WGAE & WGAW Members Vote Tuesday Whether To End Strike (As TV Show Runners Went Back To Work Monday)

COMMENTS (46)

• Dear Mike Binder,

  Glad to see you blaming “all the little anonymous weasels that have ripped this town apart for the last year and got us all into this kind of trouble in the first place” that shows great strength of character. You “got into trouble” because of people you don’t know. That makes it easy to blame “them” doesn’t it?

  Good to know that you were railroaded into striking by anonymous weasels on industry websites. Like a lemming you were forced over the cliff by the siren song of anonymous weasels posing as rabble-rousers.

  Verrone and Young led the charge. Those damn weasels who do they think they are in charge of the Weasels Guild of America. How dare they lead the great Mike Binder off a cliff?

  Sincerely,

  Chief Weasel in Charge of Binderology

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 12:40am PST  Reply to this post

• The moral is: do what you have to do to get back to work and save your houses, but figure out a way to sync the WGA up with the reality TV writers and, especially, the editors. There is nothing like locking up a show in an Avid to get people’s attention.

  Comment by a spouse — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 6:20am PST  Reply to this post

• hey. wga WRITER.

  GOOD-job on the strike there buddy. Well see you out their picketing by your self after you VOTE no-no huh!

  haha funny.

  Comment by k3d — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 7:24am PST  Reply to this post

• I have been sickened by the vitriol on these comment pages. Dissent is fine, to be encouraged in fact, but what passes for discussion on these pages is shameful. Reading them is like sitting next to the drunk at the end of the bar, who suddenly turns and begins ranting at the CNN broadcast on the television up in the corner. Some of the points he raises, I might agree with. I might be entertained by him at points. But he gets louder and just nasty for nasty’s sake. Inevitably, a line gets repeatedly crossed. A simple line of reasoned debate and common decency. To say nothing of common sense, in regard to the conspiracy theorists out there. We may not have gotten everything we wanted, but a lot was accomplished. I don’t want everyone hold hands and sing “Kumbaya”. I just want good people who disagree to stop embarassing themselves.

  Comment by MIKE MARTINEAU — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 8:20am PST  Reply to this post

• WGA Writer,

  Your copy of Strunk and White is out of date, and clearly you’ve never published prose professionally, not in the last few decades at any rate.

  Your proposed use of commas would be considered by the average New York copy editor to be excessive at this time.

  It probably got you plenty of gold stars in English class “back in the day” (slang, but what the hell!) but would get you laughed out of a major publishing house today.

  But hey, thanks for the tips on the typos! If you get your way and the strike continues, I’ll be sure to brush up on my typist skills.

  However, my point about the amateur writing on here was made about screenwriters (who aren’t so concerned with old fashioned comma usage) not book writers and it’s still clear to me you work in neither field.

  But most importantly, you obviously are also neither a board member, a leader of the guild, an attorney hired by the guild, a member of the negotiating committee or a strike captain, all of whom have approved this deal and are voting for it.

  My random guess is that you also aren’t even in the WGA, and if you are, probably haven’t worked in years. Real, working professionals in the WGA ply their trade in a highly political art form where running around calling people “dicks” doesn’t tend to get you rehired with any regularity.

  I’m sure you’re grateful for those WGA “My Mother the Car” residuals that still come despite you having told those phillistines off when they dared to touch your genius dialogue.

  I thank God for small favors, like the fact that people like you are in the minority. You can spew your vitriol here, but probably you can’t vote and we’ll all be better off for it.

  But even If you are an active member who can vote, and you vote this down, what is your big plan? Who would negotiate this dream perfect deal for you? Certainly not the leaders of our guild after having recieved your “vote of no confidence.”

  Wow, there’s leverage for you in a negotiating room.

  And supposing you could find someone willing to negotiate on the guild side, who do you think they’d be speaking with? Certainly not Iger and Chernin who, in rather a trust busting move, didn’t bother to get a consensus among the six other companies, they just went off on their own and closed the deal.

  However, I can assure you if it’s turned down, they will not be back in the room. It will be Nick Counter.

  But of course you know all about that, since he clearly pays your salary.

  How much do you get for posting on here?

  I’m just curious.

  Comment by WGAWrss Sense — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 8:40am PST  Reply to this post

• To those that want to stay on strike until SAG strikes and saves the day…

  who said SAG is going to strike?

  I keep reading this everywhere, but why is everyone so certain? After seeing how “successful” the WGA was, and the strife and grief this strike has caused the industry, I don’t believe SAG will bother.

  So you might as well vote “yes” today.

  Comment by JoeCool — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 8:54am PST  Reply to this post

• We’re fighting fire with marshmallows. What we ought to do — and direct the Guild to do with its pension fund — is buy stock in the publicly traded communications behemoths, then show up at stockholders’ meetings to challenge and fire the corporate officers whose mismanagement forced the strike to happen. And I’m tired of having it called “the writers strike.” It was the AMPTP strike, but it was fought by writers. Blaming the WGA is like blaming an assault victim for prosecuting her attacker.

  Comment by Nat Segaloff — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 9:27am PST  Reply to this post

• Tom Reynolds, gotta love it…well said.

  Comment by Dave — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 9:58am PST  Reply to this post

• Gosh. When Mike Binder AND Chad Lowe come out of the woodwork, we all better buck up and listen.

  Comment by WGAE writer — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 10:10am PST  Reply to this post

• To the small percentage of actual WGA members left posting here – don’t assume the vote is a foregone conclusion. Complacency is risky when there are still people who believe that voting this deal down would be anything other than disastrous. So get your ‘yes’ vote in, in person or by proxy – and let’s move on. Then see you all in three years, when I believe the real deal will be done. Amen.

  Comment by Paul — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 10:15am PST  Reply to this post

• I’ll be voting “yes.” Not “YES!,” but “yes” nonetheless.

  First, though, the negatives. The things that keep me from using the Caps Lock key and hitting that exclamation point.

  These days, I work mainly in cable. So I’m troubled by the fact that the DGA increases in cable directing were not mapped to writing fees and the fact that the vaunted 2% of gross for ad supported streaming does not apply to original cable shows.

  Next, the failure to secure a DVD rate increase. I would have struck for this alone. I understand that, in the end, this may have been impossible to secure. I also understand that in time ESTs will probably cannabilize this market. Still, not getting a DVD bump (and not having favored nations if SAG pulls off a miracle and gets it for themselves) is a major disappointment.

  Now for the neutrals:

  I’m not thrilled by the 17-24 day window. Still, I’ve seen firsthand how free viewing windows can help a shows ratings, not to mention boost ESTs. For many, this is a huge negative. For me, it’s fairly neutral. I would have prefered a shorter window. We didn’t get it. C’est la guerre.

  An EST rate of .7% (.65% for films) is not terrific, but it is an improvement on the .3% rate the studios were insisting for before the strike. I recently developed a show that sold well on iTunes. I’ll let the checks be the judge of how good a deal this is.

  And finally, the upside:

  I feel that 2% of televison library streaming (including, from what I can tell, cable shows in the second year of streaming and beyond), 1.2% of feature steaming, 1.2% of online rentals, and New Media jurisdiction with separated rights are substantial wins. More than that, they’re the things we had to get from this strike to protect the future of the entire WGA.

  Sadly, I do not think we would have gotten these gains without a strike. In the end, we did better than I feared, worse than I hope. Our leadership did their very best. In some places they came up a bit short, but all in all they achieved their most important goal, they laid the groundwork for our future in New Media.

  And that gets a “yes” from me.

  Comment by Robert Wolfe — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 10:40am PST  Reply to this post

• The deal:

  - same DVD residuals
  - reality and animation is still not WGA
  - promotional window for internet downloads/streams
  - the new media residuals are actually really crappy if you consider that on-demand via internet is likely to replace a lot of re-runs.

  So… People really striked for this deal? The rhetoric of the WGA made me believe they wouldn’t stop until they brought down all of the big corporations to their knees. Revolution was nigh, or at least those Youtube videos from the picket line told me so.

  This deal is a letdown.

  Comment by Anonymous — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 2:39pm PST  Reply to this post

• “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
  Comment by WGA WRiter with Business Sense — February 11, 2008 @ 8:29 pm

  “…And cliche is a hole in it.” Get some better yarns, Tina – that dress is falling apart.

  I don’t have a IMDB profile, and the prospect of writing anything lame enough to make a plutocrat enough horse to hoof me into the Guild is but a beggar’s fanciful wish. I’m certainly no “Mike Binder.” But I beseech you fellow writers and entertainmentvolk: judge debaters and their arguments on their own stupid and ad hominem merits, not on the size of one’s IMDBalls. “Tom Reynolds?” The Tom Reynolds who was in one episode of Dynasty? I won’t rely on “Alex’s Secretary’s” profundity to determine the apex and zenith of my compensatory destiny, thanks. (For he is no Mike Binder either…)

  Nothing I’ve said herein is as odious as this name-dropping circle jerk. It’s as obnoxious as Eisner announcing the strike’s “done”ness while the meat was still marinating in the fridge. Each person plying this field, from loudest Mr. Anonymous to Google-readiest Reign Over Mike, has a stake and is owed a voice. Our priggishness or benevolence as storytellers and individuals earns us our reputation in this world, not our paycheck or our Internet credits. Enough of this piss vinaigrette.

  Granted, your obnoxiousness masks valid points. It’s time for this strike to end, to get BTL folks off of collection agency hit-lists and avert the nascent World’s Loudest Gassy Secretaries on NBC. I also agree with Jonathan Handel that forgetting DVDs was unfortunate on the WGA’s part, but that pudding was thrown in the pot hastily and years too late. But it’s not falling on your sword to admit this contract is not perfect nor great – since it also isn’t eternal. I trust those who have been through this before, who know better, to vote in my name. I hope you all realize it’s not just your gambit you’re throwing here. And I hope, when I get the chance, to make an equal or better ante someday.

  (Get thee gone, Nikki’s flu!)

  Comment by Seth — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 3:57pm PST  Reply to this post

• WGAWrss Sense: Many of his spelling and grammar points were actually spot-on. Just because publishing house and newsprint standards have gone to shit (and they have) doesn’t mean you weren’t wrong (and you were). You know how I know you’re probably a working screenwriter in the WGA? Ho, ho. Again, it’s high time to temper the “My vote’s bigger and thicker than yours” rhetoric. And can we spell “philistines” correctly and mind the “I before E” rule? Let’s act like we graduated from high school.

  Robert Wolfe, you not only kick ass (DS9 for the win!) but you crystallized the pros and cons of this plan without calling writerly hopefuls like me useless shits for our concern. Kudos. I have to believe, have to desperately cling to the hope that this really did cement a future for the Writer’s Guild and other entertainment unions in this country. My abiding and overriding concern has been that I would never have a WGA to join, much less a fair contract. If you’ve seen any of the other strike forums on the Internet (and even at times here), there’s a huge anti-union sentiment from people my age. My generation was weaned on our parents’ formula and tasted the Kool-Aid still lingering therein (flavor: Reaganomics Raspberry). It’ll only do harm.

  Re: the promotional window, was the point ever made that the life span of Internet video is a mere fraction of that of any other medium? An Internet vid can be a hit, a t-shirt, a Halloween costume, and out in days. I just worry the studios will reap their e-cents easily and click “X” before the windows close.

  Thank you for your moment’s balance in this discussion about the deal with this deal.

  Comment by Seth — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 4:18pm PST  Reply to this post

• 1) It turns out “miscapitalized” isn’t even a word. Well, I take that back. “Miscapitalized” is a word like “ginormous” is a word.

  2) “Apparant” is actually spelled “apparent”. Too bad for you the “a” and “e” buttons aren’t close enough together to form a proper excuse, right?

  So, honestly, how does it feel to be a writer with a god complex? Were you too busy reading grammar books as a child to hear the “don’t be an asshole” talk from your parents?

  Shame on you

  Comment by John C. (Not A Writer) — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 4:21pm PST  Reply to this post

• To my good friend WGAWrss Sense (or whatever you call yourself now),

  I’m having such fun with the little flame war, so let’s take it one more round, and then I’m done.

  First off– No question- my vote of “no” is *not* going to be in the majority by any means, and I’m very much expecting a blowout in the “yes” direction. But I think we could have done better in the end than the contract we have, so my vote is more a registration of that opinion. [update: email says it passed 92%, so there you go]

  Second– I hate to be the one to tell you, but Strunk and White are still the go-to dudes on comma usage, even in 2008. My proposed usage of commas would hardly be considered “excessive”. It’s called standard English, my friend– sorry to humiliate you like that, but you gave me little choice. I am amused and flattered that you think I last “published prose” decades ago. Thank you.

  It is the paragon of douchery to go all Mr. Grammar on someone in a nasty screed itself littered with grammatical errors. (Oh, and since you were criticizing screenwriters and not “book writers”, I’ll note that the use of sentence fragments is fairly common in the screenplay format. Try reading one sometime.)

  Of course, it’s just as hypocritical to ridicule the idea of “shills” in one post, then in the next accuse me of being paid (by whom exactly? Nick Counter? Really?) for posting here.

  You claim I am giving a “vote of no confidence” towards the leadership- I bear no ill will AT ALL toward the negotiating committee, the board, or anyone else. I like them personally and admire them very much for their tenacity, drive, organization, and accessibility, and think they’ve done a great job throughout the strike AND have defended them many times under many circumstances. My problem is with the contract proposal itself and the rapidity by which we are being asked to vote for it. I, like so many others, didn’t appreciate the tone of inevitability at the meeting (you’re wondering how I was there since I’m not a member, right?), nor the short timeframe for reviewing the contract summary.

  I *still* have not seen the actual contract language. Have you?

  Comment by WGA Writer — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 5:58pm PST  Reply to this post

• Alright.. despite saying I was going to leave this alone, and regardless of whatever your response may be, I’ve given it some thought… so let me say one final thing…

  Yes, I’d have liked to have seen the actual contract and had time to read through it in detail before the strike was called. And I wish the terms were much better and worry they will have some not-so-nice consequences long-term… But this whole thing is now over, and we’ll never know one way or the other what was possible and what wasn’t… So in the spirit of let’s-all-move-forward-and-kumbaya, I’m going to apologize for calling you a dick (and even a douche).

  The time for polarizing rhetoric is over. It’s time to deal with whatever happens next. And we did accomplish some very good things these three months… so massive props to the leadership for getting us all off our collective asses in the first place.

  And with that, I am out.

  WGA Writer

  PS- Nick Counter did not pay me for this one either.

  Comment by WGA Writer — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 8:34pm PST  Reply to this post

• WGA Writer,

  I hope you and the other 7.5% aren’t feeling too sad.

  92.5% of us are tying one on, and thrilled to go back to our jobs.

  If you ever have one again, you’ll see how much fun it is.

  Good day, sir.

  P.S. I’m also voting for Obama, so it’s a good day for me!

  Comment by WGA WRiter with Business Sense — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 9:42pm PST  Reply to this post

• “Better than I’d feared, worse than I’d hoped.”

  Good one, Robert Wolfe. Restoring my faith in writers in one fell post.

  Comment by tv editor — Tuesday February 12, 2008 @ 10:35pm PST  Reply to this post

• John C-

  Thanks for the spell-check. But I think you missed my overall point- proper spelling and grammar are NOT some kind of litmus test for what makes a decent writer. (Not that I’m claiming to be that either. “God complex”? Hardly.) So I kinda think we agree.

  Cheers, and I’m done with this thread now.

  WGA Writer

  Comment by WGA Writer — Wednesday February 13, 2008 @ 12:05am PST  Reply to this post

• WGA Writer,

  Your gracious apology is more than accepted and I extend mine in return.

  It’s over. Thank God.

  Comment by WGA Writer with Business Sense — Wednesday February 13, 2008 @ 10:00am PST  Reply to this post