Writers Strike Officially Over

CNN is reporting that the 100-day Hollywood writers walkout is now officially over. The new contract managed to snag two of the three major points the Writers Guild was looking for. The writers will now have "jurisdiction" for content created especially for new media (Internet, cell phones, etc) and will get paid for the reuse of content on new media when the studios get paid. "Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., told The Associated Press, 'At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry. [...] It's unclear how soon new episodes of scripted programs will start appearing, because production won't begin until scripts are completed, the AP reported. It will take at least four weeks for producers to get the first post-strike episodes of comedies back on the air; dramas will take six to eight weeks, the AP said.'"

Comments

Crisis Averted!

[Mickyfin613]

Future generations will look back at this strike as "the year we almost lost Hollywood and no one really gave a crap."

Re:Crisis Averted!

[Amorymeltzer]

Honestly, I cared. I really cared. Why?

It sent a goddamned message to the public. The fact that this was such a big deal for so many people was absurd; less of life needs to be focused around what happens on TV. My only regret is that it's over in time for the Academy Awards. I think not having that ceremony would've sent a strong message to people about silly and over-hyped this whole culture is.

Re:Crisis Averted!

[cayenne8]

"This should give organized labor across the country a little bit of confidence."

Oh God, I hope not. While I'll admit in this case, it was a good thing....in general, I think unions are killing us in the US while trying to compete with business on a global scale.

Look at the recent postings of losses by GM. The outrageous fees they have to pay for retirements and other union perks, is killing them. They cannot sell a car at a decent price with a decent profit any longer....and they're more shoddily made, due to unions having people in there that cannot be fired without an act of God. It is almost like a govt. job.

Seriously....while I know the unions at their start helped make things right that were wrong, they have proved to go far beyond their useful place in labor relations, and have now been strangling US businesses. I'm sorry, but, a manual laborer should not expect $30/hour, and lifetime benefits...it isn't a special job, anyone could do it without formal education, but, due to job lock-ins, there isn't competition for that job.

Re:Crisis Averted!

[The FNP]

Actually the problem is that the Third World is _NOT_ Unionized. If Chinese workers or Malaysian workers were unionized, the costs of making the goods and shipping them halfway around the world, tariffs, duties, customs, shipping them to the warehouse, the trouble, the cost of translators, Quality Control, etc, etc, ad nauseam, would make it not worth the trouble to outsource your manufacturing.

It's only when you can treat your serfs as the disposable Kleenex they are that the cost savings of the manufacturing offsets the increased costs of logistics.

Re:Crisis Averted!

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Why does someone in a low skill job deserve $30+ hour, full benefits, and a pension plan?

Why does someone in a high-skill job? They are both people, after all... Before you say "well, the market set the prices at..." let me remind you that most "high-skilled jobs" do not have market forces set their compensation. In fact, the union benefits are determined by a free-market, whereas the medical, legal and political fields are not. Executive compensation has other aspects that imply the executive's labor is not the sole reason for the high salary.

Why should "full benefits" (assuming that, since you remove pensions, all that is left is health/dental benefits) be dependendent on having a job at all? Seems like a human right.

Re:Crisis Averted!

[Maestro485]

Why does someone in a low skill job deserve $30+ hour, full benefits, and a pension plan?
What is with the superiority complex of Slashdotters? Who are you to say that labor jobs are low skill? Can you assemble an automobile? Can you construct a high rise, or even something "easy" like a house? Can you repair mass transit vehicles, weld steel dangling a few hundred feet in the air, or ensure that a jet engine will operate safely?

Just because you can operate a computer doesn't mean you're any better than "low-skilled" people.

TV?

[PhreakOfTime]

Im sorry, but its too late.

I took the plunge and got rid of 'pay-tv' once and for all right before this strike, and its amazing how little I actually miss it. And amazing how I was spending over $70/month for just regular ad-laced channels. Yes, paying to watch advertisements is not how I want to spend my money anymore. That INCLUDES the 'ads' that get thrown right into the shows, soap opera style(thats how they got their name after all).

The internet is now my primary tool of information sourcing and entertainment. The TV industry missed the boat, the same way the music industry did. The only thing that made it take as long as it did was the bandwidth difference between audio and video.

The TV is dead, long live TV!

Re:writers read...

[91degrees]

Absolutely! I propose that all Slashdot posters get a 35% increase in pay right now!

Maybe too late. Already weened.

[bigredradio]

Unrelated to the writers strike, I got rid of my television and cable. I use the internet for news and watch movies with a digital projector. After a couple of months, I not only didn't miss it, but realized a big quality of life increase. More time with the kids, actually eating at the dinner table, etc.

I wonder how many people turned to other entertainment venues due to the strike. If there is NOTHING good on, I am sure some people cut back on their tv watching. Now that viewers have so many options (ie netflix, internet downloads, itunes tv, youtube, dvd kiosks, etc) this could not have come at a worse time. I am curious if this writers strike was the tipping point for a lot of people to ween themselves from their tvs. Not from shows all together, but the old standard of scheduling your life around when your show comes on and sitting through commercials.

Re:Maybe too late. Already weened.

[morari]

I can relate, though oppositely. I hadn't had any television service for a few years (not even PBS!), but just recently obtained a cable connection to the world. It doesn't cost me anything, so I didn't see the harm. Now, however, I find myself and my loved ones watching television far too often. Most of the time is spent just idly looking for something to watch, or watching something that no one really cares about but isn't as mediocre as whatever else may be on. Before we used to watch a lot of films together, which felt a lot more gratifying and only happened two to fours hours a day. Now however, my Netflix subscription doesn't seem to matter as much since we don't watch a daily film or two.

Television is awful, and it continually spirals farther downward. And honestly, I never saw much of a difference between having writers and not having writers around.

Re:Maybe too late. Already weened.

[Aladrin]

For years I have only watched shows that I want to watch. I have not flipped channels, searching for something to watch, in all that time.

What is my secret?

I have hobbies. Too many of them. TV shows are each a hobby and I am drawn to the interesting ones like a moth to a flame. But the boring ones interest me not at all, and channel flipping less so. I've always got something else I've rather do.

The problem is not that 'television is awful', the problem is that you have nothing else you'd rather be doing. Games, playing guitar, making model planes... Anything is better for you than mindlessly channel-flipping.

I seem like I'm preaching, but I'm not. It's simply the answer to your problem.

Re:First post

[Scrameustache]

Yay Numb3rs. I just skip the middleman and rewatch Pi by Darren Aronofsky instead of watching its TV rip-off when I'm the mood for a math story, personally :)