US writers' strike - a question

[innocent_lex]

I understand the writers want to go on strike to get a better deal when it comes to royalties. This seems understandable from their perspective, and taken in isolation. But this does seem to be bringing production of many, many shows (and, I'm guessing, films?) to a grinding halt. Surely that halt doesn't just affect writers, it affects everyone from producers to actors to lighting to sound to costume folks to make-up artists to the tea boy. Are these people still being paid or has everything just stopped? How does this work for all of those people for whom this is their livelihood that is being taken away due to the strike?

Surely I must be missing something here. I'm trying to think of an equivalent, and the closest I can get is a team of contractors, say builders, who can't work because all material deliveries have been halted as truck drivers are on strike. The end customer isn't getting the product, most of the team aren't working and aren't getting paid (and for about half of them that means cutting back on even basic necessities at home), and at the end of a couple of months (or more) the truck drivers might get another tenner an hour.

If that really is the case with the writers, they obviously have a hell of a lot of power and whoever it is they're fighting to get a better deal will surely give in in the end, but not before plenty of people have been hurt by this. There *must* be something I'm missing. There must be a fund or contractual obligations or *something* to pay the people who are being affected. Surely there is.

Comments

[nialla]

Surely that halt doesn't just affect writers, it affects everyone from producers to actors to lighting to sound to costume folks to make-up artists to the tea boy. Are these people still being paid or has everything just stopped?

Depends on where they work. Movies already in production or with scripts already done before the strike are mostly unaffected, though normally they have a writer on hand during filming to make tweaks to the script as they go.

For most TV shows, it's much the same. They can still continue to film as long as there are scripts, and many shows were trying to get a "stockpile" of them in case the strike did go forth. However, just like in the movie scenario, they normally have a writer on hand for tweaks.

The immediate effect is felt on daily shows, such as the latenight comedy shows, which shut down last night. Most other tv shows, from soap operas to primetime programs, tend to film about a month or so ahead of time, plus have some scripts beyond that, so they can keep running for a while.

However, some shows have also had some of their actors walk out in support of the writers, which means a total shutdown.

I'm not quite sure on what will happen to the rest of the crew if the shutdown continues for very long. It's possible some shows have some sort of insurance to cover such a contingency. I know I saw one person posting a response to an article in Variety about the strike starting, saying they were now out of a job because of it, but they didn't say what show they were working on or in what position.

Writers are one of the most powerful groups in Hollywood, even though in most cases you rarely know who they are unless they're also a director or producer. Without them creating content, nothing gets made. That's the point of the strike, to force management to pony up the dough the writers believe they should get for new media.

The last strike was in 1988, and lasted about four months. It was long enough to affect pretty much every tv show in production in some form. Star Trek: The Next Generation dipped into some scripts that were originally written for a proposed spinoff of the original series and did a "cut and paste" to adapt them to their characters.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I saw the immediate effects last night when we had a repeat shown of The Daily Show instead of a new episode. The announcer said something about industrial action, so we knew exactly what the issue was.

I don't know anywhere near enough about this situation to be able to have a solid view either way, but I still don't think the writers are thinking of anyone but themselves, and as you say there are already people who are out of work because of this. Those people won't benefit at all.

[nialla]

You might check out wga_supporters for more info to get an idea of what the nuances are. Obviously pro-WGA, of course, but they're posting a lot of links to various articles.

Many outside the union, such as actors, are supporting the strike. The actor's and director's guild are planning a strike next year, for exactly the same reason -- new media. Their POV is the producers are making quite a bit of money from selling DVDs, downloads of episodes, etc., and they haven't gotten a raise for that sort of thing.

However, if all of these groups get a raise, you can almost guarantee the producers won't take the cut, but they'll pass the cost on to consumers.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

Yep, it does effect everyone and it's painful. I've heard they want 8 cents per item instead of 4. That seems crazy that the producers would shut down production for that, but once one union gets a bigger cut of a new market, so will the other unions (directors, actors...etc.) That's why the other unions are in support. The people with the money don't want to give it up but all those people that make the product do need a living wage. Hopefully, this won't go on for too long.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I agree with the living wage notion, but at the end of this it looks like some people might be better off (the writers) but a large number of the others will be worse off because they've lost however many months of pay and sometimes will have lost a job (with all the effects that has). In the current economic situation, it does seem pretty selfish.

[geminia905.livejournal.com]

This is why I'm very anti-union. They don't care who they hurt and won't think a thing about those who don't make anywhere near what they do anyway losing money during their little snit fit.

What's more annoying is the writers' strike pretty much just determines what the unions representing actors and directors will demand come June -- when they will likely strike as well. *sigh*

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

We had a lot of issues with unions in the 70s, but these days they don't have the stranglehold they used to have. Unions do still bring benefits to the majority of people who belong to them, but here it's very dependent on those who are the union leaders.