Ugly strike scenario
Past Deadline‘s Ray Richmond has passed along an “undeniably pessimistic and hardcore but I believe at least semi-plausible theory” about what may soon be going on regarding WGA-AMPTP negotiations:
“The studios make a deal with the Directors Guild, whose residual guarantees don’t come close to matching what the WGA is seeking. A producer rep circulates around the idea that things are looking up and informal talks have commenced. There is a resumption of in-person bargaining, followed quickly by an abrupt break-off and the usual angry recriminations along the lines of ‘So it seems those arrogant bastard writers think they’re worth more than the directors!’ and “We held out an olive branch and they ripped it to shreds!”.
“The producers still have done nothing to move the talks forward — or in truth even start them — yet can seize the moral high ground. The WGA side will have been lured into a trap. The premise postulates that the studios have zero interest in ever coming to a reasoned agreement but are instead moving resolutely forward on a campaign of solidarity splintering and ultimate guild destruction.”
This guy couldn’t be more wrong.
The strike is all but over. A deal is very close to being made and the writers will be back to work by the end of the month.
What Mason said.
Either way, it doesn’t matter. If the WGA accepts the DGA deal, then they should change their name to the Writer’s Pension And Health Care Fund, because that’s all they’re good for.
No need to ‘destroy’ an organization that has no power anyway.
Seems that Mr. “semi-plausible theory” just wants people to link to his site….like Wells did!
Not arguing, just asking: By ‘end of the month’ do you mean January or February?
It’s worse, once the MOGULS whittle down the writers, they get SAG and then they get Aftra, and then they break those Unions and the studios then get the car unions to dissolve, and then they go after the golf caddys and the waterboys, and then once they got everyone quiet, they unleash Skynet…
It could happen!!
John Sayles sums it up nicely in a HuffPo interview. He rightly points out that the studios want the film industry to become like Wal-Mart.
End of February. The deal will be done soon, but it will take a while to hammer out the specifics and then have the membership ratify it.
And though it will be far from a great deal, it will still be the best deal the WGA has ever had.
It’s all over. We all know it’s over. What kills me is to hear the union whine about how the AMPTP walked away talks, “They won’t negotiate!”
This, of course, is a symptom of everything wrong with the Guild leadership (and too much of the rank and file). Instead of, you know, businessmen, we get agitators, organizers, and Bolsheviks.
Walking away IS negotiating. Not talking IS negotiating. Bad faith meetings set-up to make the WGA look bad IS negotaiting. In this type of situation EVERYTHING’S a negotiation and…
…anything legal and non-violent is fair-game.
While our Guild plays checkers whining about fair-play for PR points and cutting pointless side-deals, the AMPTP plays chess and beats us at every turn.
Michael Eisner or Micheal Ovitz — that’s the kind of man we want running the WGA. Keep your Hah-vahd lawyers and his toady: that idiot whose previous efforts resulted in a company outsourcing and EVERYONE losing their jobs.
NOTE TO WGA: Bolshevism’s dead. Reagan killed it. Grow up and smell the reality. And for fuck’s sake stop your pathetic whining.
“He rightly points out that the studios want the film industry to become like Wal-Mart.”
Every public company wants their industry to become like Wal-Mart.
“and Bolsheviks.”
Somebody please wake up Dirty Harry. He fell asleep during the General Electric Theater production of “Red In My Head” and has been trapped in a commie coma ever since.
Harry’s musings beg the question: Why does he want to be a writer, then, if the business guys are the ones with so much on the ball?
I’m eager to learn the answer. Or maybe I’m not, come to think of it.
GLENN ASKS: “Harry’s musings beg the question: Why does he want to be a writer, then, if the business guys are the ones with so much on the ball?”
Because I love writing and hate business. It bores me to tears.–
Bolshevik’s a frame of mind. In the WGA — in the environmental movement.
What you want in the Guild is someone who wanted to WIN. and newsflash: Wal-Mart wins.
Because the free-market rocks! No pussified touchy feely beatniks there! Just tuff hombres in Armani, armed with the WSJ, The Art of War and a Blackberry! Making death-defying decisions everyday like greenlighting “MEET THE SPARTANS? You got it!” and FOX family values shows like “WHO’S YOUR DADDY NOW? Make it so!”
By God, those front-line Wall Street warriors are the real artists! And why, Glenn asks? Why?
Who is John Galt?
Never said Wall Street is the “artists?” What are you talking about? And those aren’t exactly “artists” heading the guild now… I’m talking about a WINNER in charge — someone who understands business.
We were right on most our demands on every level. We lost because of the incompetents in the WGA. Hell, an artist might’ve done a better job. Couldn’t have done worse.
Harry –
Just checking: By what standard, exactly, has the WGA “lost” this negotiation, given that we don’t even know the shape of the final deal yet? Still, from what we do know about this deal, it looks a hell of a lot better than what was on the table in early November, or in mid-December — right now, we’re looking at getting a cut of distributor’s gross rather than producer’s gross, a fair-market-value provision, increased rates for downloads and residuals on streaming. Had we caved on Nov. 4, none of those would have been in the new contract. Also: If you’re going to classify “not negotiating” as “negotiating”, then in fairness, you have to look at the Guild’s actions the same way. The “whining” you’ve heard from the Guild hasn’t just been for whining’s sake — there is a public-relations component to this strike, given that these are publicly-traded companies that are subject to federal regulation. If it results in a sell-off, increased regulation, or demands for refunds from advertisers, then the perception that these corporations aren’t bargaining in good faith can wind up having a real dollars-and-cents impact on their bottom line — which may explain why they now seem eager to get this thing over with.
I was just having this conversation with my writing partner Alan Sereboff who I work with on the Speechless campaign. We suspect this is exactly what is going on. The WGA is being set up again like they were just before Xmas.
TKC: Fair question. And let me just say that I hope my pessimism and frustration is totally off the mark. I hope when ratification comes I look at the deal and think: Yeah, that was worth it. Worth the lost work and the balls in the air that hit the floor.
But the DGA deal plus a WGA Leadership facesaver ain’t even close.
This was a righeous strike. I said so here. I said so on my site. But we’ve been outplayed and now we’re on defense. People I know much closer to what’s happening are frustrated. People on this site much closer to what’s happening are frustrated.
“Whining” IS negotiating. Sure. It’s just shitty, pissy, negotiating from a position of weakness. It’s re-active negotiating, not pro-active. It’s called baring your ass. You never complain about the other side’s tactics, it’s proof you’re losing — a boxer hoping the referee will win it for him. Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic.
And if the WGA strategy was to count on shareholders to put pressure on the big companies to settle the strike… Well, then the Guild is even dumber than I thought.
1. The Shareholders are who knows how many thousands of ordinary Americans widely divested. The bump in Seagram’s stock is about a millionth as important to them as a Fed rate cut. They are not paying attention.
2. Studios are part of huge mega conglomerates — sometimes a mere percentage of revenue. No longer does anyone live or die on Columbia’s profits. It’s SONY.
3. Hollywood’s worked hard to antagonze mainstream America and the goodwill just isn’t there to create a shareholder revolt to support the very writers who insult them everyday in films and on television.
Sorry, just a fact.
“the goodwill just isn’t there to create a shareholder revolt to support the very writers who insult them everyday in films and on television.”
So who’s watching all that shit?
“Watching” has got nothing to do with goodwill.
Some really good stuff here. I kind of fall between Dirty Harry and TKC. There have been some wins here. The strike is not a total loss but the way I see it it was played out three years too early. We fired a bullet that we will not be able to load again for years and years. The strike angst takes a long time to brew in this town. We don’t know yet the what and the why and the how that we’re all talking about and in three years or so we would have had at least a little more clarity.
The chicken littles running around with their heads cut off that the internet is going to kill the residual market, or the KTLA reruns that syndicated shows are getting don’t take into fact that if that does happen it’s not the studios fault it’s change and nothing more and yes, you will make less on your residuals. That’s a sad fact of change, but maybe just maybe, you’ll make more on a new way to make and sell shows. Maybe you won’t even be dealing with the studios as they are now.
It’s all too early to tell. I would’ve put a pin in the internet, made a small side deal and come back to it in three years with a strike bullet still loaded in our pocket then.
Patric Verone and David Young didn’t do a bang up job but they didn’t totally screw it up either. Patric was also voted in and from what I’ve now heard from many good friends is that he ran on the basic premise that he was going to do what he did so the WGA got what we wanted as a group. You really can’t argue with that.
My own thoughts are that the same energy should be spent on each of us getting our own leverage by creating shows and films that they want to buy or we can package and make them buy because that’s where we are paid as creators which is the main problem with the strike; We go on and on as a guild about how it starts with ‘us’, it’s nothing without the word when in fact that true creators, (Larry David, David Kelly, Milch,Norman Lear, Seinfeld, Letterman, Leno, Apatow, Sandler) are paid more than ninety five percent of all studio execs. That’s the truth. The people at the top of our guilds, the ‘creators’ the ‘people it all starts with’( that we are going on and on about), are paid damn well and are taking a HUGE piece of a diminishing pie…
Just my thoughts though…
This is all too serious. I miss taking shots as Scooterzzzz
Live clean
Mike Binder
‘It’s all too early to tell. I would’ve put a pin in the internet, made a small side deal and come back to it in three years with a strike bullet still loaded in our pocket then.’
What I forgot to add here was I’d of stayed on getting a better DVD deal which still has more juice in it and I’ve liked us all to get a nicer piece on it’s way out the door in these next five years…
Mike Binder
Mike,
I’m not saying they completely screwed up either or that we won’t “do better.” But worth a strike? Out of work for months? Shit. I do hope so.
Going back to my main point: We needed an Eisner or Ovitz doing this for us. Someone who DOES offend our Bolshevik sensibilities. A shark. A SON. OF. A. BITCH. A Winner, ball-buster — whatever you want to call him./her — someone who understand the movie biz AND big biz.
You are right it was too early. Definitely.
Wait…
‘This is all too serious. I miss taking shots as Scooterzzzz’
I meant AT Scooterzzzz. (I’m on a lithium drip)
Mike
Dirty Harry,
Yes. Good point. We needed an inside man. Not David Young who I think is a smart guy but was the wrong pairing completely with Patric.
No it wasn’t worth the months and the money lost and if you need a better reason than why the strike needs to end, read my last three posts. I’m bored as hell!!!
Live Clean
Mike Binder
Harry –
“Whining is shitty, pissy, negotiating from a position of weakness… It’s called baring your ass. You never complain about the other side’s tactics, it’s proof you’re losing.”
Have you read any of the public statements of the AMPTP since this thing began? They’ve done nothing *but* complain about the other side’s tactics since this thing began, starting with their Nov. 4 complaint that they *had* to break off talks and walk away from the table because the WGA had already “start[ed] their strike in New York”. (Yes. We all remember how the WGAE took to the streets at the stroke of midnight, paralyzing all those shoots taking place in the middle of the night in Manhattan.)
In fact, while the WGA has frequently cited facts and figures in its public presentations (as when it broke down the costs of its deal on a per-studio basis), the AMPTP has chosen to focus on making snarky comments about the WGA’s rallies. (Has an AMPTP press release gone by that hasn’t belittlingly referred to the WGA’s “rallies, concerts and mock exorcisms”?)
Ya, that’s true Harry. GIve him/her that one. Ya prick ya…
While the creative community is now fighting with the studios for a small piece of internet revenues, in the not too distant future they will be able to bypass the studios entirely, get independent financing and distribute over the net themselves.
Sorry, I was at the EL CID screening which… *rawked*.
TKC: I swear I’m on our side, but the WGA has been whining like bitches since day one. The AMPTP has been counter-punching. Big difference.
It’s all in the attitude and timing. They come off as businessmen, we come off as petty Bolsheviks.
MIKE — that’s what the strike comes down to for most of us: Was it worth all this? I squeak a living in the indie world — and am probably in the middle of our rank-and-file as far as working regular and income — and I wouldn’t know a residual if it stuck its tongue in my mouth. Most of us wouldn’t.
And, hey, I’m a right-wing extremist, Bush-loving, capitalist. More power to the guys making the big bucks; they’ve earned it; good for them. If they get a big pop out of this new deal, gooder for them. That’s coming from a sincere place.
But we’re the ones after all these months living on savings’ fumes with the wives saying, “Maybe moving to LA when you were 38 wasn’t such a great fucking idea.”
I just want it to be worth it.
And I’ll tell you something else, if I have to wait another month like some people are saying on this thread, it had better not be DGA. We could have that today — I could be working tomorrow.
David Young and Patric should be selling Che shirt on Olivera Street. The next WGA leadership should be chosen from this ad:
WANTED: WGA SEEKS KILLER. A cocksucker capitalist with a taste for blood who’s stapled the scalp of an AFL-CIO “negotiator” to his resume. Must have contempt for unions, arteests, Hollywood, and be willing to do anything to get a big fat check-mark in the WIN column. Idealists, socialists, agitators, gadflys, sensitive-types, pansy-asses, long-hairs, hippies, and anyone who’s ever even considered joining the ACLU need not apply. Raw knuckles from scraping the ground a plus — also considered a plus if in the interview you call us a bunch of “arty-fartsy pricks” and treat us with utter disdain.
Special note: Anyone who arrives for intervew wearing John Lennon glasses and a graying ponytail will be shot. Remember Alec Baldwin in “Glengary?” Be him.
Pay is strictly a percentage of the deal you broker and all the red meat you can eat.
“They come off as businessmen, we come off as petty Bolsheveks”
And businessmen rawk as any petty Bolshi knows.
DH, I love your servitude to ethic-less bullies. It’s charming.
You remind me of callers to Rush Limbaugh: “Mega-Outsourcing Dittos, Rush. Yeah I was laid off from my 30 year factory job. I’m 50 with no other skills, but I don’t blame them businessmen. They gotta eat too. So what if I can’t feed my family. Those sharks swallowed me whole and spit me out. And I deserve it by God. They’re just doing what they learned in church. Jesus don’t like whiners. I’m a nobody. And if my kids starve, well, it’ll teach ‘em a lesson. I’d vote for Bush again if I could. Just to piss off them damn Union beatniks and Bolsheviks…”
Christian: I love that you’re so blinded by ideology, you missed the irony that the subtext ofyour post re: the Limbaugh caller perfectly satirizes the rank and file in the WGA.
Really? I don’t know anybody in the WGA who’s acting like a grateful slave. I do see the studios acting like slave-owners.
Really?
Your work is very good and I appreciate you and hopping for some more informative posts.
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