Support the Writers

Just a quick post to link to unitedhollywood, a blog writing about the writer’s strike. We should show our support for the union.

Update: I like most of their news, but this post at womensensenews  doesn’t get it:

But the pink-collar crowd lacks the solidarity of a union or a $12 million strike fund, as members of the Writers Guild have. Support workers are not collecting residuals, those nice income streams that jet a little money into a writer’s wallet every time a show using an old script gets re-aired.

…

At least one notable entertainment industry veteran, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, gets it. “The studio executives are not going to suffer, the union leaders are not going to suffer, the writers that are striking, they are not going to suffer,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference early last week. “Those are all people that have money.”

What’s amazing is that she even notes that the average salary of a writer is $62,000 when they’re working and 48% are out of work at a given time. Given that some make much more than that and it’s obvious that there are many writers who will suffer. Also, one of the first posts at United Hollwood talks about the support workers:

“I am a teamster. A location scout on a TV show. My small corner of Warner Brothers Television is far removed from the writers’ offices. I make a fraction of what they do, work more hours, and my family’s schedule is ruined every time they write “EXT: NIGHT.” I’ve been on my current show for 10 weeks and I just met my first writer.

Yet if the next time I see him he’s wearing a red shirt and carrying a placard, I will not cross his line.

Why?

I could just say “Teamsters don’t cross picket lines.” I could just say “I need a vacation.” I could just say “I believe in the rights of the working man.” While that is all true, the real reason is more complex. I believe this is the opening round of a long battle that every union member in Hollywood will have to face as our contracts expire.

The digital world is not in the future, it is here now. It is now possible to watch Television and Movies entirely on the internet, and the network sites, with ads galore, are proof. This is not a hypothetical. It is profit-making reality. If the writers are denied fair payment for reuse, I do not believe the Directors, Actors and the rest of us will fare any better when our turn comes.

Yes, I said the “rest of us.” While I don’t receive individual residual payments for my work as a teamster, my pension and health fund does. As the distribution stream goes digital those residual payments will slow to a trickle, and the fund will suffer. When the time comes I plan on being old, sick, and in need of Health Care. And the WB doesn’t want me to have it.

A typical business practice is to try to divide the workers, Sandra Korbin buys into it in her post.