Welcome to another week of the Catch-Up, the column where I fill you in on the goods from pop culture and dish out my opinions about it.

This past week, the Writers Guild of America officially ended their strike on September 27th and although we’re all excited about our favorite shows and movies to finally come out, this strike isn’t just something we should forget about.

This strike went on for a record-breaking 148 days. Eastern Illinois had their own faculty strike last semester which lasted 6 days. Now, there’s talks about the United Auto Workers going on strike as well.

What does this say about our country, our community?

Americans, famous or not, have been cheated by the people above them. Writers and actors have been overworked and underpaid, the average auto worker has been underpaid, and our own faculty has been overworked… and yeah, you guessed it, underpaid.

Striking in 2023 should say a lot to us. People are tired of putting in mountains of work, just to not see the fruit of their labor! Even we as college students are tired of being overworked and not seeing any benefits.

Although we should celebrate the win for Hollywood’s workers, we should not forget what is being done to the American people. The people with power and wealth think that they can keep it to themselves and leave us the crumbs.

And clearly, that isn’t working anymore. Never in my 20 years of life have I seen so many strikes happening back to back. To me, it shows that foul treatment of people who work day and night to quite literally keep the country running will not be tolerated and will not be accepted anymore.

Now that is what I want to celebrate. Every person deserves fair and equitable pay, kind treatment, and the freedom to pursue their careers without being choked to death by expensive living costs and lower wages at work. My message to all to you, dear reader?

If you want something, you go for it. If you know you’ve been wronged, speak out about it.

You are deserving of fairness and kindness. And although you may not generate a three-month-long, historic strike or a viral speech… you may just inspire others to stand up for what they know they deserve.

You may just create change. No matter big or small that change may be.

And with that, I wish Hollywood’s Finest a huge ‘welcome back’ to work and good luck to all of you out there

Jade Maxwell can be reached at [email protected] or 217-581-2812.