Mama always said it was important to write well. I am sure the 12,000 members of the Writers’ Guild of America know that better than most of us.
I was in New York recently to attend my favorite TV show,The Daily Show, and while I was standing in line, there was a line of strikers standing a few feet away. Naturally, I lined up an interview. I was surprised to find out that I could interview someone in Georgia about the WGA efforts to negotiate a new contract. In this interview with Phil Nutman and Jason Dolan, Co-Captains for the WGA in Georgia, I find out that the essence of this dispute is over something less than a penny!
That’s right. Less than a penny! Since the last WGA Minimum Basic Agreement was negotiated in 1988, things have changed. Now we have DVDs, the internet and naturally corporate America exploits these new sources of revenue just as much as they can. The writers want their fair share. And what is that fair share: an increase in royalties from 1/3 of a penny to a penny.
Talk about corporate greed! This is a good example of why unions became powerful at the beginning of the century. Sure, unions ended up abusing their power (doesn’t everyone) and as a result the fell out of favor beginning in the 80s. Even so, the Writers Strike is proof positive of the fact that in this world of greedy multi-national corporations the ordinary working doesn’t have a chance against billion dollar corporations unless they are unionized. Not only do we need to appreciate what unions have done, we need to appreciate what they can do and encourage more employees to seek union organization. I wish we could come up with some way to have a Consumer’s Union to give all us some way to effectively fight the bastards. But what do I know, I just work for a living.
Even though there are no unions at Turner Broadcasting and CNN located in Atlanta, Atlanta is a media center and there are writers and TV shows produced in Georgia. The WGA can’t picket, but they can hold rallies to increase public awareness and support for the writer’s cause.
The Directors Guild (DGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) have contracts that will be up in June and they are supporting the WGA, while trying to negotiate their own new contracts. SAG members, the movie and TV stars, won’t go on TV shows like Jay Leno because of the writers’ strike. They will appear on David Letterman because his production company, WorldWide Pants, owns his show (not the networks) and has negotiated its own agreement with the WGA and its writers have returned to work.
Because SAG members would not cross the picket lines and attend the Golden Globes they were cancelled. The networks had to return hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenues. If the Oscars are cancelled in a few weeks, they will lose hundreds of millions more. All over less than a penny.
I understand that the writers and studios are resuming talks to try and end the strike.
For more information, you can check out United Hollywood.
Never give up!
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