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Deal Reportedly Reached In Writers' Strike
BlueshiftVFX writes to let us know that the writers' strike may be over. CNBC and other media are quoting former Disney CEO Michael Eisner: "It's over. They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It's going on Saturday to the writers in general... A deal has been made, and they'll be back to work very soon."
This seems to be missing so here it is: http://www.cnbc.com/id/23057002/
Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for an hour. Set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
I want to shoot the messenger!
Although it would appear that the strike is likely on it's way to being over, it's not quite over yet.
Here's the WGA's timetable for the next few days which may result in the actual end of the strike.
Well, aren't you just Mr. Too Cool For School?
I'm so glad to know that you didn't even deign to notice that a large portion of those who work hard to entertain you lost their jobs and houses in a fight over the future of online content rights.
That WGA post was made three days before Eisner's statement. Still, Eisner is the only one saying it's over. No one from WGA or any studios have said a word.
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I had a dark horse hope that perhaps the writers would learn to disintermediate the studios. The reason is a friend recently turned me on to BBC's "I.T. Crowd," which you can only watch in the States over the intertubes.
There are no commercials in the webcast, of course, but the BBC shop sends me emails advertising box DVD sets of Doctor Who and the like; definitely a fave show and the sort of message I'm open to, as opposed to endless commercials on regular TV for cars and feminine hygiene products, which I'm not in the market for.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Could they have just STAYED on strike?
No, please fucking God no, seriously!
While many people here might be single, some of us have wives that like to watch garbage TV and w/o the normal dreck that is shown on TV she had to find something else to occupy her TV watching time. Unfortunately for me that included such highlights as America's Ballroom Challenge and Masterpiece on PBS. If you think Dancing with the Stars was bad, well, Ballroom Challenge is a completely new level of horrendous bullshit that no human should ever have to see (ballroom dancing to rap is surprisingly worse than to horribly outdated music). I won't even get into the Masterpiece bullshit because, well, no one should give a shit less about Jane Austen.
Believe me, even though I don't watch all that much TV (I have been obsessing over BBC America's Kitchen Nightmares and Last Restaurant Standing) it has been fucking hell for me.
actually I Included that when I submitted the article! since BSG is in it's final season it currently got cut short to 16 eps. now hopefully it can go out with the full 20-22 eps. and finish as intended.
(I used to work on the show)
I really don't know why the different shows didn't just hire scabs and keep going
Because the actors are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, and the stagehands by the ISTEA. If the studios tried hiring scabs to replace the writers, the actors and stagehands would have walked out as well.
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
Arr! Read The Government Manual for New Pirates!
Who lost their houses? The vast majority of writers saved up 6 months' salary in anticipation of exactly this strike. Not to say it wasn't a financial hardship, but my friend who currently writes for Scrubs tells me that almost everyone was planning for this.
A median is an average. The studios were probably doing a mean (which is what most people think of when they think of an average). And to be honest, there's probably even more distortion than you think. I'm sure the WGA is including a whole pile of unpaid interns on the bottom, and the studios aren't counting those. A lot of ugly distortion all around.
Relax I just want some peanuts.
Guys... Eisner proclaiming the strike over is just part of a PR effort to attempt to pressure writers to vote for the strike proposals by creating the wide expectation that the strike is over, that it's a done deal. That way, if the writers turn the proposal down, people feel let down.
The strike is NOT over.
If you watch the video where Eisner insists the strike to be over, he says quietly at the end that he is really just passing on a rumor. He also points out that the writers have to vote on the offer. He says the writers would be "insane" not to take it, but he also previously had stated that the entire strike was "insanity" so he's not the most unbiased person on this.
The strike is not over until the full WGA membership votes on the proposal. They may do so, but they may not. The terms of the contract proposal have not even been seen by the writers, so there's no way to know right now what's going to happen.
If you don't believe me, may I recommend this post by Joss Wheden, or this one, or this one.
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Speaking as someone who is in the entertainment industry and has been on strike in the recent past I just want to say; Going on strike is not an easy decision. There is a great deal of consideration that goes into what the industry itself can bare. There is also a great deal of consideration about the long term effects of not going on strike would be. You say that there are have been people that would have been fine with the old contract. True. There are probably people who would be willing to do your job for much less money as well. But what would the long term effects be? In the case of the writers, it would be the end of writing as a viable career option. They were fighting to have the same royalties on internet distribution as they currently have on DVD distribution. Everyone knows that in ten years the vast majority of the distribution will be via the internet, so in essence they were fight to have royalties at all. Royalties are what allow for writing to be career. It was clear from the outset of this strike that the writers would have to do some short term damage to the industry as a whole, in order to preserve the long term existence of their jobs. The reason this was obvious was because the management on the other side of the bargaining table was putting forward a proposal that would have short term gains and long term damage. In the short term they would have profited 3% more on internet sales, but in the long term they would have destroyed the position of professional screen writer, leaving only those who would pursue writing as a hobby. Sure they could always get some starry eyed recently graduated newcomers to fill the job, but as those people tried to do things like buy a house or raise a family, they would be forced out the job by the financial realities of the "old contract". There would be no one around with 20 years of professional experience, there would be no one to really refine the craft, there would only be glorified interns. That isn't good for the industry.
We are all just people.
Actually, stagehands are represented by the IATSE - or the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes.
"But this one goes to 11!"
You're right about the mean/median/average thing. Thanks for catching that.
However, you're (most likely) wrong about the WGA including "unpaid interns" in its stats. The WGA statistics only cover WGA members; and before you can become a member, you have to have a certain amount of paid TV or film writing work.
As a labor union, the WGA has to have independently-audited reports of the membership dues it receives and what it does with those dues; it then publicly releases the report as well as submitting it to the Department of Labor. If the WGA is including anybody other than WGA members in its statistics, it is violating federal labor law, and the independent auditors who certify it are colluding in fraud.
Of course, fraud does happen, auditors do look the other way, and there have been corrupt labor unions in the past, but tbarring evidence to the contrary, I think it's safe to assume that the basic data in the WGA annual report is not fraudulent.
(Of course, once the WGA releases the data, the numbers can get pulled out of context and subjected to all sorts of technically-true-but-misleading manipulation, which leads us back to where we started.)
Arr! Read The Government Manual for New Pirates!
You heard the man! Back to work and no one gets this banana until someone comes up with the next sitcom!
Oops, how did this get here?
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WGAW is having a meeting Saturday night with its members to discuss the deal points proposed by the studios. I don't know if the studios have finished "inking" their proposal (i.e. I believe that there was a verbal "fuzzy" agreement but specific legal language is still being drafted).
The deal will be presented to the membership on Saturday where I believe an informal vote will be taken. I believe that a full ratification vote is required by the constitution for the deal to be formally accepted but that the Board of Directors can lift the strike without before that happens.
The terms for compensation for Internet re-usage in the DGA deal were not very appealing for Writers and Actors. I haven't seen what the deal terms are that have been proposed to the WGA, but if they didn't make good progress on this, the deal might be met with a mixed reception by members.
That said, the Negotiating Committee and the Board of Directors have the pulse of the membership my guess is that the membership will go along with the recommendations of the Negotiating Committee and the Board of Directors. I don't know how unanimous the NC/BoD are with respect to the deal (i.e. whether there is agreement that the deal is fair enough or whether the strike should go on longer).
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