Results tagged “americanfederation”

Members of the Writers Guild of America have been striking in Los Angeles and New York this past week over details of a basic contract between writers and producers - one of the biggest sticking points is the amount of residuals writers get from DVD and new media distribution. The NY Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd asked Seth Meyers (who we spoke to on Tuesday) to give her a weekend update about the strike:...

A year ago, CBS 2 reporter Arthur Chi'en was fired for swearing on camera after an Opie & Anthony fan used an "obscene gesture" while Chi'en was reporting on Metrocards, and Chi'en, not realizing he was on air, yelled, "What the fuck's your problem, man?" And CBS 2, reeling from various FCC snafus, pulled the trigger and fired the Chi'en, leading to outrage, Save Arthur Chi'en petition and Chi'en Revolution shirts on Cafe Press. Chi'en, for his part, moved on to a new job with the Channel 11 News at Ten. But, yesterday, an arbitrator found that WCBS's acted wrongly by firing Chi'en. Arbitrator Richard Adelman felt that Chi'en should have been reprimanded, but not terminated for his actions. Here's an excerpt of the ruling:

...the evidence reveals that Mr. Chi'en did not intend for his words to be heard on-air, that this was a singular incident in which the word "fuck" was used outside any sexual context, that the Station did not receive a single complaint about the incident... Furthermore, the applicable Company policy, which, among other prohibitions, prohibited the word "fuck" on the air, does not require the termination of employees for a violation of the policy, and Howard Stern was not terminated for far more egregious on-air conduct. In short, the Company did not have cause to discharge Mr. Chi'en.

The NY Times reports that the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists had "urged him to challenge the firing," in order to avoid unfair firings like this. Here, here - while swearing is clearly not a part of the job, are idiot bystanders supposed to unduly harrass reporters? We are still amazed that WCBS fired Chi'en for standing up for himself.

After 15 days of striking against Radio City Music Hall, Radio City and the American Federation of Musicians reached an agreement that will bring the live music back to the Music Hall tonight. Mayor Bloomberg's negotiator, Frank Macchiarola, helped the two sides reach an agreement that affected the first two weeks of the Christmas Spectacular. Alas, there will be ladies kicking to live music for all to see this holiday season! We're not sure if the giant inflatable rat has been at Radio City for the whole strike, but no more! Wanna know a dirty little Gothamist secret? We've actually never seen the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Are we missing anything?

I'd just like to say that the resolution between broadway musicians and producers is an insult to free enterprise. For some reason I've always been intrigued by the sweet-ass bullshit deal that the American Federation of Musicians had with theatres and producers. I thought that this time for sure, they would stand up for themselves and get rid of that archane assanine deal. Bill Moriarty, head of the local 802, and biggest douche of the week, said of the resolution: "Technology doesn’t always win, and it didn’t win this time". I think he meant to say consumer choice doesn't always win... Like my main man Barney Gumble once said: go back to Russia.