Two Percent at the Picket Line: Media Coverage of U.S. Union Fights for Streaming Residuals

In late 2023, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) simultaneously struck against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the first dual strike since the 1960s. While several factors drove these strikes, this study focuses on residuals, particularly for streaming services. Streaming platforms like Netflix undermine traditional revenue models and residual pay structures, driving new union requests. To understand this conflict, and what it means for entertainment labor, we conducted an inductive thematic analysis of relevant news coverage collected over thirty days during the overlapping strikes. While much coverage was favorable toward the strikes, reporting often emphasized comparative negotiations and above-the-line workers, overlooking structural inequities such as background actors’ exclusion from residuals. We argue this framing contributes to the marginalization of wage laborers in SAG-AFTRA, reinforcing existing disparities in labor representation within the industry.