Obama’s Ill-Timed ‘Working’ Docuseries Supports Unions But Also Benefits Netflix During a Writers Strike

Early in the run of Netflix’s new docuseries Working: What We Do All Day, former President Barack Obama presents a stirring and fascinating history of the power of unions. Or at least, it would be stirring and fascinating if it wasn’t also being broadcast on Netflix, a streaming service that is currently a central figure in a fight with the Writers Guild of America, a union asking for fair treatment and rights that the service seemingly is refusing to give them. And by extension, by broadcasting this series now, Obama is at least partially implicit in supporting the side of this particular union fight that isn’t the workers his docuseries is supposed to be about. It’s poor timing that only serves to mar what should otherwise be a call to action.

The series is part of Barack and Michelle Obama’s deal with the streamer through their production company Higher Ground and premieres on May 17. Told over four parts, the show follows ordinary people from different walks of life in the workforce, starting with service workers and ending with senior executives, like CEOs and business founders.

The documentary adopts the perspectives of multiple people who have different salaries and circumstances – such as dependents, disabilities, and familial support – and advocating for a livable wage is a consistent throughline, one that may leave viewers rethinking the popular “eat the rich” mantra… That is until they hear the “tu-dum” that signifies one episode playing into another, and they’re reminded that this narrative is being controlled by a multi-billion dollar streamer that has screwed over an ever-growing list of workers.

Inspired by Studs Terkel’s 1974 book, the docuseries follows real people in their day-to-day lives in the workforce and at home. Through the narration and participation of former U.S. President Obama, the series shines an intimate light on working mothers, self-employed individuals, and those who have clawed their way up the job ladder, among others, and explores the plights and joys of their jobs and their hopes for their futures. 

Working doesn’t gloss over the changing times. The series acknowledges the large range of incomes within the middle class (which seems to be slowly disintegrating) and those left behind in the boom of technology and allows Obama to adopt an on-screen role interacting with the interview subjects. But it seems that the documentary doesn’t have much to say, especially as it premieres in the wake of Netflix’s latest attack on those who keep the streamer alive by creating content.

The halfway point of the first episode features a group of service workers at The Pierre Hotel gathering for a group lunch. Louis, who works in housekeeping, expresses that his job offers him “security” and cites that his colleagues have worked at the hotel for “years and years.” The staff continues to share their array of experiences working in the service industry, with some saying that they don’t have any savings and one adding that she had to max out her credit cards after her boiler broke.

The same worker shares her fears of automation, saying that she knows of a hotel that replaced front desk workers with machines. At this point, the staff’s union delegate Beverly enters and reassures her colleagues that their union will protect them during these times. “Management is management, but union is union,” she tells them. Then, like clockwork, Obama appears in a voiceover and explains the history of unions, in what would be an inspiring speech if the current Writers Guild of America strike wasn’t bubbling behind the scenes of production and in the current reality that we live in. 

In his speech, Obama says, “As a society, we get to decide what life looks like for working people. We can make those jobs better or we can make them worse. We can give them more dignity or less.” So, what does that say about Netflix, who in funding this documentary, has co-opted language used to support unions and livable wages while refusing to do so for their own employees? The ongoing strike has been a long time coming and was prompted by the union to advocate for themselves against studios and streamers who were unwilling to pay them fair wages, and early on, Netflix was named as one of the main offenders.

Before the beginning of the strike on May 2, 2023, the WGA was in negotiations with streamers for fair pay and protections amid the changing media landscape due to the popularity of digital platforms. The union wrote in a March blog that “companies have used the transition to streaming to cut writer pay and separate writing from production, worsening working conditions for series writers at all levels,” claiming that streamers are “devaluing” writers and aren’t providing “basic protections.” In the early days of the strike, both the LA Times and The New York Times dubbed it the “Netflix strike” and organizers had to encourage picketers to disperse themselves at other studios because there was an overwhelming number of people at Netflix locations. Even the popular band Imagine Dragons drew attention to Netflix as a central figure when they decided to do a pop-up concert during one of the protests. 

It’s a shame that this solid docuseries is tainted by Netflix and its track record of underpaying and mistreating workers. And having President Obama spew platitudes about unions isn’t going to better the lives of those in the WGA, especially not when it brings views and clicks to their common enemy. 

Working premieres May 17 on Netflix.