Writers strike is a go

[Mistwell]

Strike over:

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/strike-end-game-wga-members-vote/

WGA accepted the doubling of DVD residuals, despite their earlier rejection of that offer.

WGA abandoned their claim to reality TV writers and Animation writers.

WGA got some streaming revenues and other online revenues. Unclear so far if what they got is what was essentially earlier offered and rejected, or if it was an actual gain.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

A bit disappointing that so few WGA members actually voted (3,775 out of 10,500. Not even as many as voted for the strike- 5,500.) I'm curious as to how/why that happened- if they just didn't care or what. I know there was some talk about the possibility of the WGA ending the strike before allowing the members to vote, which I'm at least glad to see didn't happen.

In any case, the members have yet to vote to ratify the contract, which while it may seem a formality, could potentially be a sticking point, depending on what else comes out about the terms that they agreed to.

Now there's the SAG contract talks coming up in a few months. That should be interesting.

WGA abandoned their claim to reality TV writers and Animation writers.

They've been wrangling over that for years now, and they're not going to give up on it. Hopefully they'll get something worked out for those soon. It wasn't as key to this whole thing as the residuals issue was.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I have a feeling alot of them simply wanted to get back to work.

 

[Felon]

Strike over:

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/strike-end-game-wga-members-vote/

WGA accepted the doubling of DVD residuals, despite their earlier rejection of that offer.

WGA abandoned their claim to reality TV writers and Animation writers.

WGA got some streaming revenues and other online revenues. Unclear so far if what they got is what was essentially earlier offered and rejected, or if it was an actual gain.

I'm glad that animation and reality show writer guilds won't be forcibly annexed into the WGA. I'm a major fan of workers' rights, but once labor unions start forcing membership on people (and by "forcing" I mean that the alternative is not being able to work in your chosen field), then they've become bullies in their own right. People should join unions because of the benefits they offer.

In this instance, it is particularly ridiculous to go on strike and then state as one of your demands that whatever little safety net that exists against future strikes be yanked away.

I gotta say, I am not empathetic with the writers on this one. I hope it did cost them.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I'm glad that animation and reality show writer guilds won't be forcibly annexed into the WGA.

Well, to be fair, the writers on animation and reality shows would actually like to be covered by the WGA. At least that's the way I understand it from reading and seeing complaints by people in those fields. As I understand things, they are not currently covered by any guild, and thus have very few benefits and little protection as far as their workers' rights go (I've seen others in this thread say that they do have a guild, but that isn't the case to my knowledge).

Now, obviously it's a case by case thing (some shows doubtless give better wages and benefits to writers than others), and so there are probably some who don't want to join a guild. Heck, I find it ridiculous that my job with the city deducts some money from my paycheck for the guild despite not belonging to it, so I'm not unsympathetic to the concept of forced joining. Just wanted to clear the record in regards to the WGA and the reality/animation shows.

Just found this open letter to the AMPTP also, which is from a reality show writer.

 

[Mark]

No one ever gets all they ask to get, nor do they expect it. They got more than they had before the strike, which is for the good.

 

[Storm Raven]

I gotta say, I am not empathetic with the writers on this one. I hope it did cost them.

Good for you. We always need more people to side with those who routinely screw those who work for them. I mean really, we gotta make sure to stick it to the people being screwed or else everything will fall apart.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Good for you. We always need more people to side with those who routinely screw those who work for them. I mean really, we gotta make sure to stick it to the people being screwed or else everything will fall apart.

While my feelings towards the writers are not as negative, I will say that the more I've seen of the strike, the less I feel the "Writers Good, Studios Bad" thing. It was a highly convoluted situation that I think both sides misrepresented to their own advantages. At the end of the day, the average WGA member makes a lot of money (something like 200K/year); producers and studios just happen to make a lot more.

 

[Storm Raven]

While my feelings towards the writers are not as negative, I will say that the more I've seen of the strike, the less I feel the "Writers Good, Studios Bad" thing. It was a highly convoluted situation that I think both sides misrepresented to their own advantages. At the end of the day, the average WGA member makes a lot of money (something like 200K/year); producers and studios just happen to make a lot more.

The "average WGA member" thing is highly misleading. A handful of WGA members make a lot of money. Most don't. More to the point, reality show writers and animation writers are routinely screwed by their employers, and most make very little money.

Basically, the key here is that one side in this argument has a long history of lying and screwing just about everyone they do business with. That side is not the WGA. The producers and studios simply don't have any kind of reasonable argument that could be made for their side if they didn't resort to wild misrepresentations.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

The "average WGA member" thing is highly misleading. A handful of WGA members make a lot of money. Most don't. More to the point, reality show writers and animation writers are routinely screwed by their employers, and most make very little money.

Absolutely. The average WGA writer does not make 200k. At best, the "average" writer earns about what your average middle income worker does- I'd guess somewhere in the 30k to 60k range. Certainly livable, but the lion's share of the WGA membership are not in stable, month to month jobs, and can go several weeks to months between jobs as well.

Reality writers are definitely by and large screwed over by the system, and apparently animation writers are as well (which is something I didn't realize until recently- I wasn't even aware the WGA was trying to get them instated as guild members, though I've known about the reality writer situation for some time).