February 13, 2008
struck dumb
2/13/08
Tessa's gonna give y'all's the post-mortem on our strike. I should add that she walked many more miles on the picket line than I did, but then again, I made the Krazy T-Shirts with stinky iron-ons.. Anyway, here she is:
***
Blessedly, the strike officially ended today. There is no doubt that we made impressive gains and leveraged a strategic toehold in new media. The membership never cracked and I have heard it argued that this was the first real union victory since Reagan castrated labor in the '80s. But there’s a plaguing question that hovers in the hangover haze as we all stumble back to work… was it worth it?
On the down side, Los Angeles lost 3 billion dollars in revenue in the middle of a recession and a state budget crisis. A bunch of hard-working crewmembers suffered without a paycheck for three months for a fight that is not theirs. And the strike may have restructured television development so substantially that we have ensured fewer writing opportunities for the foreseeable future.
On the upside, we stood up to big shameless bullies and didn’t get crushed. We guaranteed our financial participation in an emerging market, which had to happen now - if we had waited until the next contract negotiation, the precedents would have been set (and not in our favor). We stuck together and still have some fight left in us for the next round. The actors and writers have never been more allied. And our relationship with the Director’s Guild is immensely improved. If the guilds keep working together like this, we could provide a real juggernaut of labor justice in 2011.
And I really credit our leadership for their pluck – they managed to be humble and reasoned and feisty all at once. I am sincerely proud of the company we keep.
But here’s the thing… The itchy irritation of a new shirt….
We walked picket lines for three months for no immediate financial gain.
The DVD rate still sucks. Basic cable minimums still suck. And you still can’t get paid decent money to work in animation.
But ultimately we let those things go in order to assure our future. It was a good compromise but compromises are hard. Yes there are things we wish were better, gains we wish were bigger, but in the end, 10,000 petulant writer geeks faced down six multi-national conglomerates. If we can do it, maybe other workers will remember they can too. I’m pretty proud of that.
***
Ian here again. And I'm proud of my girl.
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how others saw the picket lines
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how I saw the picket lines
All I know is that I truly look forward to the day when I watch the Golden Globe Awards from my home TV and I see Ian and Tessa sitting at one of the tables. I belive this will happen. Keep writing!
That is about my favorite diptych ever.
So happy for all you writers. Believe me, you have been missed. And yeah, what ASD said!
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.
Dude, that woman looks like Tessa. She's gonna be pissed if she reads today's entry and catches you eyeballing other women. Maybe, just maybe, she'll skip today since she authored it. That way, if you post something new tomorrow, she's likely never see it.
Is that HOUSE in the be-bop cap right in the front?
And how does an amateur photoshopper do that blurry/focused thing you did?
And congrats to the writers. Bring back my shows. And please let us know what you did get for the future if you didn't get any immediate concessions.
Congratulations! Yeah, no settlement is ever ideal, but I can tell you guys worked hard.
In the numerous settlement negotiations I've been involved with, it was always said that a good settlement is one where neither party feels as if they have won. So, as long as the big shameless bullies feel the same as you, I think it was a good settlement.
I'm glad it is over for all involved and hope to start watching some good new shows.
Congrats on a good settlement!
For GFWD:
To answer your question, we *did* get immediate concessions but they are not immediately monetary.
Because our gains were achieved in "new media," we have ensured some financial participation when new media becomes monetized. Currently, there is not a lot of bank there, just the whisper that one day there will be. And if we didn't fight now, we would lose out for good.
Here's what we accomplished:
More and more material will be produced directly for the web by the big companies and we won "jurisdiction" - which is to say those contracts will be shaped by WGA terms with health care and pension and decent minimums.
More and more television and movies will be "rented" through Apple TV (and the like) and we managed to get a substantial residual bump in that area.
More and more television will re-run on the web (a replacement for traditional syndication) and be supported by ads. We managed two victories there. If the re-run is of an episode over a year old, or any movie, we will receive an historically large residual compensation! If the re-run is of a new or current show, it's very complicated - with an annoying 17-24 day window devoid of all compensation. BUT there was a big, if symbolic, gain there. In the third year of our contract we will receive a percentage of distributor's gross (with an annoying cap, by the way). Not a lot of money, not a perfect arrangement but it sets the precedent that if they get paid, we get paid - which is HUGE.
There are also some subtler victories that impressed me. We moved our contract renegotiation date from November 2011 to May 2011. This matters because SAG's contract date is July 2011. So we could work through our expiration date and walk out with SAG a couple of months later if the companies are as unyielding then as they have been now.. Now that is REAL leverage.
We also a HUGE victory for something called "separation of rights." Right now, when Ian and I strike a deal with, say, Touchstone/ABC. We are separated from our rights to that material. So, if we sell a pitch, right a script and have a huge TV success. And then, later, it is reworked as a film or a musical or soap-on-a-rope, we see nothing. We do not on any level "own" the material we created. But we regained that right for all new media. The producers must acquire those rights separately.
Anyway, this is all very technical. I heard a guy behind me at the last membership meeting saying, "I can't do math. I'm a writer. I don't understand any of this. I only understand the check in the mail."
Well, there won't be a check in the mail for a while. But when Lucy spends all day in her pajamas struggling through a passage of lumpy dialogue for her lyrical and award-winning webisode, we made sure she will be fairly compensated!
TESSA,
Thanks my "hooping buddy" for clarifying what was won. That makes sense to me and does sound like proactive and forward thinking negotiations on behalf of the WGA. More and more I'm downloading my shows from Apple or iTunes when I miss them or my stupid DVR messes up and only records half of LOST.
What is eye-opening to me is that before you could sell an idea that is blatantly morphed from your sitcom into a feature length movie and NOT get the credit or residual monies.
This blog and your touches helped make us understand the whole thing better.
Hey, how has this strike and resulting delays affected the big break you two got a while back on your television show idea? Is that pitch still viable and, more importantly for us, can you finally tell us what the show is or will be about?
Phew. Plenty to be proud of.
Congrats to you both and all the other writers who stood their ground and won! Hooray!
what a relief, right? finally!!!
that picture is crazy, it reminds me of those "magic picture" things where you see the other picture if you stare at it long enough.
just remember when new media becomes monetized — no contract is final, no matter whose signatures, or how many are on it — you can always renegotiate, and so can the other side. and you should. good luck to you, and all the rest.