Showing posts with label Responses to AMPTP Statements. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Responses to AMPTP Statements. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Moguls 'n' More: Who's Really in the AMPTP?
This was sent to us by "Mr. Klaatu," a writer well-known to anyone who spends time in our comments section. -JA
The AMPTP has put out a new ad featuring a new message: �Different Assets� Different Businesses� Different Companies� One Common Goal.� It is signed by the CEOs of Fox, Paramount, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., CBS, MGM, and NBC Universal � or what we have come to know as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
But the AMPTP�s �About Us� web page claims their membership is made up of �over 350 motion picture and television producers.� In fact, there is a clickable list of 397 companies the AMPTP claims to be representing in the current negotiations.
So, who are the other 389 companies? I decided to do a little digging.
Some of them are owned by those eight mega-corporations � Touchstone is owned by Disney, Castle Rock is owned by Warner Bros., and, of course...
Some of the companies are owned by independent film producers � Arnold Rifkin (Live Free or Die Hard, 2007), Marc Abraham (Children of Men, 2006), and Lester Persky (Hair, 1979). Unfortunately, Lester Persky�s been dead since 2001. I�m not prepared to do that much digging.
There are also independent TV production companies like Bruce Nash Entertainment, LMNO Productions, and Andrew Solt Productions � all of whom produce reality shows and will benefit from the strike lasting as long as possible.
It may surprise you to learn that actors own companies in the AMPTP. Billy Crystal and Pee Wee Herman are in there. Directors too. Even� WGA members! Barry Kemp, David Kelley, and many other writers are in the AMPTP. Even Stephen J. Cannell, whose very logo featured him furiously typing a script at his typewriter (ah, the memories) is in the AMPTP.
But that�s not all. There�s WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Films. I�d suggest we picket their offices, but I really don�t want to be hit with a folding chair.
Then there are the real powers behind the alliance: HSUS, DSF, and Menno-Hof. What, you�ve never heard of these puppet masters? They are, respectively, the Humane Society of the United States (�the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization�), the Disciples Seminary Foundation (�a unique, cooperative institution that collaborates with seminaries, churches, regions, and conferences on the Pacific Slope to provide exceptional theological education and resources for growth in faith�), and last but not least, the Mennonite Anabaptist Information Center (�a non-profit information center that teaches visitors about the faith and life of Amish and Mennonites, located in Shipshewana, Indiana�). That�s right, the Amish. We�re doomed. They don�t care if the strike ever ends... they don�t own TVs.
Once I found out who we�re up against, I couldn�t help but wonder: Do these producers, directors, writers, professional wrestlers, dead guys, animal lovers, Disciples of Christ, Amish folk, and Pee Wee Herman really share the �One Common Goal� of their media mogul brethren? I called a few of them to ask how often they�d been consulted on what to offer the writers, or been invited to meetings, or been given a vote on key issues since the "negotiations" with the WGA began. The ones I spoke to all told me they have not once been contacted by the Alliance or Nick Counter since all this began.
I guess we�re not the only ones the AMPTP refuses to talk to.
The AMPTP has put out a new ad featuring a new message: �Different Assets� Different Businesses� Different Companies� One Common Goal.� It is signed by the CEOs of Fox, Paramount, Disney, Sony, Warner Bros., CBS, MGM, and NBC Universal � or what we have come to know as the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
But the AMPTP�s �About Us� web page claims their membership is made up of �over 350 motion picture and television producers.� In fact, there is a clickable list of 397 companies the AMPTP claims to be representing in the current negotiations.
So, who are the other 389 companies? I decided to do a little digging.
Some of them are owned by those eight mega-corporations � Touchstone is owned by Disney, Castle Rock is owned by Warner Bros., and, of course...
Albemarle Productions, Allenford Productions, Appleton Productions, Arlington Productions, Ashland Productions, Auckland Productions, Belleville Productions, BOT Productions, Canterbury Productions, Corsica Productions, CPT Holdings, Floresta Productions, Garden Films, Glenhill Productions, GPEC, Halberd Productions, Highway 61, Hillard Productions, Hudson Productions, La Mesa Productions, Lafitte Productions, Llamame Loco Producciones, Madison Productions, McFarlane Productions, Montrose Productions, October Holdings, Quadra Productions, Rosecrans Productions, Salamander Film Productions, San Vicente Productions, SCFV Development, Seneca Productions, Topanga Productions, Trackdown Productions, Vasanta Productions, Westholme Productions, Woodridge Productions, and Wooster Productions�all owned by Sony.
Some of the companies are owned by independent film producers � Arnold Rifkin (Live Free or Die Hard, 2007), Marc Abraham (Children of Men, 2006), and Lester Persky (Hair, 1979). Unfortunately, Lester Persky�s been dead since 2001. I�m not prepared to do that much digging.
There are also independent TV production companies like Bruce Nash Entertainment, LMNO Productions, and Andrew Solt Productions � all of whom produce reality shows and will benefit from the strike lasting as long as possible.
It may surprise you to learn that actors own companies in the AMPTP. Billy Crystal and Pee Wee Herman are in there. Directors too. Even� WGA members! Barry Kemp, David Kelley, and many other writers are in the AMPTP. Even Stephen J. Cannell, whose very logo featured him furiously typing a script at his typewriter (ah, the memories) is in the AMPTP.
But that�s not all. There�s WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Films. I�d suggest we picket their offices, but I really don�t want to be hit with a folding chair.
Then there are the real powers behind the alliance: HSUS, DSF, and Menno-Hof. What, you�ve never heard of these puppet masters? They are, respectively, the Humane Society of the United States (�the nation's largest and most effective animal protection organization�), the Disciples Seminary Foundation (�a unique, cooperative institution that collaborates with seminaries, churches, regions, and conferences on the Pacific Slope to provide exceptional theological education and resources for growth in faith�), and last but not least, the Mennonite Anabaptist Information Center (�a non-profit information center that teaches visitors about the faith and life of Amish and Mennonites, located in Shipshewana, Indiana�). That�s right, the Amish. We�re doomed. They don�t care if the strike ever ends... they don�t own TVs.
Once I found out who we�re up against, I couldn�t help but wonder: Do these producers, directors, writers, professional wrestlers, dead guys, animal lovers, Disciples of Christ, Amish folk, and Pee Wee Herman really share the �One Common Goal� of their media mogul brethren? I called a few of them to ask how often they�d been consulted on what to offer the writers, or been invited to meetings, or been given a vote on key issues since the "negotiations" with the WGA began. The ones I spoke to all told me they have not once been contacted by the Alliance or Nick Counter since all this began.
I guess we�re not the only ones the AMPTP refuses to talk to.
Signal to Noise: Strike, Week Six
This post is reprinted from the blog of WGA member Isaac Ho.
Week six of the writers strike has concluded and I have some thoughts.
Next week the force majeur blood letting will begin. Most talent deals allow six weeks of suspended services due to an act of God before they can be terminated without penalty. I�ve always viewed this as the first of the unfortunate milestones the studios would let pass before any serious negotiations could begin.
I�m guessing that the next milestone would be the results of the February 2008 sweeps. By then, scripted shows will be gone and reality shows will be in heavy rotation. The third milestone will be if and when negotiations begin between the DGA and the AMPTP and we finally get a peek at the DGA�s demands and resolve.
NBC has quietly begun refunding television advertisers for underperforming in the ratings. What�s sad is that this fall season was supposed to be their �make goods� from last year�s underperforming season. One can only guess where NBC�s ratings will go come January when they run out of scripted shows.
Viacom seriously needs its right hand to tell the left hand who it�s doing. While MTV Network freelancers (aka �permalancers�) walked off the job to protest anticipated cutbacks to their already meager benefits, Viacom reupped CBS CEO Leslie Moonves with a new contract that includes performance bonuses that would yield $30 million at the low end.
Not all multinational congloms are created equally. CBS is possibly the least vertically integrated of the congloms and most vulnerable to being gobbled up by Sony or Time Warner should there be a precipitous drop in its stock price.
In addition, what would be the fate of the nearly 400 production companies repped by the AMPTP who don�t have the deep pockets of congloms?
Peter Chernin, President of News Corp (Fox�s parent company) bragged during an earnings call with analysts:
Calling the strike �probably a positive� for the company, Chernin added: �We save more money in term deals and, you know, story costs and probably the lack of making pilots than we lose in potential advertising.�Fox has only 15 hours of prime time to fill per week while ABC, CBS and NBC have to fill 22 hours. Come January, Fox plans to air four hours per week of ratings juggernaut �American Idol.� No word what their competitors will serve up in its path but chances are that the counter programming will be little more than sacrificial lambs.
Why Hollywood is like Washington, DC
No one paid any attention to GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee when he was polling around 2%. Now that his support has grown to 21% (putting him only 1% behind front runner Rudy Giuliani) he is everyone�s favorite target.
Likewise, the AMPTP has criticized WGA�s themed pickets and rallies as mere �frivolity.� It only recently began doing so because the pickets have been effective in swaying public opinion toward the WGA by putting a face to the people responsible for writing your favorite TV and film characters. Quite possibly, it may even have put pressure on the AMPTP�s uneasy alliance.
The AMPTP�s fear of the writers� resolve has led them to attack WGA leadership hoping to divide the membership and undermine this unity. Should the writers cut back their themed pickets and rallies while openly criticizing their leadership, then the WGA�s own rank and file will have been tricked into doing the AMPTP�s job.
What is the AMPTP�s job right now? To weaken the WGA�s bargaining position as much as possible by fostering internal conflict to expose WGA�s ultimate bottom line.
If the WGA is forced to give away all its bargaining chips before the commencement of negotiations, then it will have no where to go but down once the AMPTP is finally ready to negotiate.
What�s tragic about the AMPTP�s refusal to negotiate is that while the increased package the WGA is asking for totals $151 million over three years, a prolonged strike could cost ABC, CBS and Fox $100 million each.
You have to wonder what the AMPTP is truly afraid of when this strike can be settled, literally, with pennies.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Congloms Fiddle While California Goes Up In Flames
The holidays are beginning. Writers are on strike. Productions are shutting down. Thousands are out of work. The talks are stalled.
For writers it doesn't feel as if the talks ever really started.
In any negotiation, it's important to see the other side's point of view, but that hasn't been very easy to do. Rollbacks of benefits. No compensation for re-use. Exclusion from future markets.
Those don't feel like starting points.
We all understand the gamesmanship that goes into negotiations. Theatrics can be expected. But reasonable people try to keep the process under control.
As they walked away from the table, the congloms slammed the door behind them, muttering darkly about unprofessionalism. But during the six weeks of the strike, the AMPTP has not yet presented a fully detailed financial proposal.
Strikes are supposed to have a sense of urgency.
Both sides understand the damage created by a work stoppage. We all know the hardship created by people losing their jobs. The impact of the strike is felt in the city and the state.
This couldn't be a worse time to put added strains on the economy of California.
In the last week, the state has issued a series of reports that project a $14 billion dollar deficit for the next year. Either taxes have to be raised or expenditures will have to be slashed 10-12%. That means less money for schools, health care, and essential public services.
There's never a good time for a strike, but the state is telling us this is a really bad time.
What's needed now is to have the negotiations restart with focus and a determination to end the strike as quickly as possible.
The chant has been heard plenty of times before--"Come back to the table"--but the sense of urgency is greater now than ever before.
For writers it doesn't feel as if the talks ever really started.
In any negotiation, it's important to see the other side's point of view, but that hasn't been very easy to do. Rollbacks of benefits. No compensation for re-use. Exclusion from future markets.
Those don't feel like starting points.
We all understand the gamesmanship that goes into negotiations. Theatrics can be expected. But reasonable people try to keep the process under control.
As they walked away from the table, the congloms slammed the door behind them, muttering darkly about unprofessionalism. But during the six weeks of the strike, the AMPTP has not yet presented a fully detailed financial proposal.
Strikes are supposed to have a sense of urgency.
Both sides understand the damage created by a work stoppage. We all know the hardship created by people losing their jobs. The impact of the strike is felt in the city and the state.
This couldn't be a worse time to put added strains on the economy of California.
In the last week, the state has issued a series of reports that project a $14 billion dollar deficit for the next year. Either taxes have to be raised or expenditures will have to be slashed 10-12%. That means less money for schools, health care, and essential public services.
There's never a good time for a strike, but the state is telling us this is a really bad time.
What's needed now is to have the negotiations restart with focus and a determination to end the strike as quickly as possible.
The chant has been heard plenty of times before--"Come back to the table"--but the sense of urgency is greater now than ever before.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
The DGA Weighs In
Today, we received some solid information regarding the timetable the DGA is setting for its talks. Michael Apted, president of the DGA, and Gil Cates, their NegCom chair, issued a statement:
And the AMPTP? All they're doing is mocking the WGA's attempt to resume negotiations by calling the guild's appeal to the NLRB "pounding the table."
"Because we want to give the WGA and the AMPTP more time to return to the negotiating table to conclude an agreement, the DGA will not schedule our negotiations to begin until after the New Year, and then, only if an appropriate basis for negotiations can be established."The rest of their statement is strongly worded and reflects the same frustration the WGA and the rest of Hollywood is feeling right now. The WGA wants a fair and reasonable deal. The DGA wants a fair and reasonable deal.
And the AMPTP? All they're doing is mocking the WGA's attempt to resume negotiations by calling the guild's appeal to the NLRB "pounding the table."
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Paul Haggis: The Reality of Reality and Animation
This post was written by the writer-director Paul Haggis. Paul is the first person to write two back-to-back winners of the Oscar for best picture ("Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby"). -JA
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of talking to Patric and some of our negotiating team. Here is what I walked away with. On Friday, before their walkout (or is it lockout?), the AMPTP demanded we take six issues off the table or they wouldn�t ever talk to us again. Two of those issues, our demands to cover animation and reality writers, have stirred up some controversy. The AMPTP is sending out its professional spin-minions, calling agents and lawyers and managers, painting us as labor radicals.
Now there are guys like me for whom the label might fit � not that I am a great and good friend of the downtrodden, but I have been fairly accused of being less than moderate and measured at times. I know radical behavior when I see it, and our team�s proposals and tactics have been so moderate and reasonable that one could easily believe they were hoping to be recruited by the Canadian diplomatic corps.
The problem is that the other side�s spin is working and some writers are actually buying it. Some writers are saying we ought to take these two issues, animation and reality, off the table.
Now, the last time we were told to take something off in order to make progress, we did and absolutely nothing happened. We took off DVDs � which was a very, very painful give � and we got nothing for it. So we should trust these people now?
But let�s say we did trust them. Let�s say we didn�t mind being bullied. Well, there�s one thing you should know because we know it for sure: Their ultimatum wasn�t about reality and animation. It was an insincere attempt to get us to give away the whole negotiation. They knew our negotiating team couldn�t accept it, and here�s why.
First of all, they insisted that we take all six issues off the table. Not one or two� all six. And the sixth issue on their list wasn�t even a demand. Rather, it was a concept embedded deep within our most important demand (you know the one: coverage for the Internet). They insisted we remove from the table any reference to �distributor�s gross� instead of �producer�s gross.�
We all know this was a vital issue on DVDs. They pulled a bait and switch there, paid us �producer�s gross� instead of �distributor�s gross� and we ended up getting only a quarter of the residuals we had bargained for. But this distinction is even more vital on the Internet, where distributor�s gross is relatively easy to monitor and producer�s gross is (as before) much smaller, and, more significantly, impossible to monitor. If we accept a piece of �producer�s gross�, we�ll be taking whatever they decide to give us� and you know what that means.
So, they knew we wouldn�t and couldn�t accept their ultimatum. They placed a gun to our heads and asked us to pull the trigger on ourselves, or else. The upside on that one is hard to figure.
I believe it is important we cover animation and reality writers. But let�s say you don�t care a whit. Guess what? The Companies don�t much care about them either. They�re attacking us on this issue because they know it is a potentially divisive one. That�s what their much-touted PR men were brought in to find � our �hot buttons.� They want to create wedges. They want us to take all of our issues off the table except the big one. And then we�ll have no room to horse-trade in any direction.
What does this mean? In really simple terms, it means they planned to do exactly what they did: walk out, mount a PR campaign against us, and hope we would (again) bargain against ourselves.
Now let me address these supposed wedge issues directly. First of all, the people who write reality and animation are like us. (In many cases, they are us.) They�re writers. They ought to be in the Guild, they ought to be covered. The absence of coverage for animation writers has cost them a ton of money in residuals. The Lion King, Shrek, Monsters Inc., Ice Age � you name it � no residuals.
And as for reality writers, they are working sweatshop hours � 12, 14, 16 hours a day on a flat salary with no overtime. What these companies are doing to them is illegal. They know it�s illegal. And, thanks to the Guild, the State of California now knows about it too. We�re not just talking about fines here; we�re talking possible felonies. The state is investigating, and these abuses could cost the companies millions and millions of dollars in penalties. They may well decide that it�s cheaper to let the writers join the WGA than to pay huge penalties and risk going to prison.
Think for a moment about what it would mean if reality writers were in the union as they deserved to be. During a strike, there�d be no American Idol, no Fear Factor or Amazing Race or whatever the big thing is today. No shows to stick in to replace dramas and comedies from striking showrunners. No network season period. All that would be left is commercials and reruns, and we know how well reruns are doing, don�t we. In normal times, reality employers would be paying into our Health and Pension funds, and that would benefit us all as well.
If the companies can divide us on these issues, they can divide us on the Internet too. They could craft proposals that appeal mightily to our screenwriters but not to our TV writers or vice versa.
Anyone remember the 88 strike? If you weren�t there, trust me, it wasn�t pretty. Management�s friends, lawyers and managers and agents and folks who surely had only our best interest at heart convinced television writers that they shouldn�t fight for revenue for this new fangled video tape thing because it was going to amount to pennies, and anyway, their TV shows were never going to end up on video tape. And so the guild cracked in two, we gave up a fair video and DVD formula we had hard won, and in so doing gave away millions and millions of dollars � screen and TV writers included.
I managed to fail my way to the top in television. I did this by following two rules. 1. Negotiate from strength. 2. Trust my negotiator.
In my 25 odd years in the guild I have honestly never seen it more united. That is our great strength and we all know it. Now if we want to get a fair deal we need to use it. We need to be smart enough to act dumb: shut up and keep walking. We need to stop inspecting every move and wondering why our negotiators aren't doing this our are doing that. They are doing a great job. We put our trust in them, we need to support them. If they tell us the best thing we can do is walk in circles, that is what I will be doing, every day. Until we win. And we will.
See you on the sidewalk.
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of talking to Patric and some of our negotiating team. Here is what I walked away with. On Friday, before their walkout (or is it lockout?), the AMPTP demanded we take six issues off the table or they wouldn�t ever talk to us again. Two of those issues, our demands to cover animation and reality writers, have stirred up some controversy. The AMPTP is sending out its professional spin-minions, calling agents and lawyers and managers, painting us as labor radicals.
Now there are guys like me for whom the label might fit � not that I am a great and good friend of the downtrodden, but I have been fairly accused of being less than moderate and measured at times. I know radical behavior when I see it, and our team�s proposals and tactics have been so moderate and reasonable that one could easily believe they were hoping to be recruited by the Canadian diplomatic corps.
The problem is that the other side�s spin is working and some writers are actually buying it. Some writers are saying we ought to take these two issues, animation and reality, off the table.
Now, the last time we were told to take something off in order to make progress, we did and absolutely nothing happened. We took off DVDs � which was a very, very painful give � and we got nothing for it. So we should trust these people now?
But let�s say we did trust them. Let�s say we didn�t mind being bullied. Well, there�s one thing you should know because we know it for sure: Their ultimatum wasn�t about reality and animation. It was an insincere attempt to get us to give away the whole negotiation. They knew our negotiating team couldn�t accept it, and here�s why.
First of all, they insisted that we take all six issues off the table. Not one or two� all six. And the sixth issue on their list wasn�t even a demand. Rather, it was a concept embedded deep within our most important demand (you know the one: coverage for the Internet). They insisted we remove from the table any reference to �distributor�s gross� instead of �producer�s gross.�
We all know this was a vital issue on DVDs. They pulled a bait and switch there, paid us �producer�s gross� instead of �distributor�s gross� and we ended up getting only a quarter of the residuals we had bargained for. But this distinction is even more vital on the Internet, where distributor�s gross is relatively easy to monitor and producer�s gross is (as before) much smaller, and, more significantly, impossible to monitor. If we accept a piece of �producer�s gross�, we�ll be taking whatever they decide to give us� and you know what that means.
So, they knew we wouldn�t and couldn�t accept their ultimatum. They placed a gun to our heads and asked us to pull the trigger on ourselves, or else. The upside on that one is hard to figure.
I believe it is important we cover animation and reality writers. But let�s say you don�t care a whit. Guess what? The Companies don�t much care about them either. They�re attacking us on this issue because they know it is a potentially divisive one. That�s what their much-touted PR men were brought in to find � our �hot buttons.� They want to create wedges. They want us to take all of our issues off the table except the big one. And then we�ll have no room to horse-trade in any direction.
What does this mean? In really simple terms, it means they planned to do exactly what they did: walk out, mount a PR campaign against us, and hope we would (again) bargain against ourselves.
Now let me address these supposed wedge issues directly. First of all, the people who write reality and animation are like us. (In many cases, they are us.) They�re writers. They ought to be in the Guild, they ought to be covered. The absence of coverage for animation writers has cost them a ton of money in residuals. The Lion King, Shrek, Monsters Inc., Ice Age � you name it � no residuals.
And as for reality writers, they are working sweatshop hours � 12, 14, 16 hours a day on a flat salary with no overtime. What these companies are doing to them is illegal. They know it�s illegal. And, thanks to the Guild, the State of California now knows about it too. We�re not just talking about fines here; we�re talking possible felonies. The state is investigating, and these abuses could cost the companies millions and millions of dollars in penalties. They may well decide that it�s cheaper to let the writers join the WGA than to pay huge penalties and risk going to prison.
Think for a moment about what it would mean if reality writers were in the union as they deserved to be. During a strike, there�d be no American Idol, no Fear Factor or Amazing Race or whatever the big thing is today. No shows to stick in to replace dramas and comedies from striking showrunners. No network season period. All that would be left is commercials and reruns, and we know how well reruns are doing, don�t we. In normal times, reality employers would be paying into our Health and Pension funds, and that would benefit us all as well.
If the companies can divide us on these issues, they can divide us on the Internet too. They could craft proposals that appeal mightily to our screenwriters but not to our TV writers or vice versa.
Anyone remember the 88 strike? If you weren�t there, trust me, it wasn�t pretty. Management�s friends, lawyers and managers and agents and folks who surely had only our best interest at heart convinced television writers that they shouldn�t fight for revenue for this new fangled video tape thing because it was going to amount to pennies, and anyway, their TV shows were never going to end up on video tape. And so the guild cracked in two, we gave up a fair video and DVD formula we had hard won, and in so doing gave away millions and millions of dollars � screen and TV writers included.
I managed to fail my way to the top in television. I did this by following two rules. 1. Negotiate from strength. 2. Trust my negotiator.
In my 25 odd years in the guild I have honestly never seen it more united. That is our great strength and we all know it. Now if we want to get a fair deal we need to use it. We need to be smart enough to act dumb: shut up and keep walking. We need to stop inspecting every move and wondering why our negotiators aren't doing this our are doing that. They are doing a great job. We put our trust in them, we need to support them. If they tell us the best thing we can do is walk in circles, that is what I will be doing, every day. Until we win. And we will.
See you on the sidewalk.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
A Reality Writer Responds to the AMPTP
This letter was submitted anonymously by a working reality writer. He/She requires anonymity, because otherwise, he/she fears being fired for writing this.
Dear AMPTP,
Today, I read on your website, �thousands of people in reality and animation have chosen not to join the WGA.�
This statement is false.
As a writer (aka "Supervising Producer", the name I'm given to get around having to give me a WGA contract) who has worked in reality television for over three years and who knows many people on the reality circuit, I can tell you that reality writers desperately want to be part of the WGA.
Why wouldn�t reality writers choose to join the guild? Because we don�t want health insurance? I can assure you, we want health insurance. You think we don�t want to join the guild because we do not want to be paid for overtime? You think we enjoy working 70-80 hour weeks and being paid for 40?
We are good, smart, hard working people who don�t like knowing our employer is breaking California (and other) labor laws. Our salaries are cut in half because in many cases we work twice as many hours as we are paid. We want to be paid for overtime.
We cannot join the guild until we meet the qualifications of the WGA and that means being called a �writer.� Because of this, you refuse to call us �writers.� You give us many other titles like "segment producer," "consultant," anything that does not have �writer� in the title. Yet, that�s what we do in reality television. We write.
We write and create storylines, develop characters, character arcs, structure scenes, write entire series plotlines before and after the show is filmed, write host copy, write dialogue (yes it�s true!), write questions, write narration -- the list goes on and on and on.
You know that what we're doing is writing. That's why you hire writers to do it. This name game is just that -- a game. It's a game to avoid paying pension or health benefits, to avoid paying overtime, to exploit writers. If we speak up, tough, we get fired. If we get sick, tough, we pay the bills ourselves, and if we take too much time off, we get fired.
Reality writers want to join the WGA. I challenge you to find one overworked, underpaid reality writer who wouldn�t want to join the guild right now and receive the same just and fair benefits given to other members of the entertainment unions like IATSE, SAG, WGA, and DGA.
I write this on behalf of all my friends and colleagues who are currently working seven days a week to get a show out for a big network -- but are not getting paid for the weekends. Or the overtime. Who aren't receiving health benefits. Or... you get the picture.
I can't sign my name, because there is a very real threat my employers will fire me. But I can still call myself what I am: A writer.
Dear AMPTP,
Today, I read on your website, �thousands of people in reality and animation have chosen not to join the WGA.�
This statement is false.
As a writer (aka "Supervising Producer", the name I'm given to get around having to give me a WGA contract) who has worked in reality television for over three years and who knows many people on the reality circuit, I can tell you that reality writers desperately want to be part of the WGA.
Why wouldn�t reality writers choose to join the guild? Because we don�t want health insurance? I can assure you, we want health insurance. You think we don�t want to join the guild because we do not want to be paid for overtime? You think we enjoy working 70-80 hour weeks and being paid for 40?
We are good, smart, hard working people who don�t like knowing our employer is breaking California (and other) labor laws. Our salaries are cut in half because in many cases we work twice as many hours as we are paid. We want to be paid for overtime.
We cannot join the guild until we meet the qualifications of the WGA and that means being called a �writer.� Because of this, you refuse to call us �writers.� You give us many other titles like "segment producer," "consultant," anything that does not have �writer� in the title. Yet, that�s what we do in reality television. We write.
We write and create storylines, develop characters, character arcs, structure scenes, write entire series plotlines before and after the show is filmed, write host copy, write dialogue (yes it�s true!), write questions, write narration -- the list goes on and on and on.
You know that what we're doing is writing. That's why you hire writers to do it. This name game is just that -- a game. It's a game to avoid paying pension or health benefits, to avoid paying overtime, to exploit writers. If we speak up, tough, we get fired. If we get sick, tough, we pay the bills ourselves, and if we take too much time off, we get fired.
Reality writers want to join the WGA. I challenge you to find one overworked, underpaid reality writer who wouldn�t want to join the guild right now and receive the same just and fair benefits given to other members of the entertainment unions like IATSE, SAG, WGA, and DGA.
I write this on behalf of all my friends and colleagues who are currently working seven days a week to get a show out for a big network -- but are not getting paid for the weekends. Or the overtime. Who aren't receiving health benefits. Or... you get the picture.
I can't sign my name, because there is a very real threat my employers will fire me. But I can still call myself what I am: A writer.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Moguls Break Off Talks Without Real Offer
As of right now, the Moguls have broken off the talks with a very long, very prepared and very nasty statement. It's also full of half-truths and outright lies.
It clearly took someone some time to write, and a lot of thought has gone into crafting it for maximum potential dissent within the ranks. It's a PR doc, and it's very well-written. You don't create something like this in ten minutes, or even an hour. This kind of thing takes days, especially if a large group of CEO's have to sign off on it.
So they've been planning this for a while. Which doesn't speak to good faith in the negotiation on their side.
One of the sticking points, apparently, was our leadership's refusal to promise they would cross a SAG picket line. It certainly appears that someone is planning for another strike sometime soon. And they want to crush that union, too. Assuming, of course, that they can crush us.
We're going to have more on this soon, but right now, all I can say is: remember that a very, very expensive consultant has orchestrated all of this for precisely one reason -- to win. This isn't about the moguls being "reasonable" or protecting the internet streaming business (that is really so laughable it was almost impossible to type) or any of the things that document talks about.
It's about winning. And they can only win if we let it happen.
Stay strong, we'll have more soon.
It clearly took someone some time to write, and a lot of thought has gone into crafting it for maximum potential dissent within the ranks. It's a PR doc, and it's very well-written. You don't create something like this in ten minutes, or even an hour. This kind of thing takes days, especially if a large group of CEO's have to sign off on it.
So they've been planning this for a while. Which doesn't speak to good faith in the negotiation on their side.
One of the sticking points, apparently, was our leadership's refusal to promise they would cross a SAG picket line. It certainly appears that someone is planning for another strike sometime soon. And they want to crush that union, too. Assuming, of course, that they can crush us.
We're going to have more on this soon, but right now, all I can say is: remember that a very, very expensive consultant has orchestrated all of this for precisely one reason -- to win. This isn't about the moguls being "reasonable" or protecting the internet streaming business (that is really so laughable it was almost impossible to type) or any of the things that document talks about.
It's about winning. And they can only win if we let it happen.
Stay strong, we'll have more soon.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Carlton Cuse Speaks Out in Letter to Members
The following letter was written by Carlton Cuse and sent today to members of the WGA. His candor and honesty are deeply appreciated by all of us here at UH. The AMPTP is counting on us becoming more divided as time goes on. But we believe the opposite will happen -- is happening, right now. We are staying strong.
To my fellow WGA Members,
I want to clear up any misunderstanding about where I stand.
On November 16 I, regretably, was quoted by a Wall Street Journal reporter saying I was going to perform some of my non-writing, post-production duties on episodes of LOST to protect the show for the fans. However, I'm sure to the delight of the AMPTP, my statement became the story and gave the false impression that there was disunity among showrunners over the issues of this negotiation.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Every showrunner I know, whether producing or not producing, stands in full support of the goals of our guild.
For the past two months I have been working seven days a week on these negotiations alongside my fellow negotiating committee members.
As a committee we did everything we could to get both parties back to the bargaining table this last week. We were fully prepared to enter into the kinds of back-and-forth discussions that are necessary to reach any sort of labor deal. I sincerely hoped this return to the table would lead to real progress.
I was wrong.
In fact, given the events of last Thursday -- and where things currently stand -- I can no longer in good conscience continue to work on my show in any capacity.
What I will be doing is continuing my work as a member of the committee for as long as it takes, contributing in any way I can, to get us the fair and just deal that we must have.
It's going to be an arduous fight.
But make no mistake -- we are united, we are resolute...
And we are indeed ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
Yours,
Carlton Cuse
To my fellow WGA Members,
I want to clear up any misunderstanding about where I stand.
On November 16 I, regretably, was quoted by a Wall Street Journal reporter saying I was going to perform some of my non-writing, post-production duties on episodes of LOST to protect the show for the fans. However, I'm sure to the delight of the AMPTP, my statement became the story and gave the false impression that there was disunity among showrunners over the issues of this negotiation.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Every showrunner I know, whether producing or not producing, stands in full support of the goals of our guild.
For the past two months I have been working seven days a week on these negotiations alongside my fellow negotiating committee members.
As a committee we did everything we could to get both parties back to the bargaining table this last week. We were fully prepared to enter into the kinds of back-and-forth discussions that are necessary to reach any sort of labor deal. I sincerely hoped this return to the table would lead to real progress.
I was wrong.
In fact, given the events of last Thursday -- and where things currently stand -- I can no longer in good conscience continue to work on my show in any capacity.
What I will be doing is continuing my work as a member of the committee for as long as it takes, contributing in any way I can, to get us the fair and just deal that we must have.
It's going to be an arduous fight.
But make no mistake -- we are united, we are resolute...
And we are indeed ALL IN THIS TOGETHER.
Yours,
Carlton Cuse
AMPTP: "Union Busting" is Our Middle Name
Tim Lea wrote an email which Mike Royce and Steve Skrovan made us aware of. We�ve excerpted his analysis of the strike to highlight his truly inspired perceptions.
"Since 1987, Adams, Nash, Haskell & Sheridan has
assisted hundreds of employers in thousands of engagements always protecting the employers' rights to continue to manage�unobstructed by unions or other outside third parties that can destroy productivity, profitability, and the joy of the direct relationship between an employer and its employees."
The AMPTP strategy�is to gain control over 'New Media' by breaking the unions. First us, then the rest. Then the Internet will be a non-union town.
"Union busters wield great power through a program of terror and manipulation � people don't, can't possibly know what's going on and who's telling the truth.... The first time this happens to regular people, they're terrified."And terror is the goal. The union buster hopes to control employees by employing terror.
The most powerful tactic in strike-breaking is propagandistic. The union (and particularly the leadership) is portrayed as power-hungry, control-seeking, strike-happy, aloof. Leadership is described as detached from the membership and inaccessible to their demands (Patric responded to over 500 e-mails over the Thanksgiving break.) The strike is described as rudderless and futile, with declining numbers on the picket lines. The creation of a Strike Rules committee is described as fascistic. The companies are portrayed as avuncular and concerned: "We're just trying to get everyone back to work."
Divide and conquer. Divide and conquer. That's the union buster's strategy.
But unions have their own strategy. At the SEIU rally on Thursday, the marchers began and ended with a prayer. They bowed their heads and prayed for direction and guidance and thanked their God for the opportunity, the voice, the courage, the belief, to express themselves in their struggle.
They connect their struggle with their belief. They believe, and we must believe.
What are we striking for? What do we believe? Is our purpose singular and clear?
These are the questions that will decide whether we win or lose. Do we believe that this struggle, this sacrifice we are all making, is worthy? Are we of one heart? One mind? Do we look at each other on the picket lines and see brothers and sisters? Is our belief strong enough to carry us through to the end?
Belief is victory.
TL
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Astroturfers, Sock Puppets, Conglomerate Plants: A Troll by Any Other Name
I want to take a few moments to point out something that some readers of this blog may not be aware of.
There are people on the Internet who have a very interesting job: They get paid by large companies to sit in rooms all day (in shifts, so they have 24 hour coverage) and read blogs and news sites. Then, they go into the comments sections of those sites and try discredit or defuse anything that might be seen as negative to their employers. They always pretend to be ordinary people, and never admit that they are writing as paid advocates. They act as if they are regular folks, just responding honestly to what they've read.
But they aren't. These people are professionals, and they're known in the PR industry as "astroturfers" (because they pretend to be grass-roots, but they're fake), as "sock puppets" (that one kinda speaks for itself) and, most famously, as "trolls."
I was just reading the comments on the Chris Williams story -- the boy who has chosen to join the picket lines, and wrote a story and drew a picture about his experiences. A few people (most conspicuously, of course, an "anonymous") went to great lengths to heckle, demean, belittle and insult this kid.
They even questioned his existence, saying that he was a PR stunt made up by the WGA, or a "plant."
When the woman who met Chris, who sent in his story, responded in the comments section with an offer to prove he was real and not a plant, "anonymous" promptly said that he'd called the number she gave for verification and it was a strip joint.
Yeah, it's not a strip joint. The 7th grader isn't a plant. Sorry.
But that's what trolls are hired to do -- at all costs, turn attention away from anything their employers don't like (for example, a true story about a kid who walks the line with us.) Call people liars, insult little kids, whatever it takes to win. Keep people from paying attention to the actual issues.
And we've got a lot of trolls here. Kinda like we're infested with weevils, except that the weevils are making a hell of a good living off the strike. So actually, they're a little more like parasites.
Because we're a volunteer organization (we aren't paid for this, we're a collection of strike captains and other writers working together because we want to), we don't have the resources to battle the paid hecklers the AMPTP sends out into the blogosphere. So the trolls will continue to show up here, and continue to pretend to be people they aren't. They'll lie and insult and try to manipulate. Why? Because it's the only strategy the AMPTP has. The truth is not on the conglomerates' side.
A lot of people reading this post will already be aware of everything I've written about. But as you may remember, my yardstick will always be my 91-year-old Omie in Blanco, Texas, and she sure as hell had never heard of trolls. So for everyone wondering where all those shrill, angry people in the comments sections came from -- chances are they're hired guns, who lie for a living.
Monday, November 19, 2007
MediaWeek: The Networks' Rome is Burning
Picketing is long and tedious work. It's not something that any of us want to be doing, and after a few weeks of it, it's natural to ask, "Is this doing any good?"
Yes, it is.
Everyone's already heard that the AMPTP is returning to the table to negotiate with us, and a big part of the reason for that is the labor stoppage. Today, MediaWeek is telling a new side of the story. The strike is about to hit the TV networks in the wallet:
The networks have a clock on them, and the experts don't think reality programs will be able to bail out their schedules:
In a separate article, media buyers and experts speculate that even those reality shows that manage to do huge numbers during the strike (like Fox's much-touted American Idol) won't be able to keep advertisers entirely happy, especially those looking to court the upscale demographics:
This is good news for our negotiating position. On the eve of tomorrow's rally, everyone should feel confident that our contributions are having a measurable impact, and that a fair deal is within reach.
Yes, it is.
Everyone's already heard that the AMPTP is returning to the table to negotiate with us, and a big part of the reason for that is the labor stoppage. Today, MediaWeek is telling a new side of the story. The strike is about to hit the TV networks in the wallet:
Media buyers, in light of the Writers Guild of America strike, say they might be a month away from asking the broadcast networks to renegotiate their upfront packages or give them cash back.
The networks have a clock on them, and the experts don't think reality programs will be able to bail out their schedules:
Sternberg projects that if the strike continues through the end February, the broadcast networks will lose an additional 5 percent of its prime-time ratings, on top of the minus 12 percent it is currently averaging. That number will grow to 8 percent in March (down 20 percent compared to last season), by 12 percent in April (-24 percent) and by 13 percent in May (-25 percent).
That level of audience defection from broadcast prime time will surely leave the networks with virtually no way to meet their promised upfront guarantees and would likely prompt a large number of advertisers to ask for cash back. It would also create chaos for the 2008-09 upfront in May.
In a separate article, media buyers and experts speculate that even those reality shows that manage to do huge numbers during the strike (like Fox's much-touted American Idol) won't be able to keep advertisers entirely happy, especially those looking to court the upscale demographics:
�Obviously, this is not what we thought we bought,� she said, referring to the current marketplace, versus broadcasters� assurances during last spring�s upfronts. �All our investments are mindful of the clients we buy for in terms of what�s the best strategic fit for that client, and any disruption to that strategy is just not a good thing.�
This is good news for our negotiating position. On the eve of tomorrow's rally, everyone should feel confident that our contributions are having a measurable impact, and that a fair deal is within reach.
Videos!
I knew it was a good sign when the AMPTP resorted to buying full-page newspaper ads last week. Because you know who has to buy full-page newspaper ads? People who have grounded tankers spilling crude into a bay. People who have stepped in it. Even the font looked guilty. We're in a negotiation over the digital future, and they take out a newspaper ad? Maybe these guys actually can't figure out the Internet. And speaking of that ad, this video by Tim Carvell shows you the reality of digital download residuals:
Let's hope when conglomerates waddle back to the table on 11/26 they bring more than an "imaginary offer."
- The AMPTP Takes It to the Street (Video by Nick Jasenovec)
- Picketers Love Ray and Brad
- John Edwards at NBC Picket on Friday, 11/16
Let's hope when conglomerates waddle back to the table on 11/26 they bring more than an "imaginary offer."
- The AMPTP Takes It to the Street (Video by Nick Jasenovec)
- Picketers Love Ray and Brad
- John Edwards at NBC Picket on Friday, 11/16
Friday, November 16, 2007
Story Notes for Nick Counter
(Nick Counter and the AMPTP (The Media Moguls) paid for an expensive ad in yesterday's "Variety" -- for those of you who don't work in the industry, "Variety" is an entertainment business magazine that is in the pocket of the Media Moguls.
For further information on "Variety's" biased reporting, check out Nikke Finke's post.
Since we don't have tons and tons of money like the Media Moguls do, we'll have to respond here - on the Internet - which they don't entirely own and control ( but they sure would like to).
Below, WGA member Phil Alden Robinson gives Nick Counter "story notes" on his advertisement and general "script".)
From: Story Department
To: Nick Counter
Dear Nick:
While we are still very excited about your project "Stonewall", we feel there are still some serious script problems that need to be addressed.
1) As every writer knows, the first rule of fiction is to at least SOUND believable. But you have a character saying dialog like "writers do receive residuals for digital downloading (regardless of whether the download is temporary or permanent)". Then why do you have the WGA character have to arbitrate to get what's already in the contract? Wouldn't the AMPTP character have more credibility if he just told the truth and did the right thing?
2) You also have a character say "the notion that we are not sharing new media revenue with writers is simply not correct." Wow. If that's what you want him to say, then we suggest you delete all the scenes in which entire episodes of TV shows - with COMMERCIALS - are streamed on the internet for millions of users, and the studios earn advertising revenue, but pay the writers nothing. This is a major logic problem with your script, and needs to be fixed.
3) Major typo: you've got a character saying "the Writers Guild is asking that writers get a percentage of what the Internet site owners receive in advertising revenue". But it's not. The WGA's proposal is for a percentage of "company's accountable receipts". It has nothing to do with Internet site owners.
4) In earlier pages (the Sunday night negotiation scene), you had the AMPTP character say that progress was being made, and then you have that character abruptly walk out of negotiations. We've asked you to fix that, but you still haven't made sense of it. This sort of behavior is usually reserved for the villain. Is that your intention for this character?
5) The WGA character keeps saying they're ready to return to the bargaining table, but you still haven't had the AMPTP character respond. Suggestion: why not have the AMPTP character call the WGA and return to the table? Along these lines, we suggest you put a pin in the 1st and 2nd act problems, and just concentrate on the ending.
In short, we still have high hopes for you, so please don't be discouraged. We're looking forward to the next set of pages.
Warmest regards,
Your friends in the Story Department.
p.s.: Aren't you glad we didn't give you a one-draft deal on this?
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Fear, Intimidation and the Politics of J. Nicholas Counter III
Hey, folks. Long time no blog. But I just had to add something to the WGA official response to this lovely piece of... disinformation.
As per AMPTP President J. Nicholas Counter III today:
"The WGA is using fear and intimidation to control its membership. Asking members to inform on each other and creating a blacklist of those who question the tactics of the WGA leadership is as unacceptable today as it was when the WGA opposed these tactics in the 1950s."
Well, he got one thing right: It was the WGA who opposed blacklisting in the 1950's. Not, for example, any of the antecedent companies in the 1950's that spawned the conglomerates he currently serves. They were as silent, and callously unconcerned, about defending people's rights then as they are now.
Meet the new boss. You know.
But that's not what I'm here to point out. It's something a little more galling, at least from where I'm sitting.
People coming to this blog may have noticed that we now have people posting anonymously with fair regularity. One of our most popular and often-viewed pieces of content, "Heartbreaking Voices of Uncertainty", was created anonymously.
Care to guess why? I'll give you a hint: Our contributors are scared.
They worry about losing their jobs, their livelihoods, their reputations -- in other words, about being blacklisted. But not by the WGA.
They worry about being blacklisted by the conglomerates that Nick Counter works for, the 6 monoliths that control almost everything you see and hear in the media.
So when Nick Counter shows up with his sudden, touching concern for our emotional well-being -- Don't worry, writers, we here at the AMPTP are your friends, we feel your pain! The WGA is being so mean, but we care about you! -- you'll forgive me if I'm less than moved. More like nauseated.
In his statement, Counter apparently is referring to rumors about writers unhappy with the WGA leadership. But we hear rumors as well: that the conglomerates are the ones doing the threatening, both privately and openly. There are rumors that network executives have told showrunners that if any of their writers are seen speaking up during the strike, they expect them to be fired when the strike is over. We all know showrunners are being threatened with lawsuits for respecting the picket lines. And there's another rumor that one showrunner in particular has been told that the AMPTP is going to use him as "an example," that they're planning to sue him and then see that he doesn't work again.
Gosh, that sounds kinda like... blacklisting.
Mysteriously, big lies are leaked to Variety and printed -- like the "story" that two writers for The Young and the Restless have gone "fi-core" and are, in effect, abandoning the strike effort. And, of course, that isn't true. [Since people are asking in the comments -- later today we'll be publishing the Y&R response today from the writers themselves, but apparently a non-writing producer who has WGA membership from previous work has chosen to go fi-core and become, effectively, a scab. Not multiple members of the writing staff of Y&R choosing to abandon the strike effort, as Variety reported. Just a producer who wasn't writing to begin with choosing to cross the picket line to the detriment of all the writers on that staff, and in this effort. Again, we'll post the full story today.]
If I were a person with a dim view of human nature, I might suspect that there's an organized attempt to break writers' spirits. That the threats and the rumors (you know, the ones about how some writers are breaking ranks to screw the rest of us over) are somehow related.
But since I have a sunny and pleasant outlook on life, I'm sure that these are just coincidences. I'm sure that all the people who are worried about signing their names to what they post here are just paranoid, and the AMPTP really is the benign, generous, concerned entity they make themselves out to be.
But just in case Mr. Counter is still confused about the strike rules: Most members understand that joining the WGA comes with rights, but it also comes with obligations. And one of them is, if there's a strike, you have to abide by the strike rules. Most of us -- if not all of us -- understand the concept of both honor and obligation, and we're abiding by it.
Who knows, now that I've written this, maybe I'll be blacklisted. But if I am, there's one thing I can promise you: It won't be by the WGA.
Laeta Kalogridis
(and yes, that's my real name)
As per AMPTP President J. Nicholas Counter III today:
"The WGA is using fear and intimidation to control its membership. Asking members to inform on each other and creating a blacklist of those who question the tactics of the WGA leadership is as unacceptable today as it was when the WGA opposed these tactics in the 1950s."
Well, he got one thing right: It was the WGA who opposed blacklisting in the 1950's. Not, for example, any of the antecedent companies in the 1950's that spawned the conglomerates he currently serves. They were as silent, and callously unconcerned, about defending people's rights then as they are now.
Meet the new boss. You know.
But that's not what I'm here to point out. It's something a little more galling, at least from where I'm sitting.
People coming to this blog may have noticed that we now have people posting anonymously with fair regularity. One of our most popular and often-viewed pieces of content, "Heartbreaking Voices of Uncertainty", was created anonymously.
Care to guess why? I'll give you a hint: Our contributors are scared.
They worry about losing their jobs, their livelihoods, their reputations -- in other words, about being blacklisted. But not by the WGA.
They worry about being blacklisted by the conglomerates that Nick Counter works for, the 6 monoliths that control almost everything you see and hear in the media.
So when Nick Counter shows up with his sudden, touching concern for our emotional well-being -- Don't worry, writers, we here at the AMPTP are your friends, we feel your pain! The WGA is being so mean, but we care about you! -- you'll forgive me if I'm less than moved. More like nauseated.
In his statement, Counter apparently is referring to rumors about writers unhappy with the WGA leadership. But we hear rumors as well: that the conglomerates are the ones doing the threatening, both privately and openly. There are rumors that network executives have told showrunners that if any of their writers are seen speaking up during the strike, they expect them to be fired when the strike is over. We all know showrunners are being threatened with lawsuits for respecting the picket lines. And there's another rumor that one showrunner in particular has been told that the AMPTP is going to use him as "an example," that they're planning to sue him and then see that he doesn't work again.
Gosh, that sounds kinda like... blacklisting.
Mysteriously, big lies are leaked to Variety and printed -- like the "story" that two writers for The Young and the Restless have gone "fi-core" and are, in effect, abandoning the strike effort. And, of course, that isn't true. [Since people are asking in the comments -- later today we'll be publishing the Y&R response today from the writers themselves, but apparently a non-writing producer who has WGA membership from previous work has chosen to go fi-core and become, effectively, a scab. Not multiple members of the writing staff of Y&R choosing to abandon the strike effort, as Variety reported. Just a producer who wasn't writing to begin with choosing to cross the picket line to the detriment of all the writers on that staff, and in this effort. Again, we'll post the full story today.]
If I were a person with a dim view of human nature, I might suspect that there's an organized attempt to break writers' spirits. That the threats and the rumors (you know, the ones about how some writers are breaking ranks to screw the rest of us over) are somehow related.
But since I have a sunny and pleasant outlook on life, I'm sure that these are just coincidences. I'm sure that all the people who are worried about signing their names to what they post here are just paranoid, and the AMPTP really is the benign, generous, concerned entity they make themselves out to be.
But just in case Mr. Counter is still confused about the strike rules: Most members understand that joining the WGA comes with rights, but it also comes with obligations. And one of them is, if there's a strike, you have to abide by the strike rules. Most of us -- if not all of us -- understand the concept of both honor and obligation, and we're abiding by it.
Who knows, now that I've written this, maybe I'll be blacklisted. But if I am, there's one thing I can promise you: It won't be by the WGA.
Laeta Kalogridis
(and yes, that's my real name)
WGA (West) responds to AMPTP's Accusations
The WGAW responded to the AMPTP today with the following statement:
Mr. Counter's charge is as offensive as it is untrue. To accuse the Writers Guild of America of blacklisting, when it was we who suffered the most from it in the past, is simply Mr. Counter's desperate attempt to divert attention from the fact that it was he who walked out of the negotiations, and it is he who refuses every day to return to the table. The WGA has an offer on the table and is ready and willing to meet with the AMPTP any day, anywhere.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
THE REALITY OF THE WGA STRIKE
(A letter from WGA member, and Strike Captain George Hickenlooper)
Dear family, friends and colleagues,
As most of you know the Writer's Guild of America (of which I am a proud member) is set to go on strike at one minute after midnight tomorrow. There has been a lot of negative and false information fed to the press lately about how the average WGA member makes over 200K per year and that the guild is being unreasonable in its contract negotiations and that basically we're all a bunch of left leaning, privileged, silver-spoon fed, pinko cry babies.
The reality is NONE of this is true. What is true is that the average Guild member makes 5K per year from his or her writing services, the average Guild member is middle class, and the average Guild member has been financially taken advantage of for the past two decades to the point of embarrassment.
The other big reality is that the future of ALL film and television is INTERNET bound, a paid advertising medium for which each and every Guild member currently has ZERO financial participation. With entertainment industry executives and studios raking in exponential profits every year and hiding much of those profits through creative accounting and fuzzy math, it is ESSENTIAL that, as members of the WGA, we stand up for what is only reasonable and just. The studios have forced us into this position through their greed and hubris. The attitude at the executive level often is that these movies and TV shows write themselves when in reality the obscene profits they are making always start with us, the writers.
The WGA has always been a strong union. We were the first to win pension and health plans which then enabled all of our brother and sister unions to win the same. What we are asking for now (a fair and reasonable share of the profits and participation in the internet) is essential to our livelihood and the survival of this union. The studios are trying to divide us and eventually it is their goal to break us wide open.
In the last decade the United States has sadly seen the strength of unions (from the UAW to the UFW) rapidly erode. In the age of globalization workers have either been outsourced or they have been more and more marginalized. The reality is that those of us who are part of the middle class are not living as well as our parents did in their youth. The American dream has become an exclusive club, openly only to those who can afford it.
As America moves from a democracy to oligarchy, it is essential that someone start taking a stand. Next to the Teamsters, the Hollywood guilds are the last viable unions left in the nation. Why? Because we cannot be outsourced to India or Mexico. Consequently, it is our duty not only to send a clear and strong message to our industry, but it is imperative that we send a clear and strong message to our country -- so that the workers around the nation can find hope when they see that this union, the WGA, will stand strong and win a contract that is right and just.
And no, we're not all left leaning pinkos. For those of you who know me, this message is coming to you from a political conservative who has finally become fed up with the culture of greed that is not only gradually polarizing our nation, but is seeing the unity of this great country slowly come apart at the seams.
I write this letter to you asking for your support of the WGA and this strike. If you are in Los Angeles, I am a strike captain who will be leading morning picket lines at the front gate at Universal Studios. If you have an hour to march with us in unity, I welcome you to stop by and say hello or honk your horn.
Thank you for taking the time to read my email. Peace to all of you.
Warmest regards,
George Hickenlooper
Dear family, friends and colleagues,
As most of you know the Writer's Guild of America (of which I am a proud member) is set to go on strike at one minute after midnight tomorrow. There has been a lot of negative and false information fed to the press lately about how the average WGA member makes over 200K per year and that the guild is being unreasonable in its contract negotiations and that basically we're all a bunch of left leaning, privileged, silver-spoon fed, pinko cry babies.
The reality is NONE of this is true. What is true is that the average Guild member makes 5K per year from his or her writing services, the average Guild member is middle class, and the average Guild member has been financially taken advantage of for the past two decades to the point of embarrassment.
The other big reality is that the future of ALL film and television is INTERNET bound, a paid advertising medium for which each and every Guild member currently has ZERO financial participation. With entertainment industry executives and studios raking in exponential profits every year and hiding much of those profits through creative accounting and fuzzy math, it is ESSENTIAL that, as members of the WGA, we stand up for what is only reasonable and just. The studios have forced us into this position through their greed and hubris. The attitude at the executive level often is that these movies and TV shows write themselves when in reality the obscene profits they are making always start with us, the writers.
The WGA has always been a strong union. We were the first to win pension and health plans which then enabled all of our brother and sister unions to win the same. What we are asking for now (a fair and reasonable share of the profits and participation in the internet) is essential to our livelihood and the survival of this union. The studios are trying to divide us and eventually it is their goal to break us wide open.
In the last decade the United States has sadly seen the strength of unions (from the UAW to the UFW) rapidly erode. In the age of globalization workers have either been outsourced or they have been more and more marginalized. The reality is that those of us who are part of the middle class are not living as well as our parents did in their youth. The American dream has become an exclusive club, openly only to those who can afford it.
As America moves from a democracy to oligarchy, it is essential that someone start taking a stand. Next to the Teamsters, the Hollywood guilds are the last viable unions left in the nation. Why? Because we cannot be outsourced to India or Mexico. Consequently, it is our duty not only to send a clear and strong message to our industry, but it is imperative that we send a clear and strong message to our country -- so that the workers around the nation can find hope when they see that this union, the WGA, will stand strong and win a contract that is right and just.
And no, we're not all left leaning pinkos. For those of you who know me, this message is coming to you from a political conservative who has finally become fed up with the culture of greed that is not only gradually polarizing our nation, but is seeing the unity of this great country slowly come apart at the seams.
I write this letter to you asking for your support of the WGA and this strike. If you are in Los Angeles, I am a strike captain who will be leading morning picket lines at the front gate at Universal Studios. If you have an hour to march with us in unity, I welcome you to stop by and say hello or honk your horn.
Thank you for taking the time to read my email. Peace to all of you.
Warmest regards,
George Hickenlooper
Resistance Is Futile -- the Talking Point of Doom
(Or: "don't bother, you're going to lose anyway no matter what, you might as well just give up now. Really. We only want what's best for you.")
A clever - and totally misleading - little Talking Point Of Doom has been wafting through the blogosphere the past few days.
It goes like this: "No matter what the writers win by striking it will never make up for what they lose during the strike".
I love this little Talking Point in so many ways. For one thing, it's very nearly a perfect Zen koan. In just one sentence it effortlessly combines at least three twists of fractured logic that rush toward a moment of enlightenment, revealing to any Guild striker the existential meaninglessness of struggle.
And yet, it's the perfect distillation of Western, Calvinist theology too - failure is predetermined, and you're all going to Hell (including poor Nick Counter who obviously isn't one of the Elect, since he doesn�t have a private jet).
Okay, what's led me so far afield into comparative religion? Simply this: this elegantly misleading Talking Point is based on divination, not economics.
First it assumes clairvoyant knowledge that the strike will inevitably be a long one. But the WGA strike of 1985 only lasted two weeks. To go further afield, the recent UAW strike against GM was resolved in 48 hours; the UAW strike against Chrysler shortly after lasted 6 hours. The supermarket workers this year authorized a strike, just as we did, came right to the brink, then didn't have to. No one knows how long a WGA strike will last.
But the whole purpose of the Talking Point isn't to make a realistic projection of possible economic outcomes; it's to propagandize that Resistance Is Futile, Writers And Their Residuals Will Be Assimilated.
Implicit in this first feat of clairvoyance is a second one: it assumes that whatever work is suspended during a strike will never be reordered. But we know this isn't true. Stockpiling efforts in anticipation of the strike have already generated additional writers' income that any sensible economist - or strike strategist - would feed into the balance sheet. Catch-up efforts after a strike will add more employment.
Having already exaggerated the total costs of a strike, our little but action-packed Talking Point then makes a stunning prediction about what benefits the strike will win: not enough! "Not enough?" What sort of number is that? An imaginary number. Once again it's a baseless assertion about the future - and in this case, if you believe the first part of the Talking Point, a distant future at that, when the strike finally ends.
In fact, at the moment there's a swing of perhaps more than $100 million a year in current - not even future - residuals on the table in the negotiations. To me, that sounds like a fair amount of money. Maybe enough to offset the net costs of at least a few minutes of striking. But don't try telling that to The Talking Point of Doom.
And for all its forays into clairvoyance, there's an even bigger problem with this Talking Point: it resolutely ignores any real long term assessment of gain and loss.
If the Guild does not conduct a successful strike now, in years to come emboldened companies will force rollbacks on a demoralized Guild - and the net cost of not striking could be gigantic. Collectively, Guild members presently earn $260 million a year in residuals, all of which could be lost in the near future as downloads and streaming media replace DVDs and second-run broadcasts. That money, split among 12,000 members, is what feeds our families and sustains our health coverage when we as freelance workers are in between jobs (which, for the average writer, is a fact of life.)
But the loss of those residuals has already started happening to the writers on Lost and Heroes, where the second network telecast has been replaced by internet streaming � for which the companies offer nothing.
If the Guild doesn't strike over this, any rational company next time around will insist the Guild give up its health and pension plans, and then its minimums.
Which brings me to the final reason I love the Talking Point of Doom so much. In just one sentence it's the perfect embodiment of the Generally Accepted Principles of Studio Accounting: There are only losses! Huge and endless losses! Your contract gave you a share of profits? Here it is - zero! (SEC Disclosure: nothing herein is a representation of or is meant to be a representation of the actual performance, future outlook, or historical earnings of the Company.)
The truth is, nobody in the WGA or AMPTP knows yet how long the strike will last or what it will win. But everyone knows that if you never stand up and fight, you�ll ultimately lose everything. That's one prediction you can bank on.
Carleton Eastlake
A clever - and totally misleading - little Talking Point Of Doom has been wafting through the blogosphere the past few days.
It goes like this: "No matter what the writers win by striking it will never make up for what they lose during the strike".
I love this little Talking Point in so many ways. For one thing, it's very nearly a perfect Zen koan. In just one sentence it effortlessly combines at least three twists of fractured logic that rush toward a moment of enlightenment, revealing to any Guild striker the existential meaninglessness of struggle.
And yet, it's the perfect distillation of Western, Calvinist theology too - failure is predetermined, and you're all going to Hell (including poor Nick Counter who obviously isn't one of the Elect, since he doesn�t have a private jet).
Okay, what's led me so far afield into comparative religion? Simply this: this elegantly misleading Talking Point is based on divination, not economics.
First it assumes clairvoyant knowledge that the strike will inevitably be a long one. But the WGA strike of 1985 only lasted two weeks. To go further afield, the recent UAW strike against GM was resolved in 48 hours; the UAW strike against Chrysler shortly after lasted 6 hours. The supermarket workers this year authorized a strike, just as we did, came right to the brink, then didn't have to. No one knows how long a WGA strike will last.
But the whole purpose of the Talking Point isn't to make a realistic projection of possible economic outcomes; it's to propagandize that Resistance Is Futile, Writers And Their Residuals Will Be Assimilated.
Implicit in this first feat of clairvoyance is a second one: it assumes that whatever work is suspended during a strike will never be reordered. But we know this isn't true. Stockpiling efforts in anticipation of the strike have already generated additional writers' income that any sensible economist - or strike strategist - would feed into the balance sheet. Catch-up efforts after a strike will add more employment.
Having already exaggerated the total costs of a strike, our little but action-packed Talking Point then makes a stunning prediction about what benefits the strike will win: not enough! "Not enough?" What sort of number is that? An imaginary number. Once again it's a baseless assertion about the future - and in this case, if you believe the first part of the Talking Point, a distant future at that, when the strike finally ends.
In fact, at the moment there's a swing of perhaps more than $100 million a year in current - not even future - residuals on the table in the negotiations. To me, that sounds like a fair amount of money. Maybe enough to offset the net costs of at least a few minutes of striking. But don't try telling that to The Talking Point of Doom.
And for all its forays into clairvoyance, there's an even bigger problem with this Talking Point: it resolutely ignores any real long term assessment of gain and loss.
If the Guild does not conduct a successful strike now, in years to come emboldened companies will force rollbacks on a demoralized Guild - and the net cost of not striking could be gigantic. Collectively, Guild members presently earn $260 million a year in residuals, all of which could be lost in the near future as downloads and streaming media replace DVDs and second-run broadcasts. That money, split among 12,000 members, is what feeds our families and sustains our health coverage when we as freelance workers are in between jobs (which, for the average writer, is a fact of life.)
But the loss of those residuals has already started happening to the writers on Lost and Heroes, where the second network telecast has been replaced by internet streaming � for which the companies offer nothing.
If the Guild doesn't strike over this, any rational company next time around will insist the Guild give up its health and pension plans, and then its minimums.
Which brings me to the final reason I love the Talking Point of Doom so much. In just one sentence it's the perfect embodiment of the Generally Accepted Principles of Studio Accounting: There are only losses! Huge and endless losses! Your contract gave you a share of profits? Here it is - zero! (SEC Disclosure: nothing herein is a representation of or is meant to be a representation of the actual performance, future outlook, or historical earnings of the Company.)
The truth is, nobody in the WGA or AMPTP knows yet how long the strike will last or what it will win. But everyone knows that if you never stand up and fight, you�ll ultimately lose everything. That's one prediction you can bank on.
Carleton Eastlake
Thursday, November 1, 2007
THE SHORT VERSION --
Or, what the heck do those crazy writers want, anyway?
I don't know about you, but at Thanksgiving I'm going to see a lot of relatives. Mine are all in Blanco, Texas, and I'll be explaining to them -- whether I want to or not -- what's going on out here. Or trying to, anyway.
And it better make sense to the one person who matters -- Omie, my grandmother, my children's great-grandmother, who at 91 is sharp as a tack and really uninterested in long, involved explanations. If you can't get right to the point, she's pretty sure the point isn't worth getting to.
So here's what I'm going to be telling her, just in case the reductionist version is useful to anyone else. And again, as always, these are just my opinions, not any official anything from anyone.
What's the biggest issue?
Internet and New Media.
(I'll be saying it loudly, figured might as well up the font size.)
What are we asking for in Internet and New Media?
Two things:
1. Residuals for reuse of content (like replaying tv shows) on the internet.
We're asking for residuals of 2.5% of revenue -- that means for every dollar they get paid, we'd get 2 and a half cents. It's a flat percentage, so if they're right and they're never ever going to make a penny, well then, we won't either. No harm, no foul.
Since 2.5% is our starting point, in any normal negotiation we'd end up somewhere between what they want to pay (.3%) and what we're asking for (2.5%). I'd guess 1 to 1.5 %.
2. Coverage and protections for original content (new stuff we create for the internet.)
We're asking for basic protections so that when we write original stuff for the internet, we have rights -- health and pension, minimum amounts, credits and separated rights (so if we make some amazing character or show, we get the right to share in its success.)
We're just asking for the same protections we already have for writing in tv or film. Nothing new or weird. Just the basics.
What are the other issues?
DVDs
Currently we get .3% per dvd, we're asking for .6%.
Translation: now we get 4 cents per dvd. We are asking for 8 cents per dvd. Since most dvd's cost at least 10 bucks, that doesn't exactly seem like a bank-breaker. Whatever.
Enforcement of Coverage
There are lots of shows, like game shows, documentaries and talk shows, where writing is supposed to be covered under our contract. The companies sometimes just ignore the contract -- which means folks don't get health and pension, and if they ask for it, they get fired.
We want them to stop that, and honor the contract they signed.
Expansion of Coverage
We want to cover stuff where writers are working without coverage, which means without health and pension and other protections. The two big areas are animation and reality. We think those writers should be covered.
You don't actually think you'll get all that, do you?
Personally? I think in a perfect world, negotiation involves, well, negotiating. That's give-and-take, where we get some of what we want and they get some of what they want.
So far, they just keep showing up at the table with more and more things they're saying they're going to take away -- rollbacks on health and pension, gutting of separated rights, that kind of thing.
But they gave back those resid-whatever-thingums, right?
Sort of. They took that one rollback off the table -- but since they're not moving on "digital delivery", and since pretty much all content is going to be digitally delivered in the coming years, well... we'll lose those residuals as soon as that happens. So without internet coverage, it doesn't mean much.
And it's really not a lot more complicated than that.
L.
I don't know about you, but at Thanksgiving I'm going to see a lot of relatives. Mine are all in Blanco, Texas, and I'll be explaining to them -- whether I want to or not -- what's going on out here. Or trying to, anyway.
And it better make sense to the one person who matters -- Omie, my grandmother, my children's great-grandmother, who at 91 is sharp as a tack and really uninterested in long, involved explanations. If you can't get right to the point, she's pretty sure the point isn't worth getting to.
So here's what I'm going to be telling her, just in case the reductionist version is useful to anyone else. And again, as always, these are just my opinions, not any official anything from anyone.
What's the biggest issue?
Internet and New Media.
(I'll be saying it loudly, figured might as well up the font size.)
What are we asking for in Internet and New Media?
Two things:
1. Residuals for reuse of content (like replaying tv shows) on the internet.
We're asking for residuals of 2.5% of revenue -- that means for every dollar they get paid, we'd get 2 and a half cents. It's a flat percentage, so if they're right and they're never ever going to make a penny, well then, we won't either. No harm, no foul.
Since 2.5% is our starting point, in any normal negotiation we'd end up somewhere between what they want to pay (.3%) and what we're asking for (2.5%). I'd guess 1 to 1.5 %.
2. Coverage and protections for original content (new stuff we create for the internet.)
We're asking for basic protections so that when we write original stuff for the internet, we have rights -- health and pension, minimum amounts, credits and separated rights (so if we make some amazing character or show, we get the right to share in its success.)
We're just asking for the same protections we already have for writing in tv or film. Nothing new or weird. Just the basics.
What are the other issues?
DVDs
Currently we get .3% per dvd, we're asking for .6%.
Translation: now we get 4 cents per dvd. We are asking for 8 cents per dvd. Since most dvd's cost at least 10 bucks, that doesn't exactly seem like a bank-breaker. Whatever.
Enforcement of Coverage
There are lots of shows, like game shows, documentaries and talk shows, where writing is supposed to be covered under our contract. The companies sometimes just ignore the contract -- which means folks don't get health and pension, and if they ask for it, they get fired.
We want them to stop that, and honor the contract they signed.
Expansion of Coverage
We want to cover stuff where writers are working without coverage, which means without health and pension and other protections. The two big areas are animation and reality. We think those writers should be covered.
You don't actually think you'll get all that, do you?
Personally? I think in a perfect world, negotiation involves, well, negotiating. That's give-and-take, where we get some of what we want and they get some of what they want.
So far, they just keep showing up at the table with more and more things they're saying they're going to take away -- rollbacks on health and pension, gutting of separated rights, that kind of thing.
But they gave back those resid-whatever-thingums, right?
Sort of. They took that one rollback off the table -- but since they're not moving on "digital delivery", and since pretty much all content is going to be digitally delivered in the coming years, well... we'll lose those residuals as soon as that happens. So without internet coverage, it doesn't mean much.
And it's really not a lot more complicated than that.
L.
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