My thoughts on the Writers Guild and the AMPTP

This is the third time I've written something that ended up on The Huffington Post. The first time my subject matter concerned cooking chicken when I was twelve years old. My second topic was the important discussion of the merits of Pie vs. Cake. And now, I write about my Guild's (the Writers Guild of America) overwhelming decision to refuse to work without a contract.

The first thing I want to say, loud and clear (or as loud and clear as you can say with the printed word) is that WE WANT TO WORK. That's actually the biggest single truth about our Guild. We all long to write (preferably about things we care about, but that's not even a prerequisite). We live to tell stories, and we feel incredibly blessed that someone will pay us to do so.

That having been said, we expect that we will be fairly rewarded for the stories we tell--if they are good enough to attract an audience--or to get some attention. The more attention, the more we believe we should be rewarded.

If we were cavemen (and cavewomen), we writers would be the people standing behind the people doing the drawings on the walls of the caves and we'd be giving them the ideas. At night, when the fire was lit and we all gathered round, we'd be given some food based on how well the work went over. The shared experiences that were illustrated in the cave paintings would help us as groups understand the past, and they would also help us as a group determine our collective future. And sometimes, they'd just get the group through a hard day.

But what if, try to stay with me here, all of the Caves were suddenly owned by six EXTREMELY POWERFUL Cavemen. These corporations, I mean Cave People, had developed, in effect, a monopoly. Or at the very least a cartel. All of us storytellers had to go to them to negotiate, and these six powerful Cave People said that we storytellers would get meat when a new story went up on a cave, but not if a story was created and then carved into a block of stone--because the stone was not on a wall. And a stone tablet had no future for storytelling. And even if it did, they owned all of the stone.

Well of course they owned all of the stone! They owned all of the Caves! And they had the sticks and clubs and things that throw the rocks at people. And who were we to them? We were just the people who didn't want to go outside and hunt and gather. We were the ones who stayed in the caves and made up the stories so when they all came home at night, they could unwind and disappear into another world. A world we helped create.

And then the six powerful (and did I mention very, very greedy?) Cave People who told everyone how to run the Caves felt that even when everyone was beginning to look at our new stories on the blocks of stone, and no one was as interested in the stories on the walls anymore, that was none of our business. We should accept the meat we'd been given. We should accept their contract.

And for almost twenty years, we have. But now, we refuse to work without an acknowledgement of a change in the times and a change in the delivery systems for entertainment (I mean wall paintings). We know we aren't the big powerful ones. We know we don't own the Caves. We don't want to. We just want a fair deal. It is a story of David and Goliath.

And some stories have resonance because of the underlying truth in the narrative.

Read more thoughts about the strike on Huffington Post's writers' strike opinion page

Comments

[MR]

Though I support the writers strike as a one time show runner for one highly successful series and another less than successful one and believe it is justified in terms of writers getting what they deserve, the idea that writers would be the ones standing behind the cave men who are doing the drawing is totally absurd. Ideas make the world go round.They are the single most important commodity in human existence. As both an artist, former graphic designer as well as script writer I can tell you that artists dont need anyone standing behind them to give them ideas. Further more 90% of working writers in movies and television are executing other peoples ideas, as bad as most of them are.

Writers are certainly the most undervalued and undepraid of the 3 central players in movies and television and are right to strike and get what they deserve. But except for those writers who make their living writing strictly their own material ( of which I am one and in the minority) it doesnt help the writers cause to give them more credit than they deserve when they are not getting the credit they deserve now for what it is they actually do.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I like to write, and if I ever become proficient
enough at it to where someone decides to actually pay me for my scribbles, I intend
to work indpendently, non-union and whatnot.
The Guild thing sounds like a union, and
unions do what they do, try to get more money
or other goodies, and they like to go on
strike and stuff. They also like to control
the productivity of their members, slowdowns
etc., and, and, AND, they like to play
politics. Oh yeah, they love the politics.
So, what happens to all the quality writers
when the propaganda factory shuts down?
Hopefully, they'll go to work on a bunch of
independent stuff, and get all creative on
the pabulum factory, there. Enough with
the predigested multichannel sitcom drivel-fest,
REALLY put a point on that poison pen, and
Have Some Real Fun a-scrivenin'.

I heard that some guy named al-something bought
Warner Brothers...that should prove interesting...

[Arielman]

I recall being in the New York Public Library just before it was to close for remodeling the Main Reading Room, perhaps one of the more cerebral places in New York City, redone by the Rose family donors. I read the then recent statement of someone writing for the WGA, as I was researching the written histories of a whole block in the South Street Seaport Historic District, still a parking lot, though once to be "condemned" by the then Mayor Dinkins administration to bring much needed water from the new tunnel being dug underground up to the surface (there or One Police Plaza). I was surprised by the article, which stated how copy machines are regulated in other countries to protect authors and how the sport of baseball was determined by the Supreme Court to be a "national past-time" and therefore not subject to the US laws of monopoly when it came to authors. The first point was easy to understand the second, harder. I've watched a sports-bar named the "Brooklyn Dodgers" sued by the Los Angeles "Dodgers" franchise, however, over the name. Brooklyn, NY is where the "Dodgers" first played at Ebbetts Field. I understand the second point now.
I also understand how hard it is to be a member of the WGA and some of the problems it faces and hope the management comes to a quick settlement with its "players" and late-night television doesn't turn into an insomniac's "terrorist hide-out" where I'm sure the newsies will have to entertain us with what's on "the wires".

[larry278]

This strike is about intellectual property, who owns it, the price someone who buys intellectual property is to pay the person who created the intellectual property & the price to be paid when the property's value goes up each time it's used. As I understand it the writers are seeking to be paid an additional sum each time the owner of the property the writer created makes a profit from granting someone the right to use what the writer created. The strike can be expected to complicate the laws re: intellectual property.
Show biz is becoming a most complex enterprise which feeds lawyers & agents very well.

[MSB]

It is just another case of the corporation vs. the worker. I'll always opt for labor in this case.

I surely hope you are successful in your stance. I think writing is incredible, and people that create with their minds are in short supply. It is those that move and manipulate money that are truly talentless. They NEED you and those like you to exploit. They have no work otherwise. Their talent is in using people like resources.

Make the world see how worthless they are. People that work for a living have to stand up and be heard.