Cannes: Theft Leads China Film Group VP To Bow Out Of Keanu …
UPDATE: Yahoo Board OKs $1.1B Deal To Acquire Tumblr …
Cannes: Sony Classics Wins Stateside Rights To Asghar …
‘Fast & Furious 6′ Breaks Records In …
Specialty Box Office: ‘Frances Ha’ Triumphs As …
‘Saturday Night Live’ Season Finale Posts …
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower …
Cannes: Backup Media, Memento Bring Heat To Fest Helmer Jim …
Cannes: Sundance Selects Acquires Dardenne Brothers’ …
Cannes: Wrekin Hill Acquires U.S. On Gabriele …
Bill Hader’s ‘SNL’ Stefon Farewell: Video
Cannes: The Weinstein Co. Books ‘Suite …
BBC Confirms ‘Doctor Who’ Season 8
Finally, Cannes Dealing! Radius-TWC Nabs Director’s …
Hammond On Cannes: Wet Fest’s Official Competition …
‘Vampire Academy’ Adds ‘Modern …
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Finale Up, …
Cannes: Worldview Options Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn …
UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers
‘Mike & Molly’ Creator Mark Roberts To …
Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts Set For …
This afternoon, there was an unexpected development in the battle over union organizing by the writers of 
Comcast Entertainment Group who’ve engaged the Writers’ Guild of America West for the purposes of collective bargaining with their employer. (CEG includes the E!, Style!, and G4 networks, as well as Versus, Sprout, and Fear Net.) U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer decided to take an active role in the impasse between Comcast and the Writers’ Guild:
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ... Loading ...
Guys. Please. Comcast is sitting on billions of dollars of cash. Let them purchase NBCU. If they don’t, who knows what will happen with Universal.. it will probably go down the shitter, since it was headed down that road anyways.
All the other nonsense can be worked out later.
the transaction is GOOD for the community…
Just a quick mention that this is about the writers. The company can and should deal with them now. They have earned it. They are the employees that made this merger even possible. This isn’t “nonsense” as you call it. This is about providing for their families. Once Comcast deals with the business they DO own, THEN they can deal with pushing some HORRIBLE merger down all of our throats.
BTW, this merger is not good for any community. It is a violation of this country’s antitrust laws which are in place to protect us as consumers and citizens. Amazing that you are so ready to dismiss what our legislators fought so hard for in the past. A very sad day indeed…
well said, Janeen.
Janeen,
Federal Law does not require Comcast to certify the union without a vote. Now, I have no problem with the writers joining a union, and I wish them all the best. But requiring an actual vote is hardly some kind of onerous barrier to union formation.
Federal regulators are tasked with enforcing anti-trust laws. Whether or not Comcast certifies the union without a vote has absolutely nothing at all to do with that. Yet Senator Boxer hints that the anti-trust decision will be contingent on Comcast bowing to the union’s will.
So the issue here is somewhat broader than the writers and their well being. It reflects on the well being of the whole nation. Senator Boxer is threatening a private business with adverse regulatory decisions if she doesn’t get her way. That’s an abuse of power, plain and simple. Even if, in this case, her cause is a good one, it doesn’t bode well for the country that our legislators have grown so arrogant.
Boxer shouldn’t be promoting union certification BEFORE an actual vote takes place.
Why not? Comcast can voluntarily recognize the WGA and forgo the NLRB certification process.
so true. I was on the fence when I voted for her. mad at myself for voting for her afterall…it will be the LAST time i support her.
This might (and I hesitate to even use that word) be good in the very short term for a very few people still working in Hollywood but the rest of us who pay the cable & telecom bills and put up with enough big media crap (from both the entertainment & news divisions from these two Godzillas) who live outside SoCal & NYC already think this NBC Comcast merger is a terrible idea.
This game NBC & Comcast are playing isn’t worth the candle. I predict they’ll still go bust & someone with sense will buy up their libraries Ted Turner style while perhaps someone else will make entertainment & news the public actually sees as worth paying for (what they pimp right now is why so many are cord-cutting).
I see ‘United States Senator’ below Boxer’s name and suddenly I am ill. This is a vile, terrible woman who really has no business running amok in Congress. Well done, California!
I second that motion! Yes, we Californians are an embarrassment for re-electing the Boxer, who has done nothing for California except take money from the unions and kill private sector jobs.
You are hysterical. Please get some meds.
Just how is she vile and terrible?
I am proud of Barbara Boxer. We need more like her in government.
She voted against the Iraq war.
Blow it out your butt.
Senator Boxer ROCKS!
Union good, all of you bad.
And you, derby … shoulda been out there stumping for Carly, too bad so sad.
Robert Not So Wise, I agree as a member of the WGA and recently I had the honor of being a paid Advance Man for Sen. Boxer’s bid for her Senate seat. Here is the real deal, in times like these jobs are what is needed to keep America working… Comcast = Jobs. Once Sen. Boxer and I traveled up to Northern California on a Job s Tour this summer and there was going to be a union labor work stopage the day we were schedule to arrive. I saw for myself that Sen. Boxer got directly involved with both the union and the contractors and there was no work stoppage. They were going to cut wages by 5% but it was worked out. Our great Senator Boxer needs to understand that we can revisit this after the merger just like she did with the workers at airport stimulous package work tour. We must build a bridge to the buyers and work out the rest once the buyers are actually in place.
I run a business with 23 employees and if any one of them tried to brown nose me in such a blatant, fragrant manner I’d can them on the spot.
You think that last WGA strike was something, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Just wait till writers walk off the job to protest scum like Comcast that treat writers badly. Right now, already, back room discussions are taking place. Look for the “mother of all strikes.” Be prepared to shut down Hollywood for a minimum of 2-3 years to show the Comcasts of the world that they can’t treat writers like this.
Corporate Stooge.
Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll Troll
You’re an idiot… Let the reality writers strike, there’s tens of thousands of PA’s ready to step up and take their place. You union supporters really are morons. Strike of all strikes? Um, we’ll just shoot the reality shows somewhere else. Reality is not nearly as structured as scripted shows. I’m a producer of both, and it would be no sweat off my back to move my two series to a place like Utah where the unions can’t bother them… All you effing unions are doing are costing CA people jobs, and costing the state tax dollars. Go ahead with your “mothe of all strikes”… I guarantee it won’t shut down hollywood for a WEEK much less 2-3 years.
Comcast is well within their right to request a NLRB Election. Let the merger happen, if it must, then work out the labor issue.
Rick, I love your sense of humor. A 2-3 year strike is hilarious.
Good for Boxer for standing up for the rights of workers. Comcast has a history of mistreating and under paying employees at all levels and that must stop. The company is choosing to stall and to harass their employees rather than expedite an election process. They have taken no action besides calling meetings in which they waste people’s time playing dumb and assure their employees that they have very important information although they have provided no information.
Agree with Boxer on this one, it’s a good point. The government has let the large entertainment companies completely swallow up Hollywood whole – this should receive another look at all levels. It’s going to happen any way, but I’m all for this not be stamped through as so many things have been when it’s come to big business. Unions…. the good ones… serve a purpose.
2-3 year strike? Obviously a comedy writer. And “the writers are the ones that made this merger possible?” Comedic and delusional. They contributed, but just as much as the rest of Comcast employees who are mostly non-union in their various departments that help create/promote/distribute the content. To the hilarious Janeen, “this is about providing for families?” Really? These writers aren’t exactly starving. There are plenty of employees who work just as hard who would love their paychecks. And in the majority of these shows in question the term writer is a very loose term which to many is a slap in the face to many true writers. Storyboarding a docu-series of footage following a c-list celebrity around town isn’t exactly on the same field as Sorkin or Gervais in terms of what constitutes writing.
Trust me. all the people involved in this movement are actual WRITER writers. There are no gray area story sculptors or the like involved (i.e. people that work on the Kardashians). These are people who actually write what is said on the air.
Storyboarding a docu-series of footage following a c-list celebrity around town isn’t exactly on the same field as Sorkin or Gervais in terms of what constitutes writing.
Yeah, it’s harder.
Anyway, the folks who write those shows wouldn’t get covered in this situation because they write “Reality.” But that’s another fight for another day.
Barbara Boxer: I don’t care what the law is, Unions rule, so let them do whatever they want, *OR*, I will do everything that I can to prevent this merger from going forward.
‘Union good,’ Joe B.? Yikes!
It’s the public sector unions that are killing/have killed California.
wise up for god’s sake. unions aren’t inherently bad. without the unions you wouldn’t be even having a weekend off , let alone a thanksgiving weekend, you ingrate. stop swallowing everything you are force fed.
Hogwash.
Im absolutely sickened by this letter suggesting comcast automatically recognize the WGA without a vote that allows employees to hear both sides prior to secret ballot. Where is the democratic process? This would be akin to elections being left to poll data vs. actual voting. Maybe boxer thinks her next reelection should be determined by poll results she provides vs. an actual independent process. So surprised Boxer wouldn’t see this. What is wrong with both sides being given opportunities to state their respective positions? It simply baffles me as to how she could take the position of urging a company to accept a union simply because they say it’s so. She reiterated the unions claim that 80% of the base wants a union, maybe this is an inaccurate claim? How does anyone know it’s actually 80%? has it been independently verified? Even if true, any chance some of those 80% agreed after feeling pressured or ill informed. The whole point against a vote seems to be a delay of “several months” Really? Are you kidding me? E Entertainment has been around for 20 years, why can’t an employee base that’s been in place for 20 years be asked to delay a union vote for a few months simply to hear both sides? Again, where is the democratic process? The claim that NBCU is union so shouldn’t these future NBCU nets be too? I think this is the best argument for the union, but presupposes govt approval of the transaction. Therefore, shouldn’t the merger be closed before expectations of consistent union recognition be used as a rationale?
I think the best thing to happen in this situation is for the writers to go on strike, forever, or as long as they wish. TV and it’s imbeciles that put themselves up on pedestals like we need the crap they put on all “friggin” many cable channels we have will not be missed. Dancing with the stars, kardashians, schmersey shores,
“all that crap” etc…on TV would not be missed, except for all the victims in this country that want crap given to them while they sit around and watch this crap on TV. It’d might, but for most probably not, give them a reason to get off their duff and go out and be friggin productive.
This article just goes to show that Barbara Boxer does not care about creating jobs in California. All that she cares about is placating and keeping the unions happy. After all, it was they and they alone that elected her this time. If Comcast signs a WGA contract, just watch how fast they shut down their California offices and relocate to Arizona; a state where many of my friends have already gone to.
how much money did Boxer get from the unions for her re-election? She shouldn’t be getting into the middle of this. But then again, she doesn’t have much judgement (as virtually anyone in Washington from both sides of the political aisle will tell you…)
shocking that a liberal politician is siding with a union… a union that probably contributed tons of money to her campaign and God knows what else. Are people really so ignorant they can’t see how the system really works?