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Few issues divided the WGA more than the leadership's post-strike publication on April 18th of the names of its 28 members who went fi-core during the strike. After the WGA's solidarity during the strike itself, I was flabbergasted by the huge schism which WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East president Michael Winship created with their letter. It turns out that the AMPTP took advantage of the discord and filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, which has now sided with the Hollywood CEO negotiating clique against the WGA.
The NLRB focused on one sentence in that WGA statement: "...this handful of members who went financial core, resigning from the union yet continuing to receive the benefits of a union contract, must be held at arm's length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are -- strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk." Was this the WGA urging members to shun the "puny few", most of whom were soap opera producer-writers? So now the NLRB ruling, which overturned a earlier decision in favor of the WGA by the labor body's regional director, results in a hearing before an administrative law judge in Los Angeles sometime in the next few months. The WGA had this statement: "This is a pending legal matter and the Guild will defend itself fully at the NLRB hearing."
You may recall that during the strike, the AMPTP posted on its website details explaining how WGA members could go fi-core. The AMPTP's complaint to the NLRB claimed that the WGA was lobbying for a "prohibited retaliation" against its fi-core writers for exercising their rights and seeking to prevent them from securing work. The WGA in turn accused the AMPTP of meddling in its internal affairs.
Meanwhile, I hear that the WGA in coming weeks will decide what to do about members accused of strikebreaking who've been quietly brought before the guild to explain themselves for months and months now. I have been quietly following several of these cases, and waiting for their resolutions, before going public with my info.
WGA East & West Identify "Puny Few" Who Went Fi-Core During Writers Strike
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Great job as always Nikki, let’s see the wizards behind the curtain at WGA. Call them on the carpet. You go girl!
Well, which WGA are we to believe now? The one interrogating members for their personal convictions or the one priming their members to hold hands with SAG as Rosenberg leads the blind over yet another cliff? I see no distinguishable difference between corporate CEO’s and labor leaders. Same tactics. Same threats. Same intimidations. Same ‘for-us-or-against-us’ black and white rhetoric to protect one single thing – self interest. SAG the Institution must survive at all costs. Citibank must survive at all costs.
The new American mantra should be “Don’t Trust Any Group Over 35 Members.”
The WGA held the moral high ground until this episode.
Welcome to the new millenium’s Black List.
Thanks for the memory’s, WGA.
What the hell is the point of giving your members the option to go fi-core if you’re going to punish them afterwards?! I seriously doubt the union contract says “It’s only okay to go fi-core when we’re not on strike.”
Beyond legalities and morals… come the next WGA strike, people will be afraid to go fi-core.
Enrique:
No union loves to allow ficore. But it’s people’s right under the law, and unions are forced to acquiesce to that fact — like it or not.
What “punishment,” specifically, do you refer to? ALL street level nasty things a pissed off union member might wish to do are crimes per state and federal statute. Also, per law, the WGA (nor SAG, nor anybody else) may not mandate that you cannot work union projects. If anybody values your services highly enough to hire you, whether it’s a union project or not, they may hire you.
But unions HATE ficore. There -is- no union anymore if enough people want to have it both ways, and go ficore.
So UNLESS the union somehow directly promotes illegal retaliation, and god knows there’s a loooooooooooooooooooooooong list of that — I don’t think for a second, personally, that any union owes anybody who went ficore the time of day, let alone secrecy.
The truth is, that wanting union protections and negotiated deals, and then undercutting them and the union any time you feel like, is -not- a free choice. Somebody hating your ass is simply not prohibited, as long as they don’t follow through with anything that is.
As an actor, I can’t do shit against backstabbing ficore. A dirty look, maybe, and that’s a about the full extent of my aresenal.
But if I were a writer, or union-supporting writer director, I’d have *every* right to hire the fuck who I want. And if that were to exclude some writer because I think he’s a bitch for going ficore, so be it. Completely legal. Ficore peops don’t get to knowingly fuck a whole union, and have it both ways, with -no- downside. Just not the way life works.
It’s AMPTP’s right to try to promote people going ficore. It’s union, and union members right to LEGALLY try to discourage them. There is no mandate that we owe them the time of day, let alone pick me up bouqets, or a group hug that will just encourage more to go ficore.
Hint to WGA: You did fuck up. Next time, publish the list followed ONLY by a paragraph saying some variation of “The WGA reminds you that retaliation is illegal, and does not condone it in any way shape or form.”
Had you not been tactically stupid, what you did would be a lot harder to legally challenge.
Unsolicited tip to SAG:
There’s a perfectly absolutely legitimate reason that SAG members should be able to access a list of ficore. Otherwise, how the hell do you know when seeing some actor CLEARLY doing non-union work that it’s not within their right, as oppposed to something that should be brought to the boards attention?
If I had a dime for every time I saw an actor I know doing a known non-union TV show, a known non-union film, or a known non-union commerical — and could verify they -weren’t- ficore and allowed to do it, I’d have a lot richer Christmas.
Writers might well have a *legitimate* reason for knowing who went ficore, and the WGA’s dumbass comments that muddied the waters focus on anything *but* that. Stupid. But I still hope they win.
Those who went ficore, IMHO, are neither guaranteed a hug nor secrecy by the same union and union members they’re undermining.
While I might be persuaded, depending on the writer and the circumstances, to hire a fi-core “member” of the WGA, I would never extend an offer of employment to any writer who went fi-core during a strike.
Going back to work during a strike — for the people we’re striking against — undermines the strike effort and undercuts our future earnings and health and pension coverage.
I fully support my guild’s making known those members who chose to injure us in this way.
By the way, independent producer, I’m probably not alone in these following beliefs of mine.
Though I don’t love it when union members go ficore, I realize that they’re having balls to avail themselves of their legal option. I don’t agree with what they’ve done, but at least they had the balls to do it the “right” way if they insist upon doing non-union work as well as union work. My feelings about them follow accordingly; Not “happy,” per say, but I have a hard time being really mad at somebody availing themselves of their legal rights, formally.
On the other hand, I don’t know about the WGA, but I do know for SAG there are hundreds of SAG members doing non-union work under the table. Many if not most don’t even bother using fake names, out of justified lack of probability the union’s actually going to catch them, let alone do anything about it. They ALL have some rationalization about how they “need to” (make a buck by undercutting the union) like those of us who -*don’t* let producers get union talent for non-union wages are somehow less deserving than them. Those peops (unlike ficore) who have it both ways and stab us in the back without going ficore, I think are absolute pieces of human trash.
So I, and others, surely, recognize the irony that there are -hundreds- of these !@#$@#$#$ who never get *any* heat for doing non-union because they did it on the sly, while those who “did the right thing” and “called it” are more likely to get heat.
Yeah, it’s troubling. But at the same time, I really do think there are legitimate reasons that members of the union who would NEVER consider working non-union in union-jurisdiction areas have legitimate reasons to know who’s ficore (e.g., how do you know if somebody’s committing a reportable offense, by working non-union, when they may simply be ficore and totally within their right?)
And I do realize that the way WGA handled it was pretty boneheaded, and probably that exact element of boneheadedness providid opponents the extra push to a legal challenge.
But unless I’m mistaken, this is a loooooooooooooooong stretch from McCarthyism. If I recall correctly, people got on the black list for generally simply holding, or talking about a belief, or simply just refusing to talk about whether they held a belief or not. NO action was required to get on the blacklist.
There’s CERTAINLY no witch hunt for people who consider going ficore or talking about it. And hell. There shouldn’t be a witch hunt, *period*. But just because there isn’t and shouldn’t be a witch hunt or illegal repercussions to going ficore, in no way shape or form does it definitely follow that: 1) there are not perfectly legit reasons for knowing who’s committing action that undermines us by working non-union in unified jurisdiction AND getting the benefits of those who sacrifice when they don’t and won’t; or 2) that the union or its members owe them the time of day, let alone secrecy for union-busting life choices.
But yeah, I get the troubling fact that for every person on the list of having gone ficore and done non-union work legally and with the unions forced acquisence, there were probably 100 sleazeballs who sold scripts under fake name and say infinitely less “natural reaction” without doing it the “right” way.
Are there consequences to deciding you’re more important and need the money more than union members who hold the line? Yup. Should there be, as long as they’re legal? Doesn’t matter. There will be. Nobody appreciates you taking the benefits of a union they’re sacrificing for, when they’re undercutting it.
McCarthyism blacklists where people lost ALL work because of their beliefs, or even refusal to testify on their beliefs? Not remotely close, IMHO. Every time an -action- results in an equal and opposite reaction does not even require illegality, let alone “witch hunt.”
respectfully,
sterling
This was dumb, but going Fi-Core, especially during a strike, is essentially a Fuck You to your union. You’re having it both ways – you reap all the benefits but don’t sacrifice one whit – there are other people to do that, don’t know you. It’s a classic prisoner’s dilemma … it’s good for any one person to do, but if everyone does it then everyone is fucked. These people aren’t the WGAs friends.
Show Runner:
On behalf of “rank & file” union members about whom producers definitely *don’t* give a rat’s ass about, absent the “pull” of union members they definitely care about … thank you.
I still remember the news those days and what a huge morale boost it was for writers when key show runners held the line.
I’ll never be in a position to know what it’d be like, as an actor, getting multi-million dollars a picture -regardless- of whether the rank & file got a contract they could live with or not.
So I cannot even imagine how hard it must be for a producer/show-runner to “hold the line” regardless of their self interest.
Absent stars, SAG’s contract offer would be “minimum wage, without overtime.” Without key writers and or producer/writers, surely offers to the WGA would be chock full of more suck as well. Incredibly cool when better paid and much better known “ones of us” such as yourself don’t bend under ungodly pressure to sell us out.
Thank you.
(Minor technical point: Writers who have chosen to go fi-core are no longer members of the WGA — it’s a special nonmembership status allowed by federal law.)
That letter Patric et al. sent noting the names of the fi-core writers was inartfully drafted, its tone was off — we’ve been all through this. The membership spanked the leadership for it way back in April, let’s move on.
But bottom line: As a member of the WGA, I believe it is my right to know an important fact like who chose to abandon me and my ten thousand friends during the strike — whether through scabbing or choosing fi-core status.
I hope — and expect — that the Guild leadership continues to make such information publicly available. To cover up the names would be a serious mistake.
Sterling Wolfe – I don’t think you understand this situation. By saying the ficore writers “must be held at arm’s length by the rest of us” the union leadership was violating the law. Of course people can hire whomever they like for a job but a union is not allowed to incite retribution against other union members and that is the basis of the action being ruled illegal. They might have (arguably) been fine printing the names and not encouraging a black listing but when they went a step further they entered the realm of the illegal.
That being said, it was also just a scummy thing to do…
It’s no different than if SAG sent out a press release about which actors are gay and telling producers not to give them a job.
That letter Patric et al. sent noting the names of the fi-core writers was inartfully drafted, its tone was off.
Comment by Ashley Gable
Now there’s an understatement… Talk about tone deaf.
As far as moving on, I’m sure the AMTPT is saying that about the money the WGA says is owed.
I guess that big labor friendly* Gov’t organization- the NLRB will decide when it’s time to move on.
*that’s sarcasm.
This whole situation’s pretty sad. If it werent for these people – soap writers – the entire genre, already faced with record low ratings & massive cutbacks to just stay on air, would have been dealt a crippling blow that they could never recover from. These fi-core writers secured the jobs of all the other soap writers still on strike, ensuring they had something to come back to when this was over. The main arguments that cause the strike dont even apply to soaps. They dont get DVD releases, they dont get online downloads, they dont get reruns. This is just silly.
So the disloyal soap writers were serving the greater good?
They were being loyal to a worthier cause?
Answering to a higher calling?
I like soap operas. Everybody likes soaps, even if they don’t admit it. There will always be an audience for them. One example: Russians are hooked on “The Bold and the Beautiful.” No, two examples: I watched a great Brazilian soap — in Cuba.
And the American audience ain’t gonna disappear any time soon. Soaps will survive, in some form, as long as any other kind of drama survives. The soaps didn’t need writer-producers crossing the line, betraying other writers.
No one group of writers is essential to the survival of soaps. That’s a lame excuse for selfish acts of treachery.
“[T]his handful of members … must be held at arm’s length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are — strikebreakers …. ”
I always thought the phrase “hold at arm’s length” was a figure of speech for an act of social distancing. I don’t see how it could be interpreted, legally, as a violation of anyone’s employment rights. And any reasonable reading of “judged accountable” would have to mean “morally accountable.” It’s a stretch to interpret that phrase as an unlawful order to blacklist the 28 opportunists whom Nikki Finke labeled “those weasels.”
The Bush Administration’s National Labor Relations Board will probably not go down in history as the country’s most worker-friendly agency. So it’s not surprising that Bush’s Board would turn metaphors and scoldings into violations of the laws of commerce. The AMPTP found some sympathetic ears for its unlikely claims.
The NLRB’s website states that there are currently three vacancies on the five-person Board. Who was sitting when the Board made the finding in favor of the AMPTP? Would a different Board, appointed by Obama, have taken the AMPTP’s claims seriously? Will the administrative law judge in L.A. take them seriously?
Note to Ms. Finke: Verrone and Winship did not act alone. They were supported by the National Council of the Guilds West and East, by the Guild East Council and by the Guild West Board.
Can it truthfully be said that the WGA leadership is blacklisting the 28 disloyal writers?
What constituted the injustice of the Hollywood blacklist of the ’40s, ’50s and early ’60s? Workers’ livelihoods were threatened and destroyed because of their suspected membership in the Communist Party, for refusing to admit or deny membership in the Party. They were punished for their beliefs AND for actions they MAY have taken OUTSIDE this industry. They were not punished for actions that harmed their fellow workers WITHIN this industry.
In contrast, the 28 disloyal writers cited in the WGA’s letter weakened the legitimate labor actions of their fellow members. Their actions enhanced the economic strength of AMPTP companies. Their actions made it easier for the giant entertainment corporations to withstand the stresses of the strike. The actions of the disloyal writers encouraged the brutal intransigence of the moguls and their enforcement arm, the AMPTP. Their betrayal probably contributed, in however small a way, to the prolongation of the strike, hurting almost every worker in the industry and in related businesses.
In a more civilized society, the WGA’s censure of these disloyal writers wouldn’t even be controversial. In a more civilized society, violators of labor solidarity would be shunned as a matter of course — kept at arm’s length and held accountable.
One personal note on the wisdom and the morality of the WGA’s April letter:
In the profit-driven, conglomerated global economy, largely controlled by powerful corporate plutocrats, labor solidarity is an important, really an essential, form of human solidarity.
I believe that the W.G.A. was serving the public interest when they told their membership which writers had betrayed the loyal majority of Guild members during their battle with the AMPTP.
As a worker in the entertainment industry, I try to evaluate the social value of a project I might be chosen to participate in. I try to learn something about the people I might be chosen to work for. I want to know a little of what their social values are. I will never be in a position to deny a writer employment. And I may never have the luxury of refusing to work for people who (I believe) have violated the principle of human solidarity. But if, as a little-known rank-and-file actor, I ever had occasion to be offered a part, in a project authored by one of those turncoat writers, I would take their disloyalty into account in making my decision whether or not to work for him or her.
(That said, I also try not to forget the powerful lesson of “Lord Jim” — that human beings are capable of self-redemption.)
Keep Soaps Alive? …
The number of viewers for soaps have been on a steady decline with each passing year. To the point now where some of these shows are either now filming with hand held camcorders without a studio, or are having to fire all their major actors just to stay on the air. Days of our Lives just recently barely got renewed for 16 months. Your statement is false, that the soap audience isnt going away.
Were they serving the greater good? For the daytime realm, yes. The genre has never recovered from the months they were interrupted or preempted for the OJ trial, they could not afford to go dark for months again. People in Russia watching B&B dont pay the bills, if no one’s watching on CBS the show’s cancelled. And I doubt american writers would be writing cuban telenovellas, so I dont see how that’s important.
Dave Clennon, can you say which administrations version of the NLRB has been labor friendly?
It’s not there to be labor friendly. It’s existence is to give a legal avenue for corporate America to fight unions. For union members to claim the NLRB as their savior shows a blatant disregard for history.
Dave Clennon,
You might have a point about this being an instigation to social behavior towards people were the union a social organization. SAG is a LABOR union and thus when a union officer sends a call to action, any action, on union stationary it can reasonably be construed to be labor & employment related. Your comparison to Nikki using derogatory phrasing in a news & opinion blog is completely off base. Nikki can say whatever she likes.
David Clennon is spot-on about the need for solidarity in the face of, well, solidarity. Further to his discussion of the HUAC/McCarthy era Blacklist, we should note that it was implemented by studios and broadcasters — and later by schools, government agencies, private industry, public service organizations, and other non-showbiz entities — not only because of what Blacklistees believed or did, but because the Blacklisters were afraid of public reaction. It was, very simply, intimidation against dissent, and it worked for the better part of a decade. In those days, pressure groups like the American Legion and the Roy Brewer-led IATSE threatened pickets and boycotts of employers who insisted on hiring Reds, even though being Red was perfectly legal. So is going fi-core. Given that the public-at-large doesn’t give a shit about writers in the first place (despite the WGA’s quixotic “Somebody Wrote That” campaign), it’s hard to call the WGA’s “arm’s length” call a blacklist in the formal, legal sense. Tacky, maybe, but no tackier than going fi-core during a strike. Blacklisting has to come from those who have the power to hire. However, if a producer wanted to hire a shunned writer and the Guild interfered…
Hey, Santayana, I don’t know what “quixotic” means, but I created that “Somebody Wrote That” campaign, and all the accompanying ads when I was at the Guild. Thanks for keeping the sentiment alive, even though I think the Guild stopped using that tagline some time ago. Whatever the moves of the Guild since, I still think there’s value in highlighting the role of the writer. The Guild has done a lot to raise awareness of the contributions of writers. I’d even say that because of the efforts of the WGA, including inventive and cost-effective campaigns like mine (no budget whatsoever), the public has gone from “not giving a shit” to “giving a good deal more of a shit than they once did.” Let’s take our victories when and where we can get them. (Oh, and in case people don’t know what you’re referring to, here’s a complete collection of the “Somebody Wrote That” ads: http://scottroeben.com/somebody.htm)