On Strike

This is my first blog, what I hope will be one of many reflections on art, politics, current events, family life, etc. Today’s entry combines all of the above.

One of the five labor organizations to which I belong is now on strike. I am on strike. The WGA (Writers Guild of America) announced a strike on Monday, November 5, against the AMPTP, often referred to inaccurately as “the producers.” What AMPTP actually represents is the corporate Entertainment Cartel. These are some very big players in the world, and include General Electric, AOL Time Warner, Disney, News Corporation, Viacom, Vivendi, Sony, Bertelsmann, AT&T and Liberty Media. The WGA has a host of demands but I’ll touch on the two most important.

TWENTY-TWO YEARS WITHOUT A RAISE
The first demand is to increase the DVD Residual formula which has been in effect for twenty-two years. On a DVD which you buy for $19.99, the current formula pays the writer who created the story four cents. Yes, you read that correctly. And what do we greedy writers want now? Well, after 22 years without a raise, we want four more cents. Wow. Eight whole cents.

THE INTERNET IS THE FUTURE or “YOU GET PAID, WE GET PAID.”
The second demand revolves around Streaming Video. Currently, the Writers get paid NOTHING. The AMPTP has offered…NOTHING. That’s right. You can go online right now and watch episodes of your favorite TV series for free. The Studios say these are for “promotional purposes only” and that’s why they can’t pay the Writers. What they neglect to mention but which becomes readily apparent when you watch any of these episodes, is that they are already charging Advertisers to support those broadcasts. Over the next three years, this kind of on-line Advertising revenue is estimated to earn 4.6 Billion Dollars. The WGA wants a (very) modest share of that. Our feeling is, “If you get paid, we get paid.” Of course, one can’t predict with absolute certainly how much money is to be made here but the WGA is ok with that. We just want a small percentage. That way, if this tanks, well, we’re all in the same boat together. But if it hits, then we all make money together.

But hidden within this usual labor/management brawl is a much, much bigger issue. Internet is clearly the wave of the future. At some point, your TV and your Computer will become one thing. If Writers don’t win the right today to be compensated for their work when it is shared over the net, they will effectively be cut out of that future. What is really happening here is a land grab of historic proportions. The AMPTP sees an opportunity to eliminate entirely the writers (and undoubtedly the Actors and Directors) and seize all future revenues for itself. I believe that’s called, “Union Busting.”

SHOW ME THE MONEY
Finally, one last word about the money. The AMPTP typically claims poverty when it is talking to the writers. But when they are talking to their shareholders, they tell a very different story, one in which business has never been better, and their income and share value continues to improve. You can’t have it both ways. For a particularly amusing short video on this hypocrisy, check out “Voices of Uncertainty”
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a37uqd5vTw.

Another way to give real world context to the writer’s demands is to consider this: the WGA increases in its contract proposal would amount to less than $200 million over the next three-year term. During this same period, the annnual salaries of just four principal CEOs - Viacom/CBS Corp. Chairman Sumner Redstone ($56 million), CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves ($25 million), News Corp. Chief Rupert Murdoch ($26 million) and News Corp. prexy Peter Chernin ($34 million) - will equal $423 million. I don’t know these individuals but I’m sure they’re all fine people who would probably defend their extraordinary salaries as just compensation due for their hard work. I have no problem with that in theory – so long as we all get justly compensated for our hard work. That’s what this strike is about.

For more information on these issues I recommend the following websites:
Deadline Hollywood Daily. http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com./
Where the indefatigable Nikki Finke continues to report stories that the major press, to its shame, can’t or won’t, print.
United Hollywood. http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/
A recent blog/site created by WGA Strike Captains with the latest news from the WGA front lines.

“First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” Mahatma Ghandi