SAN ANTONIO – Raymond Arturo Perez, who grew up in San Antonio, is one of the thousands of Writers Guild of America members who have been picketing in Los Angeles.
“We want to be properly compensated for our work,” Perez said.
Perez is a film and television writer who grew up in San Antonio.
He was in San Antonio in March when he was teaching UTSA students about screenwriting.
He has worked on several projects and was a writer for season two of “Selena: The Series” on Netflix.
“It’s starting to feel like a gig to gig career path in a way that in the past really hasn’t been the case. You get hired on a show and you are able to be creative and be compensated for your creativity. And now it really is a struggle,” Perez said.
The Writers Guild of America called for its members to stop working until the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers come to an agreement on different issues including salary increases and residuals from streaming media.
“We get residuals from the network shows and from cable shows. So we’re asking that we get residuals from streaming shows as well,” Perez said.
The union represents over 11,000 writers.
Viewers are already starting to see some shows affected, including Netflix’s “Stranger Things” that halted production due to the strike.
“I feel very empowered, the fact that we are on strike. I feel like our our demands are logical and necessary for the future of of writing and and this creative business,” Perez said.
The Associated Press reported that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said it presented an offer with “generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals.”
The AP says the trade association said it was prepared to improve its offer, “but was unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the guild continues to insist upon.”