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WGAW: Comcast Aims “To Destroy Unions”

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Sunday February 20, 2011 @ 3:11pm PSTTags: Chip Johannessen, Comcast, Comcast Labor Relations, Comcast WGA Impass, Comcast WGA Union Organizing, Comcast-NBCU Merger, Labor Relations, Movies, Patric Verrone, Sid Sheinberg, TV, Universal, WGA, WGAW, WGAW Board of Directors

WGAW Board Members Chip Johannessen and Patric Verrone have issued a strongly worded message of support the Comcast writers wanting WGA representation:

To Our Fellow Members,

“If the Writers Guild didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.” — Legendary Hollywood executive Sid Sheinberg said that back in 1988 when he was president of Universal Studios. Mr. Sheinberg didn’t say it out of some great love of the Guild. The fact is we were on strike at the time and, if there had been some way to do without us, any self-respecting studio head would have jumped at the chance. But Mr. Sheinberg understood the role that our Guild, and all the other guilds and unions, play in this industry. A role that Universal’s latest owner, Comcast, seems not to understand.

Hollywood runs on a talented pool of what is essentially freelance labor. The guilds, every bit as much as the companies, make this talent pool possible by ensuring two things: First, that when you work, you’ll be fairly compensated. And second, that your pension and health benefits follow you from job to job. Projects and shows come and go, but fair compensation and portable benefits ensure that talented people remain. This guild-based ecosystem works to everyone’s advantage, including the companies. It makes our industry possible. Because talented people won’t follow their dreams here if, after 20 years of working, they’ve got nothing to show for it. And without the talent pool, everything dries up.

Universal’s new owners don’t get that. Despite what Comcast promised when it was under the microscope of federal merger hearings, it is now clear that they’re not interested in maintaining Hollywood’s union environment. What they’re interested in is the same kind of foot-dragging, strong-arm tactics and deceit they’ve deployed against every effort to unionize elsewhere. Comcast spokespeople dutifully recite that employees should have the freedom to choose whether to be in a union – that, after all, is the law – but official corporate policy is more frankly expressed in their anti-union training manual: “Comcast does not feel union representation is in the best interest of its employees, customers, or shareholders.” That may be what Comcast feels, but the writers of the Comcast Entertainment Group feel differently. They have signed cards, and voted, and petitioned Comcast to accept representation by the WGA. It’s time for Comcast to say yes.

Comcast is now in “the club” – that group of multinational conglomerates (CBS, Disney/ABC, Paramount, Fox, Sony, and MGM) who negotiate together. Comcast may not be there by name – it will almost certainly still speak through familiar NBC/Universal labor executives – but its mistaken approach will most certainly be felt. And its approach is to destroy the unions that, as much as the companies, make this industry work. What Comcast wants is to come in and freeload off what others have built. What it wants is to be able to take advantage of the talent pool without contributing. Comcast thinks it can pull a sleight of hand, labeling some of its writers “Comcast,” and so non-union, when across the hall there is NBC. That may be the way they built the cable company with the worst customer satisfaction ratings in America, but we can’t let it be the way they behave here. None of us can.

As WGAW members we are committed to supporting and welcoming the Comcast writers who are fighting for WGA representation. As WGAW board members, it is our obligation to rally our fellow writers to join in that support. With what’s at stake and considering the way Comcast is behaving, our task should be an easy one and we know we can count you in. Sid Sheinberg saw this industry’s need to invent our Guild; Comcast sees only a need to destroy it.

Chip Johannessen
Patric M. Verrone
Members, Board of Directors
Writers Guild of America, West

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UPDATE: Comcast TV Writers Vote For WGA Coverage: But Comcast Dismisses The Vote

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday December 15, 2010 @ 11:35am PSTTags: Cable TV, Comcast, Comcast WGA Impass, Comcast WGA Union Organizing, Comcast Writers, Eric Garcetti, Labor Relations, TV, WGAW
Nellie Andreeva

Not so fast! Shortly after the L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti announced that the writers on shows for the Comcast Entertainment Networks have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a WGA representation, Comcast struck back, dismissing the vote as a “non-binding poll” and asking again for a NLRB-sanctioned election, which is a lengthy procedure.

Yesterday the WGAW conducted a non-binding poll with some of our employees purporting that it was an “election,” and this morning L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti announced the results.  We want to make it very clear to our employees, the press and the interested public that union elections are governed by federal law, and overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, the government agency officially charged with such oversight for the past 75 years.  This was not an NLRB-sanctioned election and has no binding effect.  This non-binding poll was in direct conflict with the NLRB-sanctioned process for union organizing which ensures that all eligible employees are permitted to vote on such an important matter as union representation.

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NBCU TV Writers Support Their Comcast Counterparts Seeking WGA Coverage

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Wednesday December 8, 2010 @ 8:47am PSTTags: Comcast, Comcast WGA Impass, Comcast WGA Union Organizing, Comcast Writers, Comcast-NBCU Merger, NBC Universal, TV
Nellie Andreeva

Los Angeles — Writers on Comcast’s entertainment networks E!, Style, and G4 got a boost today from their counterparts at NBC Universal. Writers with shows airing on NBCU’s broadcast or cable channels or whose shows are produced by NBCU have signed on to a

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U.S. Sen Boxer Sides With WGA vs Comcast

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday November 23, 2010 @ 4:54pm PSTTags: Cable TV, Comcast Entertainment Group, Comcast WGA Impass, Comcast WGA Union Organizing, Labor Relations, TV, WGA

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 … Read More »

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