This morning I went to the "Writers United" rally for one of the unions I'm in, the Writers Guild of America, west. (I'm also in the Directors Guild, and AFTRA.) The writing issue of the moment is the current strike of a dozen writers on "America's Next Top Model" -- the people who "write" by taking all that random videotape and shape it into something that has drama and comedy and a beginning, middle and end. These people want to be covered by the WGA and management won't hear of it. So the ANTM12 have been out for weeks and tonight is the season opener of the series. Definition of a bummer.
The overall issue is bigger, though, and today the battle cry was sounded loud and clear. The messenger is WGA President Patric Verrone. He and his supporters won in a landslide last year, and yesterday a slate of his supporters swept the WGA Board of Directors election. So, when Verrone spoke today, I listened. He said these words for the first time, announcing a new way of looking at writing for the 21st century:
"Every piece of media with a moving image on a screen or a recorded human voice must have a writer, and every writer must have a WGA contract."
After the speeches (and while we were marching past the nearby CBS Studios, complete with union signs), I asked Patric if this was now "The Verrone Doctrine." He said he wouldn't be presumptuous enough to call it that. Well, I am, and I will. Read those words again: it's the Verrone Doctrine and when, and if, writers go on strike a year from this November, you will know why -- or at least one of the reasons why.
Verrone is saying that reality writers, news writers, non-fiction documentarians, feature screenwriters, TV writers of sitcoms and dramas, videogame writers, animation writers -- EVERYBODY -- is welcome under the WGA umbrella and he means to organize them all, starting now. He means to do this so that if a strike does happen in 2007, the networks and studios won't be able to replace the TV and feature writers by simply putting more reality on TV. So, in essence, some of 2007's battle is being fought now, in 2006.
This is big stuff. In my twenty years in the Guild, I have never felt writers as united behind a leadership team. Nor have I felt the solidarity of the rank-and-file membership behind the notion that the issues actually do affect all of us, and that they are worth striking for, if it actually has to come to that. As Verrone ends every single one of his Guild communications, "We're all in this together."
Writers are not a bunch of spoiled overpaid dilettantes. Well, some are, but most aren't. Most of us work hard for our livings, endure long periods of unemployment and, like sports figures, have shortened careers. Things like medical coverage, pension plan contributions and minimum salaries actually matter.
With technology completely transforming the entertainment industry, there are issues plenty that need to be settled in a world changed by TiVO, iTunes, webisodes, mobisodes, cable, satellite and vertical integration.
The WGA contract with the employers (known as the AMPTP, Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) expires in November of 2007. The only way to avoid a strike which nobody wants is to start talking now. I'll keep you posted on what's going on.
Here's my point-of-view. Everybody (particularly reporters) are going to be asking writers if there's going to be a strike. The answer is that it's not really up to the writers. If the Companies want to hammer out a fair deal that cuts writers in on a fair piece of compensation for the things they actually create, then there will be no strike at all. If the Companies want to shut writers out, then there will be one. It's up to the Companies, not the Writers. At least that's how I see it, for what it's worth...
- {To read the entire content of the Rally speeches, CLICK HERE.}
