John Oliver praised the Writers Guild during the opening of Last Week Tonight on October 1. Last Week Tonight was the first late-night show to come back post-WGA strike, and Oliver thanked the union for its work. “It was an immensely difficult time, not just for them, but for everyone else working on this show and others who could no longer do their jobs. To be clear, this strike happened for good reason,” he said. “Our industry has seen its workers severely squeezed in recent years; you might have seen stories about writers and actors, whose work you recognize, routinely not making enough to qualify for health insurance or afford basic needs, so the Writers Guild went on strike and thankfully won.”
Oliver also said he was “furious” that it took so long for the strike to end. “While I’m happy they eventually got a fair deal and immensely proud of what our union accomplished, I’m also furious that it took the studios 148 days to achieve a deal that they could have offered on day fucking one,” he said. The SAG-AFTRA strike remains on, and negotiations are set to restart Monday.
Oliver was hopeful the success of the WGA strike would embolden others to unionize and collectively bargain with their bosses. “Hopefully, this might encourage others, from auto workers to Starbucks baristas to health-care providers, whether they are in unions or would like to be, to find power in each other and within our industry,” he said. “I hope that SAG-AFTRA and IATSE, which represents crews, will be able to take what the writers achieved and leverage it to win fair contracts too, because the truth is it takes many people working really hard to make film and TV, all of whom deserve a piece of the piece.”
