WGA Strike: 15,000 Jobs Later, Still No Deal

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on December 15, 2007

Hello again, my friends. Last week the WGA and the Studios failed to reach a deal and each left with a sour taste in their mouth. The writer’s responded with a Star Trek day, where they dressed as characters from the popular films on the picket line. The studios responded by issuing a statement likening the WGA heads to a car full of clowns capable of witty gimmicks but failing at actual compromise. And the rest of Hollywood responded by visiting the website of the Unemployment Offices.

With Christmas upcoming, most shows had planned on halting before the 21st at the latest for a Christmas break, but the Strike has changed that. Many shows have been on the halt since the beginning, but this week is when the house of cards fell. While the production companies had planned to keep working another week, that included a month of writing. That hasn’t happened and now nearly all the shows are out of scripts which means they’re out of things to film. A few post houses are still working, but most of the on-set work will be finishing up this Friday.

And an estimated 15,000 people will stop working. That’s the deal. No work to be had here, anymore. And there aren’t 15,000 positions opening up at Border’s Bookstores or some trendy restaurant either. 15,000 people are going to lose their jobs in the next 48 hours. Each day they don’t work some 20+ million dollars won’t be made in the city of Los Angeles, because the productions aren’t buying anything anymore.

Caterers and coffee trucks will have nowhere to go, no one to sell to. Grips and gaffers aren’t going to help hang your Christmas decorations, unless you’ve got $125 a day for them. So this is it. I don’t really have a witty punch line for this one.

Hope may be in store with the DGA (Directors Guild of America) who may or may not move to the table. The play here would be for the Studios to deal with the Directors and then show the writers what the DGA agreed to and offer it to them. If the WGA declines, they look greedy. If they accept, they will likely take less than they want.

The DGA contracts expire shortly and there are thousands of DGA members that will rely on the DGA leadership to keep the boat afloat as with no writers, there is no need for directors, either. Michael Apted, President of the DGA, has said that they can no longer ignore the responsibilities to their members who have also suffered job loss in the thousands.

So while your television may show images of happy writers chanting and waving signs in their matching shirts and steaming cups of coffee, what they won’t show you are the empty sound stages, the idling caterers, screen savers on editing suite computers, and the 15,000 plus people sitting at home with no knowledge of when, or even if, their job will come back.

Picture the 22 year old production assistant, fresh out of college, managing to grab maybe $500 a week. Subtract from that California Car Insurance (at least $125 a month with a clean record), Health Insurance (if he’s lucky enough to have it, $130 a month), rent (a great rent is $1700 a month for a 2 bedroom), food, utilities. Let’s hope he’s still on good terms with his mom, because a loan is probably in his future.

So please, by all means, discuss below. I’m interested in hearing what everyone thinks. Most likely everyone still supports the writers (see my last article for why) and this won’t impact your life at all, except maybe a few reruns, but it’s the Holiday Season anyways. But there are 15,000 of us about to walk out the office door for the last time in who knows how long for no fault of our own.

Merry Christmas.

Talking Points: Just speak your peace below…

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Ed

Boo Hoo! Your example of the poor production assistant warms the cockles of my Scrooge heart! God Bless all us everyone!

(Not) Working Writer

Happy writers? Dressed as Trek characters? I'm a striking writer, and as a former Trek writer, I was at the event you're talking about. I saw no writers dressed as characters. (A few fans dressed up.) What I saw there were writers, retired writers, and aspiring writers making the best of a bad situation by conducting outreach with fans and others in unions whose fortunes are tied to ours.

Sure, we're trying to alleviate the foot-aching monotony of the picket line by making it more entertaining -- it's what we do, after all, and events like Trek Day also generate press coverage, which can be hard to come by when the mega-corps that own the studios also own the news media. So, yes, it might look like it's one big party. But if you think we're not hurting... if you seriously think that striking writers aren't sacrificing anything, then I direct you to the amptp's own website (amptp.org), which has a running ticker celebrating how much writers are losing as the strike drags on! We're not "happy." We're resolved. But we're not happy, trust me.

We want to resolve this! We're sitting at the negotiating table waiting to talk! They're the ones who made illegal demands and walked away. We want to end the strike. They do not. Blame them for the lost jobs.

Oh, and by the way, every writing staff I know, including my own, has given their laid-off PAs and assistants money from their own pockets to help them during this hard time, even as we all also lost all our income. There is also a general fund of money collected from writers specifically set up to benefit those non-WGA workers who have lost jobs.

We're not The Grinch. The Moguls are The Grinch. We're the little dog who's finally had enough.

Come by the picket line, Robert. I'm at the Barham gate of Universal every morning at 6 AM. Talk with the writers. Find out how "happy" we are.

DATmafia

HAHA! Isn't this classic American ignorant behavior. Writers who as a whole in the last 5 years managed to re-constitute every old idea they can think of. 24 is a CIA diary with some dramatic flare and a plot. Hero's is B-list DC comic with real life actors shabbily portraying flimsy characters. This is only 1 of 3 total strikes facing Hollywood and I would love to see all those writers and directors and actors all lose their jobs and toothpick mansions in wildfire territory. Everyone hopes the writers put themselves out of business. Guess what-Studios are going to do what other businesses have done and go non union. Are working conditions in Hollywood that bad? I mean come on. Shaved beaver pop tarts pay assistants 75 grand to watch a toy poodle. Who feels sorry for a group of people who play pretend on paper for a living and do it badly more than do it right. Does anyone else notice the trend that the TV being watched more isn't the crappy new lineups? It's retro or retro-related shows and infotainment. Nothing new has come out of Hollywood in a long time and my hope is that all the union brats never work as an over paid no talent group of writers. SHOtime and HBO find and keep good writers. Sopranos and Weeds are 2 examples of good writing in a sea of over produced and over copied and redone scripts. So no i don't feel sorry for the writers or actors or directors. How hard is it being pampered and demanding all day for 1 minute of actual camera work? And sitting in a makeup chair-so hard-poor babies! Hollywood needs to implode and rebuild from the ground up and ditch unions. This isn't the 1920's and workers don't need to be protected from the evils of Hollywood studios. They don't have the balls to play a tough game without quitting on them so they don't deserve their demands to be met. I say go freelance like the studios overseas so an entire industry doesn't shut down because some spoiled brats throw a temper tantrum. Who said we HAVE TO HAVE TV and movies? We survived thousands of years without and life will go on. I urge everyone to continue to boycott TV and movies-since it's going to be in ruins and reruns for years to come and save that money and see the real world in person and not on TV.

Paul

Hahahaa.

The average writer in the WGA makes 220,000 a year.

I feel no pity for them. Shut the fuck up and stop whining.

Redd Summers

I feel pity for everyone involved in the strike. I really do. But I think that the WGA has it hardest because not only are they losing money and their own personal time by being on the picket line, but they do it with a mixed view of just why they are out there.

They are fighting for what they deserved from the beginning. Writers, no matter the medium they are writing in, are ALWAYS the ones to get shafted. No one sees them, they just see the lively characters on the screen, and no one ever stops to think just WHY you love a character in a story or television program. You think it's easy? You think Keifer Sutherland could come up with all the ministories to go through for his stint on 24? You think directors or producers could pull out an Emmy winning story?

That's what the whole strike is about--to get what's owed to them showing that they are the backbone of everything going on in Hollywood. Your portrayal of that assistant strikes a good point in their favor--they never asked to be the backbone, they don't get paid NEARLY enough to be such a support, but that's what they are and they deserve respect. They should be acknowledged. I'm very sure they would much rather be at home with their loved ones or even in the office drafting a new episode of Supernatural for Jensen and Jared to look forward to shooting. Instead they're out at ungodly hours in the cold to show a collective voice that they're not taking crap anymore.

I support the WGA. Maybe with the loss of so many jobs people will take the WGA serious now because it doesn't look like anyone has before.

Jack Clay

Paul - do you understand the difference between "average" and "mean". Last year, I made 0 dollars as a writer. Writers are not whining. If you think they are, you're swallowing corporate logic whole. Do you do that in your whole life?

To Robert Fure, who wrote this.
1. The AMPTP is making this happen. What if, instead of trying to break the union, they said, okay, we'll bump you from 4 cents to 7 cents (we'll drop a penny) on DVDS, and instead of offering you no money for any internet downloads, we'll accept the 2.5% position - let's maybe modify it a bit. You think we'd still be out? No. We would not. The AMPTP has walked away from the table, given ultimatums, and refused to negotiate.

Before blaming the worker for the problem, one must first look at the boss. If you do not, you are missing the essential problem. The WGA does not want to be on strike. I am in WGA-East - you think I like standing around in the hail? Yeah, no. But if we do not fight this fight, which also behooves the DGA - no matter what Apted says - and SAG, and the Teamsters, who get residuals paid into their pension and health, then we are failing other workers.

I think it is disgusting that people are losing their jobs because the studios and networks (Rupert Murdoch?) have no desire to settle this. Do you think I'm happy about this? No. I'm fighting to win a good fight. That is all.

Here is a question for you, and for all the negative posters: Why do you want to believe the AMPTP? Any answer?

Sallie

Frankly, I think the writers get paid enough for what they do. They are a large part of what creates this wonderful entertainment, but they are not the only part of the process. Sure it can't progress without them, but it can't progress without the actors and other behind the scenes people either.

I'm happy to finally see someone willing to complain about the whiny writers and see the rest of the people who are out of jobs because of the strike. I complained about it on TWOP and my post was flagged because I :shook my head: at the beginning and end, thus dismissing other's ideas or something.

Although I think the Trek day was cute and it makes me like the writers a little more, I don't really mind it too badly for me. I have plenty of Trek on DVD I can keep up with :) and lots of movies, this has really given me a chance to actually watch some of the DVDs I own.

Gabe

The writers are the one's officially on strike but this issue concerns actors, directors and many other people in the industry as well. IT IS INSANE THAT STUDIOS ARE NOT PAYING THE WRITERS FOR INTERNET SCREENINGS OF THEIR SHOWS!!! I SUPPORT THE WRITERS 100% they should get a fair share of the pie, no matter how big or small that is. THIS IS THE STUDIOS FAULT FOR BEING GREEDY.

Robert Fure

I appreciate all of you who have read and responded to this on both sides of the issues. I hope the discussion continues politely.

I fully understand the gravity of the situation of the Writer's Strike and feel that when you read my entire series on the strike, you'll find I have complex feelings on the issues. I do not try to belittle the writers movement and have always felt that writers dont get the recognition they deserve or the payment. I think they should be awarded the extra money on the DVDs.

However, I always manage to find myself in a Devil's Advocates position on things that have overwhelming support, like the WGA Strike. I'm trying to get the other sides position into the open, as I work closely with, and am, a member of below the line crew. Editors, Supervisors, Coordinators, Assistants, etc. I count them all among my close friends and this hurts them. And while some PAs are lucky enough to have kind friends and connections to the WGA, many of them do not.

I would urge you to continue speaking your opinions on this issue, pose further questions for thought, provide more examples, and also read the other articles in our WGA Strike series.

Renich

I am not a writter... hey, I'm not even american. I admire you guys for standing up against those monsters. You are, literally, writing your future! Don't step down! Be intelligent!

I know you, guys, will negotiate a better deal! Thank you for the great content generated so far!

I'm a fan and am here; beside you.

WGA Strike: 15,000 Jobs Later, Still No Deal

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