In an editorial for Deadline, Farah Bunch writes about the importance of recognizing below-the-line workers in the wake of the Writers’ Guild of America strike. While she fully supports the WGA fighting for their rights, she also cautions against ignoring the possible fallout that can hurt other production roles.

In her editorial, she talks about how thanks to the upcoming strikes, so many pilots, productions, and TV episodes are being put on hold, putting so many crew members out of work. Bunch recalls an article from the Associated Press that revealed that a writers’ strike in 2007 not only drained the California economy by $2 million and cost the Milken Institute about 37,700 jobs. Bunch recalls how her parents were below-the-line crew members in 1988 and how the 158-day writers’ strike was “devastating to our whole family.”

She also reminisces about the causes and effects of the previous strike by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) protesting their working conditions. Bunch unveils how she and other union members were protesting for their wages and “for our health, the right to see our family and friends, the right to eight hours of sleep as medical science recommends.” While the WGA had supported the IATSE’s strike, Bunch laments how these efforts seem to be for naught when it was “[s]old to us like a win.”

Bunch reveals that she has been receiving countless calls from her union begging for jobs and is afraid for everyone in the industry. Since crew members don’t get royalties or residuals, she fears the prospects of months without work.

“So when are we allowed to ask (without seeming unsupportive), ‘What about us?’” she laments.