I would have expected to have written more about the writers’ strike, because it involves two of my favourite things: industrial action and Joss Whedon. The Writers Guild of America have been on strike for over two months now, and there’s lots of information out there and good blogs by striking writers. There are also several websites set up by fans who support writers. There was a Mutant Enemy Picket day, where Joss and the writers and actors from Firefly, Buffy & Angel all picketed together. Some fans came from as far as England and Australia to join the picket. (( I’m more than a little jealous that, odds are, the only people who could afford a twelve hour flight to support a picket line with Joss, probably aren’t as into the picket line as much as they’re into the Joss.))
The writing for the Golden Globes and the Oscars is usually done by WGA members. THe Guild has announced that it will refused waivers to allow these ceremonies to be written by Guild writers, and will picket the ceremonies if they go ahead without the writers. ((It’s a little more complicated than that, it’s always a little bit more complicated than that, but that’s enough to get the point.)) Now actors, the sort of Actors who get nominated for Golden Globes and Oscars, have unanimously announced that they will not cross a picket line if the ceremonies are picketed. The first thing Katherine Heigl (to choose one random example, because I have an inexplicable fondness for her) said when she was nominated for a Golden Globe, was that she wouldn’t cross a picket line. Without stars there isn’t much appeal to an award ceremony. What I thought was particularly awesome, was that the actors apparently took this decision themselves:
SAG decided not to pressure its A-List actors about attending or not attending the WGA-struck Golden Globes on NBC. So I’m told the decision not to cross picket lines came from the thesps themselves. In fact, SAG leadership took a meeting with all of Hollywood’s publicists (with a similar collection in NYC via video conference) who told the union that the clients they represent will not cross the WGA picket line for the Golden Globes without exception.
Actors support has gone beyond not getting dressed in pretty gowns and telling their publicists to talk to their union, Actors have picketed, they’ve used their media pull, they’ve appeared in a video campaign.
The reason actors are doing this isn’t just because Hollywood is full of liberals (or radicals in a few cases). Even Patricia Heaton who thanked the troops when she won an Emmy in 2001 supports the writers. The reason the actors, who are all union members, do this is because it’s in their own best interests. The main issue that writers are striking over – payment for work broadcast over the internet is one that is as important for the actors as it is for the writers. If the writers lose then there’s no way the actors would get their residuals. The actors solidarity obviously make the writers stronger (the absense of the nominees for best screenplay wouldn’t torpedo an award ceremony.
In this case, the urgency of that solidarity is really clear. The contracts expire within months of each other and the issues are identical. But the principle of solidarity works the same way whether the workers are half a world away (solidarity of German dockworkers helped win the recent wharfie strike in Napier) or a completely different industry (wharfies helped win the Progressive lockout last year).
The concept of solidarity isn’t hard (it’d be unkind to suggest that if it was people who send their publicists to talk to their union probably wouldn’t be able to grasp it so I won’t), but often it can seem abstract. Which is why such a show of solidarity, even over an event as ridiculous as the Golden Globes, is pretty damn powerful.
On a less solid note, I’m was sad to see that The Daily Show and The Colbert report will be returning tomorrow without their striking writers. I understand that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are under contractual obligations; I understand that they have been very supportive of the strike, I understand that there are lots of other people employed by these show, but crossing a picket line is crossing a picket line.
I do want to say something about editors, grips, craft services, and all the other workers who are involved in making a television show. Those who worked on a television series that has stopped production because of the strike aren’t working and aren’t being paid.
The situation of those workers, while difficult, is not a stick to beat the striking writers with. It’s an obligation of solidarity. When the writers win they, and the actors, need to stand solid with the editors, grips and craft services. Those workers need to know that their picket lines will be honoured, that the actors and writers will stand on the picket line with them. Writers and Actors need to do that because solidarity is a mutal obligation, but also beause it’s in their own best interest. Unless solidarity extends across the industry the gains that are won with this strike will just temporary.
Well, the Golden Globes aren’t a big deal FTMP. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Oscars next month.
Soaps are already starting or soon will be starting to use non-union writers like they did before in 1988. Sometimes, completed scripts just “magically” appear on producers’ desks, that kind of thing.
Some non-guild tech workers have already lost their jobs, especially if they worked on the shows most impacted early on by the WGA strike. I’ve got two relatives who aren’t being paid or have lost the job. A lot of jobs and related industries are non-union.
Although I support the WGA, I don’t know if the SAG or WGA would reciprocate if say, NABET were striking. In the past including recently, there’s been some cooperation between WGA and NABET regarding individual networks, like ABC/Disney for example on a smaller scale. I picketed once for NABET at ABC’s studios during one walkout in the 1990s. Members of the SAG working on a soap opera came out and watched and spoke to people, but still worked as did the writers and directors for ABC including that show. Support and crossing picket lines are two different things.
The SAG’s contract is up in June along with that of DGA so they’ll be hashing out similar issues and there’s already been warnings of striking there. The WGA worried before the strike vote that the DGA might reach a deal which would have greatly hampered the efforts of the writers. Still, WGA’s strikes tend to last a few months so they could still be conceivably on strike still by June.
Entertainment industry aside, I do think it’s important as you’ve said about solidarity among different unions of workers in the same industry, and how it needs to be reciprocal for the better of everyone involved.
I had an interesting experience last year talking with my city’s labor unions, about five of them. Working together instead of allowing themselves to be divided and conquered like the management tried to do was very crucial to almost everyone getting good labor contracts in the era before budgets would be cut, in anticipation to at least a localized recession of sorts due to the foreclosure crisis. Strike votes, law suits, rallies at the city meetings took place during the summer. I blogged about it and several unions asked me to read something I wrote at a council meeting where they filled the chambers. It was a learning experience for me about labor union issues in the government area and the importance of solidarity.
Radfem – good point about how easy it is for management to try and pit workers against each other. It’s easy for management to try and pit workers’ against each other – either within an organisation, like a city council, or with other workers
You may be right about how WGA members would react in the event of a strike in another branch of the industry. But industrial action tends to radicalise people, and however they would have reacted before they’d probably react differently now (and have been supporting other unions during the strike). The way you describe people behaving while NABET, is how everyone, even the actors are behaving now. Films are still being shot, even on lots with picket lines across the gates. TV scripts that had already been written were shot before the shows shut down. Most Hollywood unions have ‘no strike’ clauses, which explicitly forbid solidarity strikes in situations such as these (as a unionist I believe that anyone with an ounce of solidarity in them shouldn’t let a ‘no strike’ clause make them cross the picket line, but it does have an effect on lots of workers) One of the WGA demands is to get the ‘No Strike’ clause out of their agreement, which would hopefully lead to more solidarity between unions.
Maia, I’m glad you mentioned that the WGA is hoping to get rid of the no strike clause… I was about to mention it while reading the comments. Sadly many people read those as “you must cross picket lines” which isn’t the case.
I’ve spent many days on the picket line with writers since the strike began (I’ll admit it was almost as much a networking opportunity as it was wanting to support their cause.) and I can verify the AMPTPs portrayal of them is patently false, the vast majority are struggling to make ends meet even more than I am.
When you look at it, they aren’t even asking for a raise… people who watch TV are slowly gravitating towards the internet, I know during the last season of Lost I didn’t watch the show on broadcast television, but rather on abc.com. All they’re asking is that they get paid for the internet what they do for television, which I can’t fault them for as they’d like to maintain their standard of living.
I only hope that Jon Stuart and Stephen Colbert go the route of scuttling their shows after being forced back a la Conan O’brien rather than taking Leno’s stance of violating strike rules.
note to add as an edit: The editors and grips etc have a clause in the IATSE contract stating that if any other union gets money via “new media” (the internet) they’ll renegotiate. These workers don’t get residuals in the way of cashy money, but in contributions to their pension and health care benefits, so solidarity and a WGA favorable resolution of this strike is not only in their moral, but financial best interest.
By God, if the writers’ strike deep-sixes the Golden Globes and the Oscars, I may send them a check.
For the record; I’m all for unions. I may oppose the objectives of a given union overall or over a particular issue, but I support the right of people to freely associate, to sign a collective bargaining contract with an employer, and to refuse to work and to protest if the employer fails to live up to the contract or if their contact elapses and the employer will not meet their bargaining demands for a new one. I also support the employer’s right to try to hire non-union workers if they think they can do so and get the job done, but that’s the risk anyone takes if they say “I think I am worth more and won’t work unless you pay me more”.
Regarding comments on how employers set one employee against another; I belonged to a union once. I was a cashier in a grocery store. The contract came up after I’d been there a couple of months. I went to my first union meeting (which turned out to be my LAST union meeting) to vote on the contract. I went up to the desk, showed my ID, and asked for a copy of the contract. Long story short – I wasn’t going to get to see a copy of the contract. The guy in charge stood up and told us a story about what a great job they’d done negotiating the contact and how everyone needed to vote for it. I stood up and said “I asked for a copy and couldn’t get one. No one will tell me what I’ll make under the new contract. Until someone gives me a copy of the contract and tells me what I’m going to make, I’m not going to vote for it.” The contract was voted down, over the express displeasure of the union leadership. Guess who was out of a job a month later? Hint – not the union leadership.
So you’d think I’d be sour on unions. But no; just because mine sucked and was a captive of the employer doesn’t mean they all suck. It just illustrates that an employer can co-opt employees who are there supposedly to work for their colleagues.
Also; I agree that the writers should make money if their material is presented in “new media”. Seems to me that trying to withold that is pretty damn greedy.
Here’s a report that there will not be a televised Golden Globes show. I can’t comment on the dependability of the source.
It’s a minor point, I suppose, but Katherine Heigl, to take your example, said that she wouldn’t cross the picket line unless she were contractually obligated. In my mind, if a person is in a position where they will be directly penalized in some way, and if they don’t have union support, expecting them to take the penalty as a solo/non-union move is unreasonable. If they do, that’s great, but I can’t think less of anyone who chooses not to step farther than their union will go.
I agree that there has been a lot of picket line crossing going on, episodes of Grey’s anatomy(to stay on theme) that were already written were shot. John August writers about a conversation he had with JJ Abram’s about directing a movie he’s already written during the strike. The script gets shot as written, and if he thinks of the line that’ll improve the scene ten folds it stays as is. They’d be a lot stronger if work on all those movies and shows had stopped the day of the strike, because no-one crossed a picket line. This isn’t hte fault of individual workers, but a systemic problem of organising, negotiating and solidarity in Hollywood (and many other industries I’m sure).
But, the situation with Stephen Colbert and John Stewart is quantifiably different from those examples. I didn’t call them scabs in this post, because I didn’t know how they were going to go to back to work. I think it would have been possible for them to work to rule. To do their host work and only their host work and left everything that is normally done by a guild member (including themselves in their role as writers) undone. It’s a big ask, because the show would have been bad. But their options were to break their contracts, go on air and look like idiots, or scab. I do think less of them that they chose scabbing.
On a local radio show, the host (a WGA member himself, but not active) was interviewing the WGA head about Leno, and apparently the WGA contracts have some sort of exception in them along the lines of a host exception: Material written by the host for him or herself is exempt from the strike. He didn’t know the exact wording, but he also said (about Leno, but surely Stewart and Colbert qualify) that the WGA wasn’t going to criticize hosts who engaged in that kind of thing.
Edited to add: Hosts who have been supportive of the strike, I should clarify, a category which ought to include Leno, Stewart, and Colbert, as far as I can tell.
Now, to the extent that Colbert and Stewart hire a scab staff to support them, that’s a problem. But I’ll be interested to see how that part plays out.
Auguste – There is no such exception – see the United Hollywood blog. The WGA not going after the hosts, because the enemy are the companies. But the hosts are still scabbing.
Thanks for the link, Maia. I don’t know if the WGA guy was dissembling, underinformed, or if the determination hadn’t been made yet (don’t remember when the interview was, exactly.)