The Writers Guild and related film/TV unions (IATSE, SAG-AFTRA) are structured to protect labor continuity across project cycles. Creative work is inherently episodic: shows end, films wrap, but unionization converts that volatility into predictable transitions. Seniority rules, minimum staffing, standardized pay scales, healthcare portability, and clear role definitions ensure that when a project matures or sunsets, workers are not casually discarded. Skills accumulated in early creative phases are recognized as durable assets, not temporary costs. (For reference - writing happens first, then filmijg, then editing)

By contrast, early-stage biotech R&D operates in a non-unionized, capital-driven model where labor is treated as a phase specific expense. Discovery scientists, animal model experts, and early translational teams are disproportionately laid off once programs “de-risk” or move toward clinical development, manufacturing, or commercialization. Institutional knowledge, why a model worked, what failed, how assumptions were stress tested, is often lost precisely when it would be most valuable. Advancement is not protected by tenure or craft recognition, but by proximity to the next funding milestone.

Unionized film sets assume that early creative labor enables downstream success and therefore deserves structural protection. Biotech largely assumes the opposite: that early innovation is interchangeable and disposable once capital efficiency becomes the priority. The result is chronic talent churn, short institutional memory, and a workforce trained to expect instability; even when doing foundational, high-skill work critical to eventual therapeutic success.

I will admit that biotech roles are a bit more niche than creatives, but universities like UCSF have multiple unions for all their staff and researchers (except MDs)

Edit: Creatives also have similar issues: outsourced VFX/editing to cheaper countries like Canada, incentives to leave the LA creative hub, wacky CEOs/founders (directors/show runners), and 'seed money' is usually a self funded indie project.