February 3, 2008
End of WGA Strike Near?
Multiple news outlets are reporting that the WGA strike could be over with professional writers back to work as early as next week. Unnamed sources are saying that a tentative deal between the guild and Hollywood studios and producers has been reached. At issue was revenue sharing between writers and producers over content distributed over the Internet. Alternative distribution methods, like downloading and web-streaming, were leaving writers out in the cold and on the short end of the stick.
The strike has been ongoing for about four months and disrupted everything from the regular fall/winter television season to award shows like the Golden Globes. Tens of thousands of people who depend on the television and film industry for work in NYC have been sitting on their hands, when not likely searching under couch cushions for spare change to pay the rent.
Recently, some writers returned to work after producers like David Letterman reached special agreements with the writers guild. Any agreement, such as the one that is anonymously being leaked to the press now, still has to be ratified by the WGA's membership. We're sure everyone would like to get back to work as soon as possible. What are your thoughts on the strike? Are the writers paid enough as is? Are producers totally trying to screw the people who make shows possible? Do you not care and just can't wait to bask in the glow of anything that's not a repeat?
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thank god.
the writer's deserve more.
NICE!
I not care.
"Tens of thousands of people who depend on the television and film industry for work in NYC have been sitting on their hands."
As one of these people, I am glad the spoiled rich writers are finally giving us permission to go back to work.
Good luck. It'll take months to write new scripts and restart production. They can squeeze it in by the beginning of the fall season, but get used to reruns for the rest of this season.
thank god! i heard today that if it's resolved in the next week, it's possible that a full 18 episodes of LOST will go forward for this season. let's hope so.
My critisms of the WGA (not that I like the sleazy producers either):
1) Bunch of spoiled rich kids who trot around in red T-shirts holding red flags as if they were downtrodden mining workers or something. They need to get a life - what they do is not labor, and they are not a labor union; they are a trade organization at best.
2) It seems hypocritical to demand revs from reality TV. Isn't reality TV supposed to be spontaneous and by definition does not use any writers? What am I missing here?
3) Hard to feel sympathetic for a bunch of people who sit around bouncing superballs in writers' labs all day, or irritating us in Starbucks with their clickity-clack laptops. Of course, producers are even worse, being among the lowest forms of life on the planet in terms of how the treat other people. Indeed, neither group attracts much sympathy from the general public.
4) It is about time the Ivy League and Seven Sisters English majors found another way to supplement their trust fund incomes.