Arrow Producers Selling WGA Strike-Themed Hats to Benefit Out-of-Work Crewmembers

Arrow executive producers Marc Guggenheim, Beth Schwartz, and Wendy Mericle recently gathered actors and writers from the beloved CW series for an “Arrow reunion” on the picket lines. Both the Writers Guild of America and The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — the unions representing Hollywood writers and actors — are on strike after their previous contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expired. On the picket lines, Guggenheim had printed up a batch of Arrow-themed bucket hats, with the show’s logo on the front and the phrase “AMPTP, you have failed this union” on the back. 

Guggenheim made about 250 of the hats, and now there are about 50 remaining. Guggenheim, Schwartz, and Mericle, along with this writer, are selling the remaining hats online to benefit The Union Solidarity Coalition, a group that helps crew members and other Hollywood workers who are not currently on strike, but are left out of work as a result of the ongoing strikes.

You can pick them up on eBay here. All funds will go to TUSC. You can also reach out to @russburlingame on Twitter to set up a purchase — or share a TUSC donation receipt — separate from eBay.

The AMPTP, which represents Hollywood studios, has refused to budge on a number of key issues raised by the unions, resulting in a protracted strike during which time there has not been a lot of encouraging news about progress. Among the issues is the future of artificial intelligence — and its potential to echo problems that have plagued the industry since the 2008 writers’ strike. Back then, online streaming video was a minor piece of the industry, although it was already becoming clear that it was likely to reshape the future of home entertainment. 

The deal the WGA and AMPTP ultimately reached, failed to address a lot of issues around streaming, because the AMPTP characterized streaming as a developing technology and argued it wasn’t reasonable to guess what its future would be. As a result, streamers creating original content have been a lot less accountable to the unions than traditional studios and networks. For most actors and writers, pay rates and residual checks across have cratered. With AI now the hot-button issue of the day, it seems that technology is now developing and speculative, so the AMPTP doesn’t want to make any commitments just yet.