WGA-AMPTP Tentative Contract Now Goes To Membership For Ratification

COMMENTS (12)

• I vote No.

  If my lawyer took a paltry several weeks to negotiate a deal and he gave in to 75% of the other side’s demands I’d fire his ass.

  Comment by Writer of Wrongs — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 1:28pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • That’s okay. Those of us who actually earn our living and support our families by writing will vote yes so we can continue to do so, realizing that this was the best deal to be made under the circumstances. AMPTP hates us. We had no leverage. Guaranteed that if they stayed out longer, things start getting taken off the table, not put back on. Because this time NO ONE ELSE IN HOLLYWOOD IS BEHIND US. Or did you not notice that our staunch allies, the brain trust at SAG, already made their deal? Not to mention the DGA, whom we of course know has the WGA’s interests held close to their heart. If you’re somebody who has nothing to lose because you haven’t worked in years or ever, or you earn your primary living doing something else, you shouldn’t comment. If you are someone who earns their primary living as a screenwriter, wake up.

    Comment by Whatever — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 2:20pm PDT  Reply to this post

    • I am somebody who earns a living and supports my family by writing. Been doing it for over 15 years. So no need to “wake me up.”

      I understand that SAG/DGA made shitty deals. But I don’t care. They don’t represent me. The WGA does. Last I checked I pay MY dues to the WGA.

      If you want to “wake up” then vote NO. Send the WGA negotiators back to the AMPTP. We can’t get a worse deal by making the negotiators go back hat in hand.

      I’m not suggesting we strike again. I’m just saying that the WGA negotiators did a terrible, lazy job. Absolutely NO harm in voting NO.

      Comment by Writer of Wrongs — Monday March 28, 2011 @ 11:26am PDT  Reply to this post

  • “shitty deal”. ahahhaha go work at a coal mine.

    Comment by laticia — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 2:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I agree. Unfortunately, our membership is too timid to take a stand. We elected John Wells as our leader; we deserve this shitty deal.

  The WGA grows increasingly irrelevant every day.

  Comment by blister — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 2:07pm PDT  Reply to this post

• We did it to ourselves. We played all our cards at the behest of Goodman and Verrone and the other morons who wanted to stand around with bull horns and pretend to be Norma Ray during the last negotiations.

  We are screwed. We were played by the AMPTP. The whole leadership has to go if we are going to remain a viable union at all. The BEST we are going to do is to ride the coattails of SAG and DGA next time around.

  Stick a fork in the WGA.

  Comment by Doomsday — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 2:42pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • 100 years ago today, 146 young women and teenagers burned to death in a sweatshop in NYC. Maybe your so-called “shitty deal” is pay back for your union leader calling the last “tv writers” strike: the “most important labor movement of the 21st century”. Please count your blessings that you are not actually one of the repressed and unrepresented and look towards helping those that are.

    Comment by patricia: a gratefully employed — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 3:03pm PDT  Reply to this post

• It is shameful, and yet entirely characteristic, that our board has voted to endorse this breathtaking capitulation. Now the full membership will surely follow suit (with the usual 90+ percent of the vote), failing to recognize that not only is this a monumentally crappy deal that deserves to be rejected on its own terms, but that by ratifying it we’ll be begging the AMPTP to lowball us for years to come. We are rapidly turning this guild into a social club that throws Oscar parties and holds panel discussions about screenwriting software and does fuck all about anything meaningful.

  Comment by StickingWithMyUnion — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 4:27pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Riiiight. Because the AMPTP has been making such generous offers before now.

    Comment by Member, WGA Social Club — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 6:19pm PDT  Reply to this post

• That’s the trouble with most so-called HOLLYWOOD writers today… they have no real life experience, no guts and no sense of what a real labor union is all about!

  They actually believe what their agents tell them… and they in turn work for the same super-agents who control the studios.
  Robert Sherwood, Margeurite Roberts, Rod Serling and all the other great screenwriters would be ashamed to have anything to do with todays WGA!

  Comment by Graham Hill — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 6:31pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Somehow I thought writers were smarter/better informed/had more courage than actors. Guess not. You deserve what you fight for. Anybody want to write a screenplay for me on spec? No cash pay, but once a week I’ll get you an actual bag of peanuts.

  Comment by Simon — Friday March 25, 2011 @ 8:49pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Notice how worthless the WGA became after the former ED was fired and Young was chosen?

  Comment by Ryan — Saturday March 26, 2011 @ 12:30pm PDT  Reply to this post