WGA Strike

[Dan Coplan]

Interesting link about residuals for other locals...

 

 

Dan

[Kris Torch Wilson]

Good Morning,

 

Hope everyone is surviving. I had to chuckle at the part in the video about the whopping 20 cents all "other" unions receive on a dvd sale. First, I'm not sure I would call those contributions residuals, and even so, say there was 100 below the liners, we would each get 2 tenths of a cent contributed to our Health and Retirement. I can't wait to write my kids' college tuition checks knowing I have that kind of cash in the bank.

 

Ready for this to be over

 

Torch

[RonBaldwin]

Good point.

 

One thing that nobody mentions is the double residuals many/most writers get because they are writer/producers. Every show I've been on there's so many "producers" it's confusing.

 

Last week we had an actress on our show who showed up wearing a wga strike shirt. We likened her wearing that shirt around us circus carnies to someone wearing a kkk shirt to south-central. No one would stand next to her fearing falling equipment.

 

rb

[Iain Baird]

I would hope that if any local IATSE were to ever go on strike that other unions and guilds would support us, not condemn us as greedy. An operator who works all year makes a very good living, some people would say more than fair. But if you are only getting a small amount of work then you rely on those good wages to make ends meet. The same is true for writers, those who work all year and are co-producers or executive producers makes tons of cash and don't deserve any more, but the staff writers (most of them) who maybe get one episode a year to their credit and have long layoffs between gigs are only hoping that they get paid well enough to get them through the thin times.

[Kris Torch Wilson]

I would hope that if any local IATSE were to ever go on strike that other unions and guilds would support us, not condemn us as greedy.

 

Good Morning Iain,

 

I will never blindly follow another Union's misguided strike efforts just because they are a union. The WGA had ample time to start negotiations and refused to do so. They could have gone to the table and continued to work without a contract but refused to do so. The news writers did this for three years and finally worked out a deal. (with no lost work time for anyone) Instead the WGA chose to strike, putting thousands out of jobs at the worst possible time. (Property taxes due, Holidays, Hiatus coming up). One of the distinguished DP's on cinematography.com noted, never in his memory (he has been around a while) have the writer's EVER recognized any other union's strikes. And they want us to support them? Next thing, you'll probably ask me to vote for a Democrat! Yikes! The notion that ALL labor are the good guys and that ALL management are evil is counterproductive. You are correct in that staff writers don't make the big dollars that the elite do. All the more reason they should have spoke up and refused to let their leadership bully them into this mess.

 

Let's go back to work.

 

Torch

[Brad Grimmett]

never in his memory (he has been around a while) have the writer's EVER recognized any other union's strikes. And they want us to support them?

 

Torch

Steven Poster said the exact same thing in a letter he sent out to the 600 membership. I don't really like this attitude. If we ever expect to get any support from them, then we need to support them at some point. I'm not saying that we should or shouldn't support them on this particular issue, I'm just saying that it's a two way street, and someone has to be the first to offer support. Have we ever supported the WGA (I don't know the answer to this)? If not, then why would we expect them to support us? Some folks would argue that no matter what we do, the WGA, DGA, and SAG will never support us, no matter what. That may or may not be true, but we'll never find out if we don't lend our support to them.

I'm very torn on this issue, as I think a lot of us probably are, so please don't think I'm taking sides. I'm really not.

[Mike McGowan SOC]

Somehow I get the feeling that even if we had supported the WGA a dozen times they wouldn't even bother to acknowledge an IATSE strike..... More likely they would try not to trip on us as they ran to India or some place like that to shoot their next show.

 

Also, something like 75 or 80% (semi educated guess) of the WGA members don't even make a living as writers, rather they have part time jobs and occasionally get a writing gig. Like the SAG strike in (88?) its easy to say you will not work when you weren't working in the first place.

 

mm.

[Brad Grimmett]

Also, something like 75 or 80% (semi educated guess) of the WGA members don't even make a living as writers,

 

mm.

According to the WGA numbers I've seen, 48% of WGA members aren't working at any given time. But if you look at the credits in the back of the ICG magazine and compare it to the membership book I wouldn't be surprised if those #'s are similar to ours.

[JamieSilverstein]

I have to side with Brad here..... It's not popular to take the WGA's side in the issue, and I'm not 100% convinced that the strike is all for the good, but there are several issues that have weighed heavily on my mind of late.......

 

1) If the argument is about emerging markets, and the talk has been about the AMPTP giving writers $250.00 per streaming segment, after a six month free period, then, I have to tell you, that is patently unfair. In reading all of the press releases from the WGA, AMPTP, IATSE, as well as LA Times, NY Times, and Variety, the AMPTP has been pretty stingy with its offers.

Here is the crux of the problem; Yeah we don't have work now, and we might not be able to get our families their 52" Plasma this xmas, but I'd rather scrimp this season, and know that my contracts, which are based on the contracts of our Union brothers in the earlier contract negotiations, will be worth the paper they are printed on. In other words, I am not all together comfortable dissing the WGA outright. They might just be fighting the fight of our future............

Face it, those 52" plasmas will be connected to our computers in no time. We will be streaming media and downloading programming without a thought. Networks will be pretty forgotten, and production will be done by the six big companies, whose contracts with the Unions were forged early on, when streaming and downloading were in their infancy. In other words, think about the future when voting on the present.

 

2) I hate seeing the tit for tat rationale. "Well they don't support us, so why should we support them"...... Isn't that what producers want us to do? Fight amongst ourselves? Wasn't there a merger of the IATSE and NABET 15, in 1990, so that we didn't fight, and instead, unite? What about the merger between Locals 644, 659, and 666? Wouldn't it be a radical notion if all unions came together, like all producers do under the umbrella of the AMPTP , and negotiate the best reasonable contracts for as many members as possible? Call me crazy, or any thing else you might like, but that is the idea of unionism, at least in my mind.

 

All I'm trying to impress upon you guys is that I believe that there is a lot more gray than there is black and white. There is more to it than just going back to work. And there is more to the issues than meets the eye at present.

 

Just some thoughts. Have a great weekend.

Jamie.

[RonBaldwin]

I too try to be wary of jumping on one bandwagon or the other (though I'm not always successful). It's easy to read each sides propaganda and buy into it. We do have to look at future ramifications, but it's hard to see past 6 months of shutdown.

 

It's easy to let one's impression/personal experience with writers get in the way of thinking rationally. Many that I run into on the set are highly paid, pompous, elitist, non-experienced, out of touch with reality, sitting in producer chairs telling the directors and dp's with dozens of years of experience (vrs their relative few days of set time) how they'd like their scene to be shot/covered. I personally miss the writers on set because I got more o.t. Now I'm lucky to get 60 hrs a week.

 

We were recently forced to stop shooting and return to the stage because of picketers (bullhorns/chanting), I was amazed that the crew members that seemed the most annoyed/pissed about it were the teamsters. When the writers started chanting "we love teamsters" the transpo guys went up to the line and there were some heated verbal exchanges. We quietly packed up and finished on the stage.

 

Just before the strike, a writer/producer from my show came onto the camera truck to have a beer with us. We got to talking about the upcoming strike, rates, etc...this particular writer was actually amazed when I told him that I did not make the $10,000 a day he assumed I made (I told him it was closer to $20,000). I know that about half the wga are unemployed and the often cited annual salary of $200,000+ is a bit misleading considering the upper 5% are making over $1mil/yr (I think Shonda Rhimes pulled down over $5mil last year), but it's good work if you can find it!

 

Even if they worked it all out by Jan 1, most if not all of episodic tv wouldn't start up again until July. I hope they can figure this thing out -- everyone hang in there.

 

rb -- I'm the homeless guy sitting by the picket line at Universal with cup in hand.

[Dan Coplan]

Secret video sneaked out of negotiations...

 

[Brad Grimmett]

Secret video sneaked out of negotiations...

 

I was expecting to see a bunch of chimps bouncing around the room.

[Adrien RADICI]

I hate seeing the tit for tat rationale. "Well they don't support us, so why should we support them"...... Isn't that what producers want us to do?

 

Totally agree with you. I don't work in the us and i understand that a lot of you guys are loosing jobs but if we think like that we'll always be alone. I see that a few of you blamed the writers. Maybe they are well paied but what do you think the most fair... that 90% of the benefits go for the producers or that it returns to the "brain" of the projects... the writers. Without writers no projects. I saw another topic where some of you are complaining about the disappearing of camera operator work on some projects (problem is the same here in France). Do you think it is the fault of the dp? I don't think so. Sometimes producers don't want to pay a camera operator if the dp can do it (big mistake). So i know that producers take a lot of risks but i think that today more than before producers are more industrialists (not all of them of course). I summarize and things are more complicated but i think i'm cloth to the reality... we are forgotten who are at the origin of every projects.

 

So i hope for all of you that they gona find a solution but i hope too that writers will have what they want.

 

Adrien "sorry for the syntax errors" Radici

[RonBaldwin]

Secret video sneaked out of negotiations...

 

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written better than most episodics! Though I'm dissapointed there was no Papert cameo!

 

rb

[Dan Coplan]

Though I'm dissapointed there was no Papert cameo!

 

What do you mean? He was the chick with the pencil in his/her hand.

 

Dan