Negotiating Committee member Adam Conover on the fight for AI and the preservation of the writing room, AMPTP uses DGA to “undermine” WGA

Author and comedian Adam Conover, creator and host of Adam ruins everything and a member of the WGA Bargaining Committee, used social media ahead of the guild’s talks with AMPTP, the collective bargaining officer for major Hollywood studios.

On the first day of the writers’ strike, Conover David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, appearing on the CNN network this morning, said Zaslav “received $250 million last year, a quarter of a billion dollars. That’s about the same level that 10,000 writers are asking him to pay us all together.

In an interview with Deadline, Conover didn’t mince his words either. Standing at the WGA rally outside the Netflix offices, he gave his blunt assessment of the failed negotiations with the studios and their stance on AI, warning the DGA, which will begin negotiations with AMPTP next week.

MEETING: A lot has happened in the last 24 hours. How did it happen, writers strike today?

TRANSMISSION: We thought in the negotiating room that they were trying to make life difficult for us, that they were going to bring us enough stuff so that we could say, oh man, are we going to keep the union together? Are there really enough problems to strike?

But it turned out that didn’t happen. After last Wednesday, they essentially stopped making any reasonable counters of any kind. They took small steps, they presented things – as you saw on paper, we published where – about AI, they presented an annual meeting. It’s ridiculous. What happens at this meeting? Oh hey, technology is advancing, AI is getting good. See you next year. It’s nothing.

MEETING: Do you think studios might have discounted seeing AI as something they want to use in the future?

TRANSMISSION: I think you addressed a problem that we thought would be easy because this technology is currently not usable in any way, shape or form; his edition is not even copyrighted. So we thought they would say, it’s easy. Let’s ban it or maybe at least put a moratorium or something, but instead they came out against it completely.

This was one of the issues they rejected. They didn’t even talk about it in the room. Like we’re going to go in there and say you have to say words, argue about your AI proposal. They literally said nothing about it. And that raised the issue for us and in the minds of everyone here, because people have been increasingly concerned about AI since we started this process. We have seen impacts in more and more areas of work, SAG-AFTRA actors are dealing with it now.

The only reason they would do this is if they have a plan. I don’t know what her plan could be. But it sure sounds like 2007 when we said we need internet coverage and they said we don’t even know if we’re going to do anything on the internet. We definitely knew it was them. In this case, it’s a bit vague because I personally think the technology is completely overhyped and oversold. I don’t think you’ll ever really be able to replace a writer’s work, but I’m not going to let these companies pass by and try to come up with some crappy scheme where they have a source and hire writers to rewrite or something. I think the audience will hate it. I think it will be a financial failure, but I think they will try and it could hurt a lot of writers.

We thought they were making life difficult for us. And the scary thing was that they didn’t do that in the last three days during the negotiations. They made it very easy for us by not giving us anything. They didn’t even do what we expected them to try to give, maybe to screenwriters, or maybe to TV writers and comedy variety writers. They didn’t even do that. Everyone in the room said they didn’t offer me anything. So yes, let’s go on strike. They unified the guild and I don’t know why they did it. I think this is a terrible strategy. But it’s better than trying to divide us, not that it worked.

MEETING: Do you think the studios are seriously ready to talk about what’s happening with streaming backlogs?

TRANSMISSION: We will make sure you are prepared for this conversation. The truth is that the AMPTP is an organization designed not to have these conversations. All these CEOs outsource their work decisions [AMPTP President] Carol Lombardini and her team. And Carol Lombardini says to them, Hey, if you’re okay with that, if you outsource all your power and invest it in me, I’ll get you out of your annual negotiations for just 2% profit a year, whatever that is. . They have a little backroom deal about how much room she has here to maneuver around. And when you try to break away from it, they just don’t have the ability to offer it to you because they’re not the decision makers.

So the point of the strike is that we go here and deprive them of our jobs. Remind them that they have nothing without us and nothing without the Teamsters and IATSE and all the other unions standing in solidarity with us and forcing these CEOs to come to the table and have the conversation you’re talking about. Since you are right, we need to have this conversation. But the conversation is much more than relics. The talk examines how the studios and streamers have tried to turn writing from a career into a big job over the past 10 years.

MEETING: How do you think it all goes? A studio source told me I don’t think it will last as long as 1988, but I think it will last longer than 2008.

TRANSMISSION: It is entirely up to the companies how long we will be gone. We are totally united. We have been waiting a year and a half for the agents. And because we didn’t lose support, we forced them to sell their damn production weapons. We have forced these large corporations to make major changes to their businesses. With these companies, we have the power to do so.

We stay here as long as it takes them to realize that. What will probably happen if you look at how the AMPTP has planned the calendar, Carol will think, well, I’ll go in with a DGA, I’ll say I don’t have time for you, and they’ll let us out of here, um wait . We can play this game. We can wait as long as she takes, because writers know it’s existential.

MEETING: In 2007-2008 it was among other things at the end of this strike that the DGA entered into an agreement with the AMPTP. Do you see AMPTP trying to play a similar strategy with the DGA?

TRANSMISSION: Well, first of all, I really hope that the DGA is on our side and that we show solidarity with its members. I am concerned about a statement they put out a few weeks ago where they basically encouraged their members to cross our strikes and said you could be in big trouble if you don’t cross the strikes, etc. a subsequent statement of support. will really hope they stick to it. But Carol Lombardini is very clever and she structures these things for a reason. The reason she is positioning them – as she did in 2007 – is to undermine them, although not all DGA leaders feel they are being undermined, that is the goal.

But the difference between 2007 and now is that in 2007 we actually fought for a cause. There were other things on the table, but the most important one was coverage of streaming and the resulting formulas. So DGA went in, got this agreement, used our power to strike, and then negotiated a residual agreement, which we then had to accept in some form — that’s model negotiation, that’s how Carol does it. In this case, the things we are fighting for are not even in the DGA contract. One of the biggest things – just pick one – is keeping the writers’ room. The companies are trying to end the author space.

If it were up to them, in five years it’ll be a showrunner emailing freelancers to start scripts, even if they’re even allowed to do that. The companies look at some big, high-profile examples of a showrunner writing six or eight episodes and say, “What if we could force everyone to work like that, that would save us a ton of money.”

So we are fighting to keep the writers room and put it in our contract. It does not fit the DGA. DGA is not going to make a deal where Carol is going to be like, ‘Hey, you guys have to take it, it’s not possible, so it’s a really big difference. Now there are some things that form a pattern, like residuals, and maybe you can see the interaction a little better there. But things like comedy variety terms and Appendix A and streaming for screenwriters who resist working for free and getting paid weekly. It does not exist at the DGA. So if undercutting occurs, it cannot happen at these points.

MEETING: They received strong support from the team stars, IATSE, SAG-AFTRA. What would you say to the DGA leadership now that they can start negotiations in eight days?

TRANSMISSION: I would say Carol Lombardini, the AMPTP and the CEOs of these companies are incredibly powerful, smart, strategic enemies of yours who have devised a strategy to discourage your members and break your union. And it’s in your best interest to fight back with us as hard as you can. I am very happy to see the progress they have made and I hope they continue and I would love to see them here.