Writers Guild of America strike will be felt in Hollywood North

The Writers Guild of America has begun a strike that will directly hit the $3.6 billion TV/film production industry in B.C.

The 12,000-member Guild had been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for better pay and equity structures. In the strike vote — taken in mid-April — a record 97.85 per cent of members voted yes.

Here in B.C., North America’s third-largest TV/film production hub, the lion’s share of annual business comes from U.S. studios.

“It’s completely out of our hands. This is something between the American studios and an American union. But the ripple effect internationally is huge. It is felt most, of course, in the United States, secondly it is felt in Canada,” Brightlight Pictures’ Shawn Williamson, producer of the Vancouver-shot show The Good Doctor and Lucky Hank, said Tuesday.