The core demand isn't just more pay, it's basically to completely shut down the "AI" business model. Both unions have a demand based on getting residuals from any AI content made using models trained on their work/likenesses. That would entirely remove the whole incentive (theft) to bother with the technology (in the stupid and low quality way it is currently bothered with) at all for the executives. And the law is on the side of the thieves.
The industry won't collapse. The people who own it have functionally infinite money as a class. There will likely be some infighting on the owners' side, but the real question is, how many people will give in to the idea of a chance at stardom, fame, fortune, and take up offers of scab jobs? IATSE isn't striking (for the moment, but their contract with the alliance of motion picture producers goes through next year), production could still go. (IATSE members are protected by contract if they refuse to cross picket lines but they aren't required to not cross and inevitably some might for need of money.)
The question is if the public reaction to this action will side with ownership (remember, most people believe the propaganda of our society that legitimizes private property relations), or if a sense of class solidarity breaks out (possible, given the momentum of shifting sentiment) and people who aren't in unions start actively supporting union actions with money, food, etc. It's that kind of transition between energy states that could be a revolutionary phase change for the USA. I don't know if the writers and actors are interested in changing society on a fundamental level though, so I doubt they'll apply their broad social reach towards any explicitly revolutionary messaging. Meaning, messages of radical change.
What remains to be seen is what predictions will be wrong. I expect to be proven wrong about many things, that's how time works. I hope I'm proven wrong about the pessimistic things.
