{"id":572818,"date":"2023-05-03T04:08:53","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T01:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/unhoused-for-four-years-why-one-writer-returned-to-the-picket-line\/"},"modified":"2023-05-03T04:08:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T01:08:53","slug":"unhoused-for-four-years-why-one-writer-returned-to-the-picket-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/unhoused-for-four-years-why-one-writer-returned-to-the-picket-line\/","title":{"rendered":"#Unhoused for Four Years: Why One Writer Returned to the Picket Line"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Michael Tabb is experiencing d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n

\n The longtime writer, whose credits include 2012\u2019s Werewolf: The Beast Among Us,<\/em> returned to the Disney lot in Burbank, California, on Tuesday for what is now his second time hitting the picket lines in support of the Writers Guild of America. Tabb, who previously served as a strike captain at Disney during the 2007-08 strike, has been a member of the guild since 2005 and credits the 11,000-member organization for \u201cprotecting\u201d him when writing opportunities dried up.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI\u2019ve actually been homeless for four years in between gigs,\u201d he told The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>on Tuesday as he walked the picket line in Burbank. \u201cThe Writers Guild is protecting me. When I get a guild job, I can support myself. And if I don\u2019t, then I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Before the WGA strike, Tabb had been working on a TV show with an independent production company and writing his passion project, which he describes as being about how people treat others and how the hippies of the 1970s affect the modern era. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n On Tuesday, Tabb was carrying a sign that read, \u201cWriters were paid better in the days of VHS,\u201d which referenced the 1988 WGA strike that lasted for more than 150 days. \u201cBack in the days of VHS, we actually made a better percentage of residuals and of payment than we did on DVD,\u201d he said. \u201cIn 1988, they took it way down when we tried to strike for equal pay. Then we finally got [to] streaming in 2007, which is the last strike, but we didn\u2019t quite get up to fair wages yet. Now, we\u2019re fighting for fair wages so that we could all actually make a living of writing and actually being able to feed ourselves and keep ourselves housed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n One of the central issues the WGA is proposing would increase the number of writers working on each show and keep them employed for longer spans, while also ending the wave of so-called \u201cmini-rooms\u201d in which studios\/streamers hire a small number of scribes for a short period of time without any guarantee of future work.<\/p>\n

\n Tabb told THR <\/em>that he had \u201csome early success\u201d and \u201cthought everything was going to be great.\u201d After consulting with his accountant, Tabb bought a home for his wife and three children. And a few years later, everything changed. \u201cThe work dried up and I was homeless. I lost my home and I had three children and a wife depending on me and they all had to go live with their parents and I stayed on the streets trying to get work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Tabb said he spent time teaching in order to make ends meet and bumped into one of his former students \u2014 a fellow WGA member \u2014 on the picket line Tuesday where his comments about previous strikes elicited support from his fellow creatives.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe majority of screenwriters are independent contractors, which means we\u2019re hired to do a job. It can last two months; it can last two weeks. It can last six months if we\u2019re lucky on a TV show, but that\u2019s it. And then we\u2019ve got to find another job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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