Date: 2008-02-12 13:44 Subject: WGA Unfair To Working People Security: Public Mood: pissed off

I'm a bit frustrated today.  I need to vent my spleen.

Is it just my profound ignorance showing through, or does this WGA strike have the distinction of being the first labor action in history to take on an entire industry rather than target a specific corporation to address abuses?   Do we usually see strike pickets that say "Entire Auto Industry Unfair To Auto Workers"?  Or is it usually a specific company, ie, Ford, GM, Subaru, etc. that is being struck against?

The Writers are on strike because they feel they have been shut out of the huge profits from films and TV shows that depend directly on their contributions, specifically with regard to new media distributions such as streaming audio/video, podcasting, etc.  To some degree I agree they should have a piece of the pie they help to bake, but on the other hand, where's my slice?

My slice of the pie is that Written programs get produced, and then they are sent to post-production companies to be edited, cleaned up, have effects inserted, have audio sweetened, have titles and logos inserted, have textless elements appended, be reformatted for every possible aspect ratio and method of display, and be prepped for TV or Cable or Satellite or VHS or DVD or other distribution, and at each stage each tape or disk needs to be inspected for human errors and electronic flaws.  I inspect for those flaws.  That's how I make the money to pay my rent, my creditors, my taxes, my utilities.  If the writers won't work, those shows don't get produced, and if nothing is getting produced, nothing gets post-produced, and so there is nothing to be inspected.  Thanks to the striking writers, I have no work, even though I have no direct connection to the studios the writers have their grievances with.

The WGA has eaten my slice of the pie.

Had they taken the low road and selected one major studio to act against (ie, Disney Unfair To Writers) then that studio would have been immasculated while business flowed around them to their competitors.  When that studio's executives were sick of being forced to watch sweet projects be signed to their competitors while their own gathered cobwebs on dormant soundstages, they would have capitulated and signed the sweetheart agreement.  Then the WGA would have turned around and done the same thing to the next studio in line (Warner Bros. Unfair To Writers) then the next (Paramount Unfair To Writers) and so forth.   Think of the way Jesse Jackson raises $$$ for his causes.  Don't call it extortion.  Call it an effective strategy that has been proven to work.

Instead, the Writers Guild has chosen to gut the entire entertainment industry in one fell swoop.  They have caused thriving post houses to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, forced the laying off of thousands of gainfully-employed editors, colorists, machine operators, and skilled professionals, and wasted billions of dollars of other people's money.  Forget the major TV Networks and the Big 5 Studios.  What about the craftspeople who make their living building sets and props?  What about the artists who design makeup and lighting schemes and costumes?  What about the laboratories that process film, or colorists who transfer film to videotape?

How many people who make their living doing business with the Major Studios & Networks have been wiped out by this strike?  How many more will be before the WGA is satisfied?  I hope they win.  I hope they get everything they want and more.  I hope they get contracts that make them wealthier than all the OPEC nations put together.

I hope this because I want there to be plenty of assets for them to lose after their little labor action comes to a close, when they get sued for malpractice by all of the multitudes of people and corporations they have brought to the brink of ruination by not selecting a specific target to strike against.   

I want the other shoe to drop...on the WGA.