WGA Strike Primer: The DGA Settlement Begins...

Number-crunching is never easy. Or fun. Or interesting. Or often understandable. But the number-crunching elves in the Writers Guild Forest, lead by Chief Elf Chuck Slocum (his official title. Really!) are hard at work trying to figure out whether the deal the AMPTP corporations offered to the Directors Guild is a good starting point for the WGA or not.

Some things must be put on hold, and this is one of them. On the surface, some issues look extremely good, some look extremely bad. But what they really look like in the light of day waits to be seen.

Two issues are clear immediately, however.

The first is that the AMPTP would never have offered any of the steps forward to the directors if the WGA hadn't been on strike for 2-1/2 months, catching networks by surprise and stopping production of television, forcing movies to be put on hold, putting pilot season in jeopardy, putting the next television season in jeopardy, putting the Oscar telecast and its $100 million payday and promotional bonanza for movies in jeopardy, putting the Grammy's in jeopardy, jettisoning the Golden Globes, creating the potential of advertising "give-backs" into the billions of dollars, and creating deep dissension within the AMPTP itself, with independent deals already made with United Artists, Spyglass Entertainment, Worldwide Pants, The Weinstein Company and many more on the verge, as up to 25 requests come into the Writers Guild office a day, every day. Not to mention significant Internet deals with Yahoo, MRC (funded by AT&T and Goldman, Sachs), Jackson Bites, and many more notable deals on the verge.

And most critically, the AMPTP would never have offered what they did without all the unrelenting attention the WGA put on the union-breaking importance of New Media.

Not only did the AMPTP have to make this deal with the DGA - a guild that has only struck once in its existence, for five minutes - and make it now, but the DGA - a guild which 24 years ago egregiously gave back 80% of home video residuals - could not afford to close its eyes completely a second time, without causing a revolt among its members. Again, whether the deal both sides struck is a good one for directors (still yet to vote), and one that is in the Writers Guild's best interest (this is, after all, a deal for directors, with different concerns), remains to be seen. But it's a starting point that wouldn't have existed without the ground laid for them.

The second issue that's clear is this:

Whether this deal is good or bad for writers: these terms could have been offered a month ago.

It's a mark of shame to the AMPTP corporations that it wasn't. The Writers Guild has been trying to negotiate such areas, and the AMPTP response was not to negotiate in good faith, but to walk away. Shameful.

The excuse by the AMPTP corporations about Guild leadership has always been a canard. The excuse about the "six issues" that had to be removed from the table has always been a canard.

(For linguistic purposes here, "canard" is being used in place of the more confrontational "big fat lie, so big and so fat you would choke on it, if you could even get it to leave your gut.")

And the two canards are provable.

It's a fair guess that now that they have their deal with the directors, which is what they've wanted all along, the AMPTP corporations will happily negotiate with WGA leadership. The same WGA leaderships they've insisted they couldn't negotiate with. Indeed, just as the WGA will happily negotiate with AMPTP negotiators. That's the way negotiation works.

(Side note: perhaps the most-hated negotiator by management in recent history was Marvin Miller, who as executive director for the baseball players union was nonetheless able to get arguably the most important labor settlements in professional sports history, including collective bargaining, and arbitration.)

However, the canard (see above) of the "six issues" was perhaps even greater. It's not just that this was never an issue the WGA would strike over - critically important as it is to address (with despicable 90+-hour work weeks and no health care for Reality writers). But this was something the AMPTP corporations could easily have addressed if they'd wanted to.

Consider: if the AMPTP had actually wanted to settle the strike a month ago, rather than walk out and prolong the agony to the Industry and the people of the city of Los Angeles, they could have sat down with WGA negotiators and said, "Let's put these six issues off to the end, and settle the biggest things first." That's standard, the WGA would have happily agreed, and they could have hammered out a deal. Then, the AMPTP could have said, "Y'know, we've had second thoughts. We gave up a lot, so we're not going to offer anything on these six issues. This is our deal, take it or leave it."

And the Writers Guild would have presented it to their membership. And the members would have taken it. And the strike would have been over. A month ago. And you know this is true, every word I say. (And by "you" I mean - you. Whoever you are. Including AMPTP trolls making comments, or AMPTP executives, or rocks.)

But the AMPTP corporations wanted to prolong the strike, so they could get to the directors first, where they knew they could get some sort of deal. Happily, because of all the pressure put on by writers, the DGA was able to get a far better deal than they would have gotten otherwise, then even they might have dreamed they'd get.

Whether directors will approve, we'll find out. Whether it's good for writers, we'll find out. But at least the AMPTP got what they wanted - a deal first with directors. They just had to delay the strike for a month to do it.

Read more HuffPost coverage of the writers' strike

Comments

[Belowtheline]

is there a timeline for the wga's response to the dga settlement?

[petegrif]

Whilst everyone wants an end to the strike let us not forget that we went on strike for very real reasons.

Now that the DGA has done its deal the inevitable PR tsunami is under way to pressure the WGA leadership to just take the same deal.

But it is premature and irresponsible to rush to accept the director's deal for 2 reasons:

a) we do not know the details of the deal and in real deals (as opposed to the way they are reported in the press) the devil is absolutely in the details

b) writers and actors are not directors and we have to be confident that just as the directors have no doubt gone out of their way to protect their interests, just so must we go out of our way to ensure our interests are properly protected.

[MrsWakely]

New York Times: 1-19-08
Bob Herbert:
“The distribution of wages, income and wealth in the United States has become vastly more unequal over the last 30 years. In fact, this country has a more unequal distribution of income than any other advanced country.”

New York Times: 1-19-08
Writer's Strike Tests Mettle of Two Outsiders:
"The directors decided that this was not the time to make a stand on new media, agreeing to revisit compensation for their distribution of their work over the Internet, cellphones and other digital media three years from now."

So:

1. Unequal distribution of income.

2. DGA decides "not time to take a stand on new media."

What exactly, has been solved? Of course people want to go back to work, but, what are we doing here? If we get a small flat fee instead of a percentage on residuals for the net, and accept that the AMPTP will "revisit" this in 3 years, if we don't address wildly unequal distribution of wealth, what are we playing at?

[thetvdecider]

ok, we can continue to fingerpoint and call names or we can move on.

basically, the dga settlement is on the table for the wga. it addresses almost every core issue the writers are striking over. are the percentages what the writers wanted? of course not...and they were never going to be. does it get writers a toe in the digital water and move toward more tranparency on the part of the studios? yes.

this is as good as most reasonble, rationale, realistic writers could have hoped for. and it's as good as it's going to get. (the producers rewarded the dga for "good behavior" and aren't going to reward the writers for "bad behavior.")

if going on strike got more issues on the table and concessions for the dga -- and ulitmately more for writers -- well good for the writers and for your time on the lines. i hope it was worth it. let's get back to work.

[FadeIn]

Robert E. you are absolutely right. Your blog is insightful, creative and to the point, as always. And I agree with you as always. Just, as always, there are too many misguided individuals who do not. It's sad, but though the voice of reason isn't universally heeded, let alone understood, at least there are writers such as yourself who make the effort to speak out. Thank you.

[MrsWakely]

David Poland: The Hot Blog 1-17-08

"I'm very happy about the DGA deal and the WGA that is now 90% sure to follow. I'm not very happy about the coverage in many quarters, which seems to have been pulled directly out of the DGA Ego and AMPTP playbook. Does the New York Times really need to be throwing around negotiation figures intended to make WGA look greedy and irrational? Does Variety need to keep beating the drum for the meeting of "high-powered writers" who want to go back to work?

How about sticking to the deal points? No one has seriously broken down how this settlement matches and doesn't match the WGA demands. No one has really looked at how it lays out compared to network payments."

[BillSeward]

Revisionists unite! The WGA caused the strike! The WGA put out false information that the AMPTP offered $0.00 for original use and $250.00 per year for reuse! The WGA lied about the AMPTP giving them an ultimatum about what could and could not even be talked about, then promising the WGA that if they took increased residuals off the table the AMPTP would make a serious offer on new media, then walking out anyway! The huge outpouring of support from WGA members and SAG, the thousands of picketers every day, all those people felt duped by the WGA leadership, they all KNEW they were being lied to and the WGA was behaving unreasonably - NOT the AMPTP!

p.s. The "we didn't really land on the moon" committee will meet next Thursday instead of Tuesday.

[NicoleAnonymous]

I read some article recently where studio executives mentioned that their executives went to a "corporate retreat" in Barbados so they could discuss things like their "business plans" and other business executive topics.

The fact that these guys would take a paid vacation to Barbados while so many people in their industry are suffering and many can't pay their bills is really disgusting. They're whining about paying writers while they use company profits for a luxury vacation. And their wives get to have spa services at the resort while they complain that writers want too much money.

[TLL]

ER SELLS HIS SOUL! Enter "Malibu Soul" in eBay in "All Categories". Enjoy!

[sbowerman]

Could,would and should are words useful for Monday morning quarterbacks. Could the strike have been settled a month ago ? Yes. Should the strike ever have occured? No. Is it time to look to the future,settle this and return to work . Absolutely !

[tommybones]

Damn straight!

[unidentifiedman]

It continues-­-relentles­s criticism of the DGA, incessant, almost reflexive regurgitation of a litany of historical grievances, name calling, conspiracy theories and narcissistic injury.
I suspect and hope that the majority of the WGA will acknowledge that the DGA's made a very good deal. But to do so, they will have to acknowledge that their own leadership's demands might have been a tad unrealistic and its relentless and public provocation might have been counter productive. Unless, of course, one chooses to believe, like Mr. Elisberg, that it was only the WGA's tactics that allowed the DGA to get this contract. Possible. That is, unless one believes, like Mr. Elisberg, that the strike was all part of the AMPTP's master plan from the outset. A contradiction or just complicated?
All the side deals the WGA has made have favored nations clauses. They are tactical moves by the WGA and everyone knows that they're symbolic and that their current terms are never going to be honored.
I've heard that the AMPTP have invited the WGA back to the table without preconditions. It's time to stop this kind of personal invective and get to work. The details are hard enough without being able to talk civilly, if not cordially, across the table.
Careers have been interrupted and damaged, some irreparably. Cut it out and get serious.

[HarleyPeyton]

Thanks for the update. One brief correction. While it's fair enuf to substitute 'directors' for 'DGA', it's not entirely accurate, as a majority of the Guild is composed of UPMs and ADs. In other words, yes, they have and have had different contract goals than the other Guilds. And in large part due to that non-director majority.

[petegrif]

yep