product, which can normally involve a lot of creative and financial risk for screenwriters.
"Our collective strength is not what it is supposed to be, but we are working on that," Njotea said. "In the coming years we want to get screenwriters away from their islands and more into a collective."
Together with the Federation of Scriptwriters in Europe, the Flemish Screenwriters' Guild is considering in what ways to support their American peers going forward and build on the momentum.
