While both the writers' strike and the SAG-AFTRA strike have caused productions to shut down, daytime soap operas such as General Hospital, Days Of Our Lives, and The Young and the Restless have been able to continue filming.
Soap opera actors are allowed to keep working as they are covered under the SAG-AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting, according to Deadline. Their contract will expire July 24, 2024.
But when it comes to the show’s writers, Tom Nunan, the founder of the TV & film production company Bull's Eye Entertainment and co-executive producer of the Oscar-winning movie, “Crash,” told KNX In-Depth there are new issues on the horizon.
“What happens with soap operas is that they end up writing scripts for weeks and sometimes months in advance, and as it turns out those scripts are finally running out,” he said.
Nunan said he thinks producers are luring some out of the picket line.
“Well, it looks like they're employing folks who are willing to break the picket line,” he said. “You know that the, the term that we use for that is ‘scabs,’ usually people who are willing to break pickets and to try to work without union support.”
What happens when producers can’t get temporary writers? Nunan said he believes producers are finding writers elsewhere.
“When they can't get those writers, they turn to executives, they turn to assistants, they turn to the actors themselves to help them out,” he said.
Rule nine of the Writers Guild of America 2023 Strike Rules states that members “must inform the Guild of the name of any writer—member or non-member—you believe is engaged in strikebreaking activity, such as scab writing for or negotiating with a struck company.” A site was created for members to report anyone they believe are engaged in “strikebreaking activity.”
“Article X gives the Guild the authority to impose discipline for violations of the Strike Rules by Guild members,” the Guild said. “Discipline may include, but is not limited to, any or all of the following: expulsion or suspension from Guild membership, imposition of monetary fines, or censure.”
The Guild said that while it cannot “discipline non-members,” it “can and will bar that writer from future Guild membership.”
Certain independent productions were given waivers by SAG-AFTRA to continue filming during the strike, including Christian drama series, The Chosen, and Bride Hard, with Rebel Wilson.
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