To begin, let me tell you something I once did that should make my bleeding liberal heart wilt with shame. In the grocery workers’ strike of 2003 I was a scab. I crossed the line and served people their lattes from the friendly confines of the Starbucks in a local Vons. In defense of this supposedly heinous act, however, let me offer a few points so you know the whole story.
1. A friend had just been hired as the Starbucks department manager at said Vons, and when a strike became imminant he was told that unless he could find a staff willing to cross the line he would have to be let go. I could help a friend, and get paid nearly twice what the Starbucks I already worked at was paying me. What would you do?
2. The traditional definition of a union is a group of skilled laborers who gather together to collectively bargain. It took me less than an hour to learn how to run a cash register. How much skilled labor really goes into this? And if there’s no skill to the labor, can they really be called a union?
3. If it’s not a union, am I really crossing a picket line?
Now that we’ve uncovered this terrible embarrassment from my past, lets look at the present. As I’m sure you may have guessed, today we’re going to be discussing the writers’ strike currently going on in Hollywood.
….I started this blog yesterday. I had about a thousand words. I scrapped all of it but the intro you just read, because I read a few new things last night and this morning. The brief gist of what I wrote originally is this:
-Unlike a grocery union, The Guild is a real union because what they do requires skill.
-The Guild wants to get more money from DVDs and to get any money from shows and content downloaded from iTunes, nbc.com, and other sites.
-DVDs now create the lion’s share of income for both films and television.
-Writers currently make about five cents per DVD. That’s less than 5% of 5% of the income from DVDs.
The first thing that I discovered (I found it here: http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com, thanks to loyal reader Max for sending it to me), is that through backchannel discussions, the Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed to an 11th hour negotiation Sunday. The Guild was going to agree to forego ANY income from DVDs, in exchange for the Alliance coming up with a working plan to pay for internet programming and downloads. As the meeting was getting set to begin the Guild, as had been agreed, expressed a willingness to take the DVD issue off the table. The Alliance trashed what they had promised and said there would be no negotiation on the internet issue. At that point the Guild negotiators walked out and the potential strike became an imminant strike. Although this sort of tactic isn’t to be entirely unexpected from EITHER side, it stinks to high heaven. Up until this story was revealed yesterday, it seemed that the Guild had fired the first shot in the war. Now it appears that the Alliance set off a firecracker in order to draw the Guild out.
Next I read in the Los Angeles Times (www.latimes.com) that all the major networks and studios, with the exception of Sony Pictures have begun sending out suspension notices, stating that there will be no more funding given to production companies is going to cease. In essence this means that now even the people who AREN’T striking (the assistants, secretaries, etc) are being locked out. People who aren’t even members of the Guild are now losing their source of income, even if they were going to continue working.
In addition, the studios are telling the show-runners (basically the head writer for a show, who in addition to writing the show also has an executive producer credit) that if they do not continue their duties as producer that there will be legal ramifications. This is forcing the show runners to either defy their guild, which could lead to future issues with the Guild when this is all settled, or face a potential law suit.
Finally, also in the Times I read an opinion piece by Marshall Herskovitz, one of the creators of Thirtysomething and My So-called Life, detailing a tangential issue that I hadn’t even known about. It’s what’s called Finsyn (Financial Independence and Syndication), a ruling issued by the FCC in 1995 that took control of the shows out of the hands of independent production companies, and handed them over to the networks. This ruling took control of shows away from the creators, and handed it over to the networks that broadcast them. This laid the groundwork for the issues that have become so divisive in these negotiations…way to go FCC!
These issues have far reaching ramifications. First and most importantly, if this strike goes on much longer just what the hell am I going to watch Tuesdays at 9 (House), Wednesdays at 8 and 10 (Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money respectively)? I can’t very well watch Dancing With The Stars every night! Second, how am I going to get a job when I finish school in six weeks if the writers are on strike? And finally, and this looks out for you my readers, as well as myself, how much worse are we going to let the programming we watch get? If we let the studios and networks dictate everything, pretty soon every show is going be a cheap derivitive of Heroes, Lost, ER, or Law & Order.
I encourage all of my readers (all 6 of you!) to support this strike. Write letters to the networks and studios letting them know that you support the strike and you want fair compensation for the people who sweat and toil to create your entertainment. When you drive past the studios honk in support of the picketers. If you’ve got time go down there and walk with them.
Whenever possible I will be updating you daily on what’s going on with the strike, and letting you know how you can help. Get these guys back to work so I can get to work and move out of my parent’s house.
