IndieWire: When COVID hit in 2020 and Hollywood screeched to a hard stop, small businesses that service the film and TV industry didn’t know what to do or how long it would last, but they had places to turn. Local governments offered PPP funds to those struggling, businesses could maintain a modest baseline income, and as Hollywood collectively worked to develop COVID protocols, some businesses even brought on extra staff to accommodate the demand and new cleaning measures.
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It's really sad to see the negative effects of a strike that you think is beneficial. And it just further proves how much nuisance there is in every issue. Of course, I support not only the right to strike but also what they stand for. It is all valid concerns and when I only think about it from that angle I don’t have many negative thoughts about it. But when you look deeper like this article, and you hear about these small businesses that support Hollywood it makes you think about what is actually beneficial for who. I am no expert about the strikes but it is now easier to understand why some leaders of productions were hesitant or did not want to shut down for the sake of their employees. Some of the interviewees talked about how the public is essentially not interested in what the strike does for people beyond the actors. There was a stat in here that the strike cost Los Angeles and Southern California economies 5 billion dollars. I need to do more research to figure out where I stand but the picture becomes a lot deeper when you see its lesser known effects.
Reading this article afer the strike came to an end and a deal has been reached feels different. Other businesses that are so closely related to the film and TV industry lost the majority, if not all, of their work after the strike started. Most of these businesses, as the article states, are small, family own businesses that are not prepared to lose their customers for such a long time. Especially the California-based ones, who have to deal with the high living cost and rents, on top of paying their staff. I feel like the most scary thing was not being able to see an end. No one could say for how long the strike was going to last, and not being able to see the end date meant that business-owners can only plan so much ahead. Government compensation and fundings helped the industry get through COVID lockdowns, but without the fundings this time, many people lost their income source and had to shut down their businesses,
To be completely honest I had not thought of this as an implication of the strike. The unique nature of the entertainment industry, with its reliance on seamless collaboration, has made the current strikes particularly crippling for small businesses. Unlike the pandemic, which eventually prompted adaptive measures and a shift toward remote work, the strikes have disrupted the regular flow of operations and basically led to a halt in work. Of course, this has caused a ripple effect, affecting not only major studios but also the myriad of small businesses that constitute the backbone of the industry. These effects make it challenging for small businesses to absorb such disruptions without incurring substantial financial losses and making it impossible to bounce back from. Now that some agreements are being made for the unions I hope that some of the smaller companies are able to survive. It’s an interesting conversation because larger companies are mostly unbothered by these financial hardships because they simply have so. much. money.
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