The AMPTP appears to be displaying increasing desperation as the WGA’s presenting itself as a reasonable bargaining partner is showing dividends. Having brokered the deal with Worldwide Pants that brought Late Night back with writers, WGA has now cut a deal with UA and is reportedly on the brink of a similar achievement with the Weinsteins. The AMPTP’s response on their website:
One-off deals do nothing to bring the WGA closer to a permanent solution for working writers. These interim agreements are sideshows and mean only that some writers will be employed at the same time other writers will be picketing. In the end, until the people in charge at WGA decide to focus on the main event rather than these sideshows, the economic harm being caused by the strike will continue.
Curiously the AMPTP ignores that the deals don’t “mean only that some writers will be employed;” the deals also put hundreds of non-writing employees back to work. Crew people and such who were out of work because the writers had gone on strike. Yet amazingly the AMPTP doesn’t hesitate to invoke the hardship those bystanders face whenever they’re trying to slag the striking writers.
Behind the scenes they must be ballistic about the producers who are voting with their feet and their wallets by bargaining individually because it underscores what the WGA has been saying all along: The demands are not unreasonable. The AMPTP is unreasonable.
PAD
• 
I believe that you are right when you say the demands are reasonable. But I believe that the WGA leadership has botched this strike. From the the way they dealt with Leno to the individual deals they are making, I just think that this is jus one huge mess.
The demands are reasonable. The WGA leadership’s choices are not.
Please tell me how the AMPTP has been reasonable? I have yet to see it.
Oh Mike I so disagree. We all want people back to work.
Though I do agree about Leno.
Anyone catch Daily Show and Colbert Report – watching this morning, and, well, it’s quite the train wreck.
Did anyone catch Jon Stewart asking for a deal?
If Viacom joins on the WGA bandwagon, that’d break the AMPTP.
Osbo, how do you mean train wreck? I thought they were very enjoyable.
By the way, I got impatient and posted about Jon Stewarts comments on A Daily Show in an older thread. PAD replied with this:
“I haven’t seen the Daily Show yet; I was at a bowling league last night and intend to catch it on a morning repeat. But my assumption is that, if the WGA was unwilling/unable to cut a separate deal with Stewart, it’s because technically they didn’t cut a deal with David Letterman either. They cut a deal with a production company, “Worldwide Pants.” They can’t start cutting individual deals with individual TV shows; it’s unwieldy and also would lessen pressure on the producers. However, I have absolutely no doubt that if Viacom, which owns the Daily Show, approached the WGA to cut a deal similar to what Worldwide Pants or UA has done, the WGA would do so in a heartbeat.
PAD”
Please tell me how the AMPTP has been reasonable? I have yet to see it.
Craig, you mean other than storming out, refusing to negotiate, and then claiming it’s the WGA that’s doing that, while meanwhile spreading lies about the strike and what’s at stake? Perfectly reasonable, that AMPTP.
From the the way they dealt with Leno to the individual deals they are making, I just think that this is jus[t] one huge mess.
Mike: how did they deal with Leno poorly? I think the man’s gotten a rough shake, all things considered — he’s in a lose-lose situation, in a show where he’s already being pushed out — but I don’t think that was a concerted effort by the Guild. And I don’t see how these individual deals do anything except strengthen the WGA’s position.
Osbo, how do you mean train wreck? I thought they were very enjoyable.
Having just seen it this morning, I have to agree. Speaking as a biased individual, I particularly liked the notion of strikers walking in a picket line for so long that we wind up being transformed into Conan the Barbarian. I’m almost tempted to show up at the pickets on Wednesday with a sword strapped to my back.
PAD
Craig, you mean other than storming out, refusing to negotiate, and then claiming it’s the WGA that’s doing that, while meanwhile spreading lies about the strike and what’s at stake? Perfectly reasonable, that AMPTP.
I particularly like the thing on their website in which they assert, “The Average Working WGA writer Make More than a family doctor/airline pilot/surgeon.” Notice the brilliantly deceptive phrasing of that: “Average Working Writer.” Except doctors and pilots presumably have steady jobs that pay them year in, year out, working 52 weeks a year, whereas the majority of WGA writers, just like SAG actors, are unemployed at any given moment. The entire concept behind residuals is to try and provide writers some sort of income during the inevitable gaps when their shows are canceled or their movies have wrapped and they’re trying to find other employment (just as actors receive residuals for the same reason.) Yet the AMPTP remains interested only in trying to skew public perception against the writers rather than sit down like reasonable bargaining partners and settle this thing.
PAD
Mark Evanier and some others have commented that in previous negotiations, the AMPTP worked to set writers against one another and let that divisiveness work to their advantage. It seems that that latest proclamation is an attempt to do that, setting the writers who are working against the writers who are picketing. But if the general solidarity of the WGA is stronger than they expect–and it seems to be–that might not work for them.
A question: after David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants and Tom Cruise et al.’s United Artists have struck interim deals with the WGA, anyone care to make any predictions on the next producer who can and will do so?
There was obviously some planning that went into the shows. The bit with Colbert’s beard, the clips they had lined up, all that stuff. I’m interested where the dividing line between ‘planning’ and ‘writing’ is. Thinking up funny things to talk about ahead of time doesn’t seem so bad. Taking notes so you don’t forget them seems like a good idea, but is that writing? Is there a certain level of detail to the notes that is okay? It seems like a comedy skit could be done over the union arguing about whether or not bullet points are crossing the line.
Perhaps I should clarify – I meant it was an enjoyable train wreck 🙂
In a good way.
It was respectful to the writers, but also emphasized well that he wants their writers back. I actually was rather impressed.
Tommy:
The last rumor I heard was The Weinstein Company.
Yeah, I also heard that, that the Weinsteins were on the bubble.
PAD
And I heard that negotiations are going on with Lionsgate
Hear, hear, PAD! Let’s get a fair deal for the writers in a hurry – I want the second half of Battlestar in 2008!
R&D Productions next up after Lionsgate, one hopes…?
It’s been my belief that the AMPTP has been stalling because they don’t want to set a precedent for residuals when the SAG and DGA contracts expire, and those groups ask for a bigger share than the WGA does. It seems if that’s the case, the AMPTP should have notified their members that such was their thinking, and likewise told the WGA.
Even if that’s the case, that’s no reason why the AMPTP have been acting like spoiled 8 year olds. I’m glad that individual studios are coming to the table…the WGA requests are very reasonable, and it seems that a minimal amount of negotiating would allow a compromise that all parties can agree to.
I find it interesting that the AMPTP tries to characterize these agreements as interim…they may very well contain langauge that would allow a more general agreement with all of the AMPTP to superceded it, but those agreements are binding for their term. They are no more interim than that last contract was.
I wonder if the studios smart enough to sign on with the WGA will go on a buying spree, free to pick from a wide selection of choice scripts and treatments from writers eager to lock in the only deal in town.
If it looks like UA or the Weinsteins are gaining an advantage, the other producers will desert like rats on a sinking ship.
“Except doctors and pilots presumably have steady jobs that pay them year in, year out, working 52 weeks a year, whereas the majority of WGA writers, just like SAG actors, are unemployed at any given moment. The entire concept behind residuals is to try and provide writers some sort of income during the inevitable gaps when their shows are canceled or their movies have wrapped and they’re trying to find other employment (just as actors receive residuals for the same reason.)”
What about all the lighting, sound, camera, make-up, etc. people who are currently out of work because of the WGA strike? Do those folks, who also have to worry about finding their next job, get residuals? Are they going to be compensated in any way for the money they’ve lost?
Mike
What about all the lighting, sound, camera, make-up, etc. people who are currently out of work because of the WGA strike? Do those folks, who also have to worry about finding their next job, get residuals? Are they going to be compensated in any way for the money they’ve lost?
Yeah…the AMPTP should deal with THAT, as well!
bobb alfred: It’s been my belief that the AMPTP has been stalling because they don’t want to set a precedent for residuals when the SAG and DGA contracts expire, and those groups ask for a bigger share than the WGA does. It seems if that’s the case, the AMPTP should have notified their members that such was their thinking, and likewise told the WGA.
Why should they tell their opponents their strategy? It might seem obvious what they are doing and easy to surmise why. But in a negotiation I don’t see why either side is obligated to tell the other.
“Hey, I want you to think twice about attacking my ship, so my strategy will be to make up a story about it having a ‘Corbomite device’. You cool with that?”
However, I have absolutely no doubt that if Viacom, which owns the Daily Show, approached the WGA to cut a deal similar to what Worldwide Pants or UA has done, the WGA would do so in a heartbeat.
A few weeks back, Comedy Central was saying that they had tried to reach a deal with WGA and was rebuffed – similar, actually, to what Ðìçk Clark Productions was accusing over the weekend (that WGA was refusing to deal with them). The last thing I read, Sunday night, suggested that they were going to lodge a complaint because they weren’t being treated fairly, and that the WGA was being selective in who they would make any sort of agreements with.
Now, granted, since my only way of tracking this is via the media, it’s going to carry a bias. Does anyone here have any further information on that, or the WGA being selective in production companies it’s negotiating with?
Do you have a link to that, Kelly? I’d like to read the details.
Here’s a link to part (not all) of what Kelly was referring to:
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-nbcgoldenglobeschanges,0,7095513.story?coll=zap-news-headlines
That article does say Viacom or Comedy Central, which is the part I’m interested in at the moment.
Are they going to be compensated in any way for the money they’ve lost?
Isn’t just about everybody in Hollywood unionized?
I haven’t been following this anywhere near as closely as most of you here, but I’m curious about something. Is unionization of animators still a sticking point? If that’s the case, then side deals may not matter all that much. Letterman’s company produces late night talk shows and the occasional TV series. UA and the Weinsteins would simply avoid animated features (which, in the case of the Weinsteins, is probably something they should be doing anyway given their track record in the area).
I think the AMPTP has been pretty cunning in their negotiations. By negotiating a few side deals it’s definitely going to pit writers (and crews) for the shows that resumed production against the shows that didn’t. Not at first, but in time. I think they’ve laid the ground work for a long, cold winter. This won’t be settled until the Directors and Actors are all on strike.
The producers have all the cash. They could easily even bypass the 2009 season without too much financial hardship. The same cannot be said of 95% of the writers, directors and actors and probably 99.9% of the rest of the crew members.
I truly hope this isn’t the case, but it seems the obvious path based on everything that’s happened so far.
I think the AMPTP has been pretty cunning in their negotiations. By negotiating a few side deals it’s definitely going to pit writers (and crews) for the shows that resumed production against the shows that didn’t.
Maybe, but two questions/observations:
(1) To what degree is it the AMPTP that’s making these side deals? It doesn’t quite seem like the larger AMPTP organization is making side deals on behalf of a few of its constituent members; it seems more like some AMPTP members (or producers that aren’t AMPTP members) are breaking from the organization saying, in essence, “I don’t want you to represent me in these negotiations. I’m going to negotiate directly.”
(I note that the AMPTP website includes a link at http://www.amptp.org/aboutus.html to those producers it represents in the negotiation. It’s a huge list, 350+ lines long, but it may not be exhaustive, either.)
(2) You say that the result of these side deals will pit writers against one another, perhaps eroding the solidarity of the WGA. But isn’t it just as easy to think that the result will be to pit producers against one another–those that’re able to work reasonably normally vs. those who are writerless–perhaps eroding the solidarity of the AMPTP membership?
“Why should they tell their opponents their strategy?”
Because this isn’t war…it’s a business negotiation, and at the end of all this, the AMPTP needs the WGA. They’re going to have to work together once the deals are all signed. If it were war, yeah, tell your opponent all kinds of lies. But when it’s a business partner, and you know going into a situation like this that you have no intention of making any kind of real agreement until months from now, why waste everyone’s time and patience? Just be up front…”we want to negotiate, but we don’t want to get burned in 6 months when the other unions come in and use our agreement with you as leverage for their own deals. The truth is, we can and are willing to sit out until next year, so let’s just meet later in the spring, ‘kay?”
It’s good business. What the AMPTP is doing isn’t.
“What about all the lighting, sound, camera, make-up, etc. people who are currently out of work because of the WGA strike? Do those folks, who also have to worry about finding their next job, get residuals? Are they going to be compensated in any way for the money they’ve lost?”
For the money they aren’t making on whatever show’s not being produced because of the strike? No. Then again, they don’t get residuals because: 1) they don’t contribute in a unique way to the creative process, and; 2) it’s far easier for them to find steady paying work throughout the year.
On top of that, there’s nothing stopping a boom or camera operator from continuing to work. Reality and game shows are exempt from the WGA strike, and production on those continues. The technical and support for those shows is probably identicle to that of a scripted show…they all need sets, lights, cameras, booms, mikes, sound, makeup, wardrobe, etc. There may not be as many jobs as normally would be, but I’d also guess that there’s work to be found if they look hard enough.
I would assume that there are a limited number of lighting, sound, camera, make-up, etc., jobs available at any time, and also that the shows not affected by the WGA strike have already hired the workers they need right now, so those put out of work by the strike won’t have the easiest time in the world getting jobs. Their skills are more mobile than the writers’, I’m sure, but they are being more than inconvenienced. Many of the WGA demands are just, but it would be foolish to discount the ill-will that will remain should the strike continue much longer. The writers may prevail, but I’m not sure they’ll win as much as they think.
I was talking to a union camera operator last night, right at the beginning of her career. She had work on hour dramas and the occasional feature. She’s had trouble securing work, mainly because she doesn’t want to do reality shows – and she recognizes it’s been her choice.
What has she been doing?
Accounting.
True. But that’s because of limited air time. Which has to be filled due to shut downs. And those replacements will still need the tech people that the closed-down shows possessed.
“I was talking to a union camera operator last night, right at the beginning of her career. She had work on hour dramas and the occasional feature. She’s had trouble securing work, mainly because she doesn’t want to do reality shows – and she recognizes it’s been her choice.
What has she been doing?
Accounting.”
I went to college with someone that ended up working crew for Days of Our Lives. I’m not sure what his degree was, but it wasn’t theater or tech involved. He makes great money. Point being, he’s probably not the only one that’s got some kind of degree to fall back on during times like these.
“I would assume that there are a limited number of lighting, sound, camera, make-up, etc., jobs available at any time, and also that the shows not affected by the WGA strike have already hired the workers they need right now, so those put out of work by the strike won’t have the easiest time in the world getting jobs.”
By the same logic, there’s only so many people to fill those jobs at any given time. The tech side of production is just another resource, although one more fungible than say the writing or acting talent are. While you CAN fill any roll with any actor, producers will spend a lot of energy looking for just the right person for key positions. Even walk-ons and extras aren’t as fungible as say a boom operator. The strike hasn’t changed the number of broadcast hours the networks need to fill. While re-runs and movies account for some of that, generally, it seems to me that the same amount of tech work that existed pre-strike either still exists, or shortly will, as reality and game shows get up and running. Those shows don’t pull from a different base of tech labor…it’ll be the same folks that were working on WGA projects. Some, like Osbo’s acquaintence, will choose not to cross lines and support the WGA by not working. Others will make the decision to work. While they are going through imposed hardship, it’s not as hard as the WGA members. Likely, they’ll need to keep writing…have to be ready to sell when the strike ends…so their ability to work out-of-industry jobs will be limited.
I don’t follow these things all that closely, so forgive my ignorance, but doesn’t Marvel have a production company now (putting out Iron Man and Hulk)? If so, any notion being floated of Marvel striking a deal?
Wait, isn’t it back-asswards that studios negotiated as a union themselves? When I worked as a cashier and we struck, we picketed one chain, not all supermarkets. What’s stopping the unions from portraying the studios as a trust?
Jon Stewart asked his guest about the studios working together on A Daily the other night.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=147139&title=ron-seeber-pt.-2&to=2
From Wiki: “The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is a trade association based in Encino, California that represents over 350 American film production companies and studios in negotiations with entertainment industry trade unions in collective bargaining.”
My guess is that it exists in large part to prevent exactly what’s happenening now…individual studios entering into contracts with the WGA, reducing the bargaining power of any studio considerably.
The last thing I read, Sunday night, suggested that they were going to lodge a complaint because they weren’t being treated fairly, and that the WGA was being selective in who they would make any sort of agreements with.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the WGA were being selective. Negotiators are walking a fine line between wanting to be flexible and making things too “easy” on the major producers. For instance, it would benefit the WGA greatly if Viacom wanted to cut a deal, because Viacom is huge and owns many properties that employ writers. Cutting a separate deal with Comedy Central would be, as the saying goes, penny wise and pound foolish. It would benefit a small number of writers and a lucrative venue for Viacom in the short run, but in the long run just makes it that much easier for Viacom to then hold out the rest of the properties that it owns.
Why Letterman then? Well, I suppose because the feeling was that it’s better to have Letterman on your side than it is not to have him there. Leno was going back with or without writers, and since NBC owns “The Tonight Show,” there was no negotiation permissible. But by working out a deal with Worldwide Pants, they could have an ongoing outlet for the writers and their interests. Yeah, short term, Leno is still getting higher ratings. But let’s see what happens several weeks from now, or a month from now, or two months from now, if high-profile guests continue to refuse to cross picket lines and Leno is scraping for non-scripted material.
PAD
“What about all the lighting, sound, camera, make-up, etc. people who are currently out of work because of the WGA strike? Do those folks, who also have to worry about finding their next job, get residuals? Are they going to be compensated in any way for the money they’ve lost?”
For the money they aren’t making on whatever show’s not being produced because of the strike? No. Then again, they don’t get residuals because: 1) they don’t contribute in a unique way to the creative process, and; 2) it’s far easier for them to find steady paying work throughout the year.
Understand, Bobb, that Bunge isn’t *really* interested in answers. He’s interested in picking fights with me, which was his major passtime over on Comicon.com. But he hasn’t been able to since I stopped frequenting that board, so he had to crawl over here to try and recommence his compulsive hostilities.
His question is, of course, completely irrelevant to my post. I was commenting on how the AMPTP puts forward how important the below-the-line employees are in the absence of jobs…until all fo the sudden the WGA cuts deals to bring people back to work, at which point suddenly the achievement is diminished because it only means that “some writers will be employed.”
Whether or not the below-the-line folks receive residuals is beside the point for a very simple reason: It’s not in their contracts. Their union didn’t negotiate deals in which they received residuals. Once upon a time, writers didn’t either. Neither did actors. Unions forged deals with producers to make that happen. If the technical and teamster unions are able to likewise forge such deals for their people, hey…more power to ’em. The fact that, to the best of my knowledge, they currently don’t receive residuals is hardly the WGA’s fault.
PAD
This is sllllightly off topic, but (insert Jerry Seinfeld voice here) what’s the deal with the new shows on right now? Tonight had a new episode of CRIMINAL MINDS, and tomorrow night there are new episodes of MY NAME IS EARL and 30 ROCK. Were these shows that were completed before the strike and are now being aired? Were they finished in advance, in anticipation of the strike? Is there a WGA deal letting the writers do them? Inquiring redhead wants to know!
(I also think that, even if the strike were settled tomorrow, there’ll be two long-term consequences. The first will be that this could hurt DVD sales for the shows currently affected, if the releases only have half as many episodes as the “normal” sets. The second is that shows that are struggling (30 ROCK, shamelessly filling itself with guest stars to get ratings; still funny though) or newer shows (the brilliant and quirky PUSHING DAISIES) may be *really* hurt, as their potential audience and loyal fans may lose interest or forget about them with the strike on.)
Peter –
As a fellow member of the WGA East, please accept my thanks for your ever-cogent commentary on the matter of the strike. After a long day of standing in place (if ever there was proof that writers need directors, come see us all try to walk in a loop in front of Viacom), it’s nice to see someone put our quandary into such clear and simple terms. Keep it up.
On a fanboy note: I collected comics up until I hit high school, or when the comics hit the $1.25 mark (sorry to say, the habit could not then co-exist with my budding social life). Nearly fifteen years later I am rediscovering comics and loving it. Among my favorites is X-Factor. I remember well your first run with Madrox and Polaris (broken jaw and all) and the rest but this second turn is whupping nostalgia’s ášš. I look forward to what you have in store.
Chris
As a fellow member of the WGA East, please accept my thanks for your ever-cogent commentary on the matter of the strike. After a long day of standing in place (if ever there was proof that writers need directors, come see us all try to walk in a loop in front of Viacom), it’s nice to see someone put our quandary into such clear and simple terms. Keep it up.
Well, I was there too, so I wish you’d come over and said hi. Mostly I was standing around being bored.
This is sllllightly off topic, but (insert Jerry Seinfeld voice here) what’s the deal with the new shows on right now? Tonight had a new episode of CRIMINAL MINDS, and tomorrow night there are new episodes of MY NAME IS EARL and 30 ROCK. Were these shows that were completed before the strike and are now being aired?
Sure. You’re not seeing anything this season that you don’t typically see. In the old days, when networks ordered 30 or so episodes, they had enough to air new shows every month. With the typical order now down to 22, they have to make them last. So they typically schedule repeats for December, when viewership is usually down, so that they can have new episodes for January. You’re seeing them now. By February or March they’ll be done with new episodes of series that began in September.
PAD
PAD says that the welfare of the crew members is irrelevant to his own post. That is probably true. He is concerned with the best interests of the WGA members, as is his right, and has no objection to the inconveniencing of non-WGA personnel. That’s just fine, but why should any of them honor and respect a strike which has no concern for them? A lot has been made of the disrespect producers, staff and crew show the WGA by not honoring their strike (despite the fact that many of them are bound by their own contracts to do so) – but why shouldn’t they if it is made clear to them that their interests are irrelevant to the great good of looking out for WGA members’ wallets? People who are crude enough not to be WGA members are being put out of work by this strike – an unavoidable side effect, probably – but it leaves a very bad taste to say they are irrelevant. Try producing a program without actors, crew and staff, and see how well the writers can get by without those peons.
On a different subject, how much autonomy do the WGA East and West have? If one found a proposal acceptable and the other didn’t would there remain only a regional strike? I would expect the interests of WGA East members, many working on the stage and in nonfiction programming, would not be identical to those in the West, with many working in comedic and dramatic television and film.
“PAD says that the welfare of the crew members is irrelevant to his own post.”
PAD said that a certain question was irrelevant to his post because his post dealt with how the AMPTP was portraying the welfare of crew members. He has not said that he has no objection to the inconveniencing of non-WGA personnel.
PAD says the question of whether crew members receive residuals is irrelevant, because it is not in their contracts to do so. I’m not sure I agree that it is irrelevant, because if they ask for residuals in the future that will be a relevant matter, but still, fine – PAD seems to be saying that discussion of matters not already determined by contracts is irrelevant. If that is so, then what is the relevance of the current WGA strike? There was a preexisting contract which the WGA now contends was not satisfactory concerning residuals for writers. By PAD’s line of reasoning, the producers should feel free to say “Hey, jerks – The sort of residuals you want were not in your previous contract! What’s wrong with you, talking about such irrelevancies? Go back to work, and be glad we’re even talking to you.” I don’t think they should, and neither does PAD, I bet. If I read him correctly, he says that questions of crew welfare are a matter of the relevant unions not previously negotiating residual deals with the producers – but I think that’s wrong. Questions of crew welfare are matters of non-WGA members being laid off during the WGA strike. This is analogous to this situation. Suppose the truck drivers at a publisher of PAD’s work went on strike, and the pressmen and editors honored the strike and refused to print or edit his writings, so he was forbidden to write during the strike (not a perfect example, because there are important free speech issues, of course – but still a matter of one group of workers being inconvenienced by the labor disputes of another). He’d certainly think something of value had been taken away from him because of other people’s disputes.
PAD says that the matter of the crews’ welfare is not relevant to his argument – That it’s a new subject brought up to cloud the argument, I suppose. I say this: If the welfare of the crew and staff is of no concern to him and other members of the WGA, it’s difficult to see why the crew members and staff should feel any solidarity with the writers’ union or honor its strike.
“PAD says the question of whether crew members receive residuals is irrelevant”
No. He said that it was irrelevant to his post. He did not say that it was irrelevant, he said that it was irrelevant to a specific point that he was making. He does not say that it is irrelevant to the larger issue and his comment about their contracts was in regards to why they don’t get residuals, too.
If you wish to discuss something that someone actually said, then I will talk with you at that point.
There was a preexisting contract which the WGA now contends was not satisfactory concerning residuals for writers.
Umm, in case you failed to notice, that contract is over, which means it is no longer applicable.
So, your argument utterly fails.
The contract is over, which is why they’re renegotiating. The strike is the result of a failed renegotiation. So of course it’s applicable. They met initially at the end of said contract.
As for the crew…
There are difficulties. Another guy I work with is an IATSE local member, we were talking and he was focusing on the one op-ed piece of one (former) WGA member who left the union (I forget his name). I pointed out that that’s just one guy, and it’s hard to have complete solidarity when one is not working. As he should probably know.
I actually don’t like the argument the WGA is using that they should get these residuals because they’re out of work. I should think it’s a better example to say that writers contributed uniquely to the creative process of a product that makes money. And by “uniquely” I mean they structured, broke the story, and wrote the thing. If the product continues to make money, they get a cut as reward. That’s a big “if” and an unlikely “if”. Especially with the way net profits get reported – according to that, the Simpsons hasn’t made any money in its entire run. Creative accounting.
The technicians that are out of work right now are out of work because AMPTP refuses to buy scripts to produce new shows, NOT because the WGA are striking. They’re taking a strong stance for their writers, demanding a lot of what they didn’t get before.
The AMPTP don’t have a bad position, really. They’re looking for the most money for their shareholders and the like, unfortunately it looks like it might cost them more to have the writer’s strike than to be back at the negotiating table now.
Technicians out of work is a smokescreen. If they needed better pay, if they want residuals (which has been suggested), more vacation, etcetera, they’re unionized and they have full rights to do what they need to do to get those things. It’s also a bit of a straw-man – a way to say – the spoiled writers are ruining it for the hard-working below-the-line workers. As suggested, though, they could work reality, game show, etcetera. Those shows are being put into production – more than before.
The AMPTP haven’t negotiated for weeks, and seem to be stalling for the DGA and SAG to strike.