Read on Twitter
Here's a great story with a Hollywood ending.
The last couple pages of my book Monopolized noted this fight against rapidly consolidating talent agencies, stuffed with private equity cash, who were getting rich while their own clients were losing money. (1/)
The last couple pages of my book Monopolized noted this fight against rapidly consolidating talent agencies, stuffed with private equity cash, who were getting rich while their own clients were losing money. (1/)
Unlike other parts of the economy where private equity pushes around workers, writers in Hollywood had a union. And the writers decided to leave their agents in protest. That story is here (from April 2019) https://prospect.org/culture/private-equity-ate-hollywood-and-writers-fighting-back/
The writers had two main concerns. First, "packaging" fees, where studios pay talent agencies a commission for employing their clients. This comes out of a show budget, so the agent was vying with their own clients over the same pot of money.
Second, agencies have been purchasing content, as their private equity owners have encouraged. So the agencies were becoming the bosses of their own clients, too, rather than operating in their best interest.
The combination of this created a situation where median weekly earnings of television writers and producers fell 23 percent between 2014 and 2016, at a time of “Peak TV” production.
So thousands of writers fired their agents nearly two years ago. And the business... went on. Writers networked and got jobs. They banded together and refused to re-sign. And late Friday, the Writers Guild signed a deal with William Morris Endeavor, one of the big 3 agencies.
The deal includes a "Strict 20% limitation on agency ownership of production entities," and "ends the practice of packaging by June 30, 2022."
The writers got exactly what they sought. WME, owned by PE firm Silver Lake Partners, was the last major holdout.
The writers got exactly what they sought. WME, owned by PE firm Silver Lake Partners, was the last major holdout.
This is an amazing win that shows the power workers can have with collective action, even against concentrated, private equity-owned giants. It's a lesson that we don't have to accept the financialization and consolidation of our economy.
Obviously the Writers Guild a) was already a strong and organized union, b) had a creative product that made them essential workers. But that didn't stop the agencies from pummeling and atomizing them for years. Only when they used their collective power did they win.
