This is excerpted from the email that Warners strike captain Brian Hartt sent to other captains this week, with permission. Brian is an Emmy-nominated writer who coordinates all of the Warners picket teams, as well as being the showrunner on Mind of Mencia who helped get 4 West Coast and 2 East Coast shows on Comedy Central covered by the WGA contract . His tireless work and dedication are inspiring.
As I'm sure you all know, the AMPTP walked away from the table Friday.
You all should have, by now, gotten John Bowman's response to the "nice try" press release by the company's lap dog. Let me stress something that John mentioned - their press release came out minutes after they walked away.
Our negotiating committee has, from day one, talked about how they try to have actual conversations, but only get pre-written responses and sound bites back from the other side.
The point is: these aren't negotiations. They are plot points in a script the AMPTP wrote a long time ago.
A press release that needs to be approved by CEO's, lawyers and PR companies of six huge corporations does not magically appear before Nick Counter is in his car. Especially one with a pointed nod to reality, coinciding with our Fremantle rally yesterday.
One of the Union busting stages - as outlined in Tim Lea's great E Mail from a few days ago (which was a little long, but he got notes on that) - is to discredit our Chief Negotiator. So, they talked about how inexperienced David Young is in "Entertainment Negotiations" to make the rank and file lose faith in him and question his ability... bring to a boil, let simmer, add bullshit to taste and serve!
Divide and conquer.
Believe me, if they really thought David Young was so incompetent, they'd be singing his praises to the rooftops. Why are they going to all this trouble to try and get rid of him? To get writers to turn on him? It ain't because they're worried about us.
They have no logical or moral high ground, so they have to do THIS. And no matter how many ex-agents - who made their priveledged living off the sweat, creativity and hard work of writers - go on the Network's/Networks to spin the truth, they will still only have THIS.
So, we have to keep putting pressure on them and wait THIS out. And here's something many of us can do to help.
I know we have Guild to Guild contact about the "DGA situation" but, tomorrow I'll be calling a few directors I've worked with, to get them to personally call the DGA and tell them to hold off negotiations until we settle.
Could the AMPTP be trying to set us up publicly as being difficult, then go to the DGA and do a deal that does not address our main issues (that doesn't give up jurisdiction on the net) only to put pressure on us to make a bad deal? Could that be the reason they seem obsessed with making sure any agreement says we have to cross SAG's picket lines if they strike, or get fired?
Noooooooo.... but, call some DGA members. Just in case.
thank you,
brian
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