It is a historically tight labor market. I wonder if studios are worried about that.
This whole thing could just make Lyft and DoorDash in LA slightly cheaper rather than seriously hurt (already underpaid, if the guild is to be believed) writers.
Writing for American TV and film is a very unique skill set and virtually everywhere you would work is covered by the union. All productions have been shut down.
The same union covers if you're writing in New York or Atlanta. And they're not going to pick up and go to London or Mumbai.
The backup plan really is DoorDash, Uber, etc.
...But creative writing in general doesn't tend to pay the bills on a regular basis without the exact types of residuals the studios are actively trying to take away from them. So they're already used to having to pick up side gigs or even have day jobs to make ends meet.
Writing novels is not a reliable source of income, and fanfic doesn't make money at all.
It's true that TV writers often do have to pick up some kind of work in between seasons, though it depends on the show.
But you also can't make a living writing for TV year-round (each gig is on the order of 2-4 months, from what I've read)...unless you earn enough residuals.
So...wait, that would mean that without solid residual schedules, TV writers...just can't make a living??!
And those residuals are exactly what the studios are trying desperately to take away from writers.
But in case you're not, writing for TV is a full-time job. It's not something you can do on the side.
Having more than one “full-time” job is not unheard of, and its particularly a thing where at least one of them is a precarious and/or poorly paid one.
If you work in a professional TV writing room, you simply don't have another job on the side. It's not an option.
For all those hours writers have demonstrably been worse and worse every decade.
If shows take forever to write now, it's because everything is written by committee.
Regular writers are not pulling the crazy hours that Trey Parker and Matt Stone are. And they put out episodes faster than any other show.
I think all of Hollywood is finally falling over. And it's far past time.