Bob Iger Wants Strikes To End “Quickly”; Soft-Talking Disney CEO “Personally Committed” To A Deal As WGA Strike Hit 100 Days

Dominic Patten
·3 min read
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“It is my fervent hope that we quickly find solutions to the issues that have kept us apart these past few months,” Bob Iger said Wednesday on Disney’s Q3 earnings call about the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strike. “And I am personally committed to working to achieve this result.”

The words and tone of the CEO’s words represent a drastic shift from what he said dismissively about the WGA strike and the then-looming actors strike just a month ago.

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Of course, in the midst of the company’s 100th anniversary, today earnings results and call come on the same day that the scribes’ 2023 strike surpasses the 100 days that the 2007-2008 strike lasted and heads into almost uncharted territory. At 153 days, the 1988 writers’ strike remains the longest labor action in the WGA’s history, for the time being.

“Nothing is more important to this company than its relationships with the creative community … that includes actors, writers, animators, directors and producers,” the self-proclaimed talent-friendly Iger said today. “I have deep respect and appreciation for all those who are vital to the extraordinary creative engine that drives this company and our industry.”

Unlike some other studios, Disney today offered no breakout of cost savings accrued due to the strike. However, Iger did note as part of a mixed Q3 earnings report that the company is “on track to exceed our initial goal of $5.5 billion in savings.”

One of the few executives still in their top-tier job from the last strike, there was a point early in this strike when some saw Iger as a white knight. Optimistically, the Iger cheerleaders hoped he would swoop in and bring the parties back to the table to make a deal.

Improbable to begin with, the notion of Iger as a champion of labor peace blew up into a million pieces during his now-infamous CNBC sit-down July 13. “There’s a level of expectation that they have that is just not realistic,” the past and present CEO told Squawk Box’s David Faber in a live interview from the annual media moguls retreat in Sun Valley. “And they are adding to the set of the challenges that this business is already facing that is, quite frankly, very disruptive,” he added, in what read to many like a “Let Them Eat Cake” moment with its ill-considered backdrop.

Clearly that was on Iger’s media-sensitive mind today.

The 72-year-old Iger’s CNBC misstep came one day after the Disney board extended his two-year return to the top job until 2026. With the stock price still sagging, a generally “disappointing” box office, a multi-front war with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and 7,000 jobs cut in what was essentially a boardroom battle, Iger’s much heralded homecoming has proven a rather rank affair.

Since that CNBC interview, in which he also postulated selling off some linear TV assets, the usually mondain Iger has largely disappeared from public view, until today.

On July 31, it was revealed that Iger had hired his former would-be successors Tom Skaggs and Kevin Mayer as consultants. Setting up what could end up being a Game of Thrones-style succession showdown, the move to bring back the Candle Media co-CEOs was seen as a further dimming of Iger’s once golden status.

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