Striking Writers Are Using Residuals To Help Younger Counterparts Buy Groceries

Outside CBS Radford, WGA strike captain Joelle Garfinkel, a writer who has worked in Hollywood for more than 16 years, keeps a watchful eye over the picketers around her.

Being a strike captain “requires a certain skill set,” she says, comparing the volunteer position to somewhere between a social worker and a cheerleader.

Garfinkel makes sure that people are hydrating in the SoCal sun, coordinates with food vendors to make sure no one goes hungry, passes out popsicles as refreshment and generally works to boost morale during the long strike days.

She’s also aware that she’s in a relatively privileged position: she gets residuals from some of her past industry work, unlike her younger counterparts, who are scraping by in an industry both changed and still changing.

The rise of content streaming has yielded shorter projects, smaller writers’ rooms, shifting measurements of what constitutes a successful creative work, and minimal, if any, residuals.

This is why, in June, Garfinkel set up Green Envelope Grocery Aid — a mutual aid fund named after the color of the envelope containing residuals.

Residuals check arrive in green envelopes like this

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Joelle Garfinkel

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Green Envelope Grocery Aid is providing $100 grocery grants to striking WGA members and “pre-WGA” protesters. The fund launched in June and as of Tuesday, the fund had raised $117,617.54 and sent 1153 grocery grants.

'Those residual checks are unicorns'

While residuals are often small, a decent residual check may enable a writer to spend a month not stressed about bills, Garfinkel said. The hope of paying forward that feeling of relief, she added, is what inspired the fund’s name.

A flyer for the Green Envelope Grocery Aid fund

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From Joelle Garfinkel

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“Those residual checks are unicorns, so I thought if I can use some of that money to help pay for someone's groceries that would provide them the same relief that I felt in opening that check,” Garfinkel said. “It’s not going to help pay rent, but it’s the same feeling of hope.”

Priority funding goes to those who are generally the lowest paid, like production assistants, writers, and assistant script coordinators. The application requires uploading union cards or sending an IMDB link to prove professional connection to the industry.

While food is the most essential need, some are using the grants to pay for union dues, which need to be paid even during the strike, or for health emergencies.

With just $54.92 remaining in the fund, with 527 applications to review and 138 approved, the need is still very much present for the picketers.

Initially, Green Envelope’s donors were mostly writers using their residual money; after the grants were made available to any industry member, the pool of donors widened beyond the confines of Hollywood, drawing support worldwide.

Supporters donate via Venmo or PayPal, and Green Envelope uses those platforms to send payments, if funds permit, within minutes of an applicant’s approval.

Transactions are all processed by Garfinkel with some organizational help from volunteers, especially from PreWGA writer Joseph Mwumba, who runs WGA Virtual Mix, a meetup and support group for PreWGA writers, with writer Jelena Woehr.

Emotional support

With its approximately 160,000 members, SAG joining the strike gave the (about) 20,000 members of Writers Guild of America West and East a morale boost, Garfinkel said. “It felt like the reinforcements were coming.”

Garfinkel explains that for striking writers, sustenance and comradery provide vital emotional support, and sometimes donated food goes home with them after the end of a day of picketing, so they don’t have to think about meals.

“That's the only way that we're getting through it right now,” she said. “A lot of people are coming to the picket line just for that emotional support that we're getting from this community.”

“What we're fighting for is not for [long-time or high-earning] people that are about to retire; it's for the next generation, so as to ensure that this career exists,” Garfinkel said.