General Hospital writer says the soap is now using “scab writers”
Actors from daytime soaps aren't currently on strike with the rest of SAG-AFTRA, so they can keep filming as long as they have scripts
It has almost been three months since the Writers Guild Of America went on strike, with the writers standing up against the AMPTP—an organization representing the biggest movie and TV producers—for better pay, better job security, and protections against AI (among other things). And, over the course of those three months, it seems like venerable soap opera General Hospital has completely run out of scripts. Rather than choosing not to film new episodes, though, striking General Hospital writer Shannon Peace says the show has started using “scab writers” who crossed the picket line.
Peace (who Us Weekly says has been involved with the show since 2021) made the allegation on Instagram, saying that the episode that aired on July 20 was the last one she wrote before going on strike and that everything going forward (until the strike ends) will apparently be written by scabs. Peace notes that soaps face a “unique conflict” with this strike, because the real writers don’t want to see their “characters and storylines handed over to ‘writers’ who cross the picket line,” but at the same time, Peace suspects that a prolonged hiatus could spell the end of all soap operas.
But there are more reasons that soaps are complicated during a strike like this. For one thing, as a Deadline article from June explains, actors on daytime soaps operate under a different agreement than the SAG-AFTRA members who are currently on strike (it’s the same deal that talk shows, reality shows, and game shows have). That means these soaps aren’t struck projects for actors, so they can keep filming as long as there are scripts… but therein lies the problem, since they are struck for the WGA.
The Deadline story offers up the possibility of using scab writers very casually (more of a “they’re obviously doing this” than “it sure would be bad if they did this”), noting that the soaps will still be “churning” out scrips “using Fi-core and other non-member writers.” (Fi-core, or Financial Core, is basically when you resign from the union but still retain all of the protections that the union contract offers, meaning you get the benefits without doing anything to support your fellow workers, and you can continue working during a strike.) WGA West has a list of Financial Core writers (including some current daytime soap writers), and it explains that choosing to go Fi-core during a strike is “forever,” meaning they will not be allowed to rejoin the union later.
The A.V. Club has reached out to Disney, which produces General Hospital, but the studio has not yet released any sort of public statement on this.