Picketing: Now It Gets Interesting

With the AMPTP returning to the bargaining table, there's hope that a new contract can be worked out. But the coming week presents a challenge to all of us who have been picketing.

Over the Thanksgiving Day holiday, the Los Angeles Times ran two articles about showrunners: Scott Collins' "Who really runs things" and Maria Elena Fernandez and Meg James' "Key role is also a tough one".

After weeks of coverage that favored the AMPTP point of view--denigrating writers and minimizing the impact of a work stoppage--the LA and NY Times have begun to print articles that, if not sympathetic to writers, are at least respectful. Let's cross our fingers that the press will cover the restarted negotiations in a balanced way.

What part does picketing play in all this? The pickets are the visible sign of Guild solidarity.

As positive as is the Fernandez-James article, the reporters are looking for fissures, the way factions weakened the negotiation in 1988.

This coming week, the press will be searching for new stories about the strike that will get the public's attention.

The story we don't want the reporters to write is "Picketing numbers down, WGA strike loses steam" just as the AMPTP is pushing back at the bargaining table.

The story we should give them is the one that empowers our negotiators: "WGA remains strong on the picket line and at the table."

Let's build on the newly discovered respect for writers in the press. Let's picket as if our future depended on it.