A View From Inside The Line

End of The Line

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:00:49 -0800

Last night, the members of the WGA voted to end the strike and go back to work. I’ve already been in a couple of meetings and had a slew of phone calls to get my show up and running. I’ve been looking at calendars, working out schedules, trying to get our offices back. The last three months are already beginning to feel far away -- and I suppose that’s how it should be.

But I have to say that it was a time I will never forget. My experience of connecting with the community of writers has been extraordinary. Meditatively walking the line, talking about not just the strike but life issues is what has kept us all together and unified during this incredibly traumatic time. I believe, that when we all look back at this experience, we will realize that everything we did; every hardship we endured; every moment of panic was worth the effort. I’m not talking about the contract. This strike wasn’t just about the contract. This was about identity and self-esteem. This was about having the courage of our convictions. We took action on those convictions, abandoning rhetoric for shoe leather. I am proud of the way we conducted ourselves as a union and I am really proud of our public face in the media. We showed that an action like ours could be conducted in a mature and orderly manner. We did much better on this account that our employers. We should give ourselves a big pat on our collective backs.

Writing this blog has also been quite an experience. I never expected it to go on as long as it did. Your responses kept me going and I will really miss the exchange of ideas and the expressions of support from all of you. My purpose was to report on the emotional temperature of both myself and my friends on the line, warts and all. It was to be cathartic, not reportive. Nikki Finke and UH and a host of other blogs kept us all up to date with what was happening and I didn’t see any reason to compete with that. In this regard, it turned out to be great therapy for me. I hope you got something out of it too.

But now it’s time to say goodbye and get back to the business of making television shows. As I mentioned, I’ll leave this site up for a couple more months, if anyone wants to grab some pictures off of the archives. There are some great ones.

See ya...

3800 Writers, No Trauma

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:27:59 -0800

As promised, here is Michael P’s wonderful posting on his behind the scenes experience at Saturday’s meeting.

Last Tuesday I was mentally debating whether to take one last road trip before the strike ended, or go to the big WGA meeting at the Shrine and attend what was certain to be the Woodstock of self-unemployed writers, when Kim Hoffman from the Guild called.
"Michael, are you going to be at the Shrine this weekend?" she asked.
I hedged. "Probably. I think maybe."
"Can you be on-call to do first aid at the meeting Saturday?"
"Sure, of course," I said. In the next nanosecond all my little little reveries about driving up 395 to Lone Pine, or Highway 1 to Big Sur, or taking Old Route 40 out to the Trilobite Wilderness in the Marble Mountains popped like a soap bubble.

During one of my sabbaticals I took about 100 hours of first aid training, and in a moment of indiscretion revealed that to the W.G.A. Since then, they have asked three times if I could be on call for first aid, and I said yes all three times. It's not much for them to ask and I'd always rather be a participant than a spectator.

Saturday, I met Kim from the Guild, who handed me off to Seamus from the Guild, who gave me a headset and ID pass and a facility tour: backstage, where the Guild officers and committee members were gathering; Tunnel 9 where the disgustingly ancient Shrine first aid room is; and upstairs to the Ladies Lounge, where the Guild had set up a child care area. Everyone else at the place was thinking, "I wonder what the deal is going to be?" and I was thinking, "What will we do if someone has a heart attack, head injury or loss of consciousness?"

Seamus took me everywhere. Backstage, none of the Guild officers looked like they were about to succumb -- good! The child care area had more than enough adults to handle the number of children -- good! The child care volunteers were level-headed and sober -- good! The Shrine doesn't have an Automated External Defibrillator -- bad! (They ought to.) I did one last tour before the meeting began, making sure the child care people had working phones and instructions to call 911 before doing anything else if there were an emergency.

The shrine employs a twentysomething man in a suit to operate the automatic elevator. I saw him four times in ten minutes; as I was riding down the last time I said something like, "looks like the place is going to be full. That's a lot of writers in there, don't you think?"
"What writers?" he asked.
"All those people are writers."
"What kind of stuff do they write?" he asked.
"Pretty much every television show and movie you've seen."
"No way."
"Seriously."
"What about Lord of the Rings? Are the guys who wrote that movie here?"
"They might be."
"Wow. That's cool."
I left for the meeting, pondering what a crappy job it is to operate an automatic elevator. Or a great job, I suppose, if you want to be totally oblivious to everything around you.

There were no emergencies of any kind, but the headset gave me an alternate audio channel for the duration of the meeting, and what I was hearing was -- there were a lot of us. More than anyone expected. The Guild staffers kept reporting, long into the meeting, that lines of cars were still streaming in from Jefferson and 32nd street. They unexpectedly had to open the balcony and put a microphone up there for questions; and that filled up, too. The tally was 3800 writers, the biggest Guild gathering, ever.

And, mercifully, it was all business. Verrone and Young and Bowman ticked off the proposals one after another, registering which they were pleased with, and which disappointed them. And we listened. And at the end of the reading, they had a quick round of thank-yous to behind-the-scenesters like Chuck Slocum, and people started to file out, even before the question period. They'd heard what they'd come to hear. We had a deal, not the best deal in the world but the one we could secure in February of 2008 after three months of striking.

I stayed until almost eleven o'clock, when 90% of the auditorium had cleared out, and the questions were growing repetitive. I figured, if there were no more small children in child care, the staff could handle any first aid issues that might arise, and I could go with my friends Rusty and Darrin to House of Pies to debrief.

I went to the Ladies Lounge Child care area, where there were two babysitters and two remaining children. One was a girl of around eleven years old, who was about to leave with her parents. The other was a preternaturally composed twelve-year-old boy, a neat kid in a blazer holding a stack of papers. I wanted to make sure he would be around people, so that if there were any first aid issues (I didn't think there would be) someone else would be there. I asked the adults on call if it would be possible to close down child care and have this last kid sit in the main auditorium for the duration of the meeting. They weren't sure.
"His parents are downstairs at the meeting, right?" I asked.
"His father is, yes."
"Well he's old enough, he could just sit in the auditorium until it's over, right?"
"It's supposed to be Guild members and staff only at the meeting," was the reply.
"Who's his father?"
"Patric Verrone."
"I think we can make an exception."
I walked across the Ladies Lounge and shook the hand of the last boy in child care. "Your dad has done a great job."
"Thank you," he said.
"Thanks for letting us have him for so long."
"That's okay."
"This is an historic night. And your dad is a big part of it. You should go down and watch him for a little while."
"Thanks. I think I will."

As I turned in my headset and prepared to leave I tried to imagine how this strike will be remembered when this twelve-year-old is eighteen years old; thirty years old; forty years old. I think we'll come off well. I believe this is a contract for the future, for the transition to the world before us. And from that perspective, I came to realize -- this was an historic night. And I'm glad I was there, even if it meant I didn't get to go collect trilobites in the Marble Mountains. And I was glad that no one, of any age, suffered any traumatic injury.

to be or not to be... on strike

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:25:45 -0800

We vote on Tuesday whether or not continue the strike. While I will miss my conversations with friends walking up and down Pico Blvd., I will vote to end the strike.

On Sunday, I was leaning towards voting “no.” I am by no means satisfied with the proposed contract and even though I would probably be a voice in the wilderness, I would at least feel good about voting my dissatisfaction.

But then I thought, what is the point of that? The truth is that I believe everyone on the negotiating committee when they say this was the best we could get. Considering where we were in November, it’s certainly a lot better than what we started with. Plus, I know this town is weary of the “restraining order” and everyone I’ve talked to is ready to get back to work. I thought about it a lot today and have talked to many friends about what should happen, and decided to vote “yes.”

I think we accomplished the biggest goal of all -- we saved the concept of collective bargaining. In an age where corporations continue to whittle down the power of the unions, we proved that a strike action can still be effective. In our current political climate, waging this kind of battle successfully is the real prize of the strike action.

Since I believe we will vote to end the strike tomorrow, I’ve decided that Wednesday will be my last posting on this blog. I’ll blubber more then about how much it’s meant to me and how much you guys have helped me process the events of the last four months. I’ll leave the site up for a bit in case any of you want to pull some pictures off of the archives. Tomorrow I’ll report on the vote and Michael P., who was doing first aid duty at Saturday’s meeting is going to post a behind the scenes tell-all.

48 hours

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 11:32:02 -0800

By now everyone who is in good standing with the Guild has received this email announcing the vote to end the strike on Tuesday. I’m posting it here just in case you haven’t seen it elsewhere. I urge everyone who has spent the last four months walking the line and biting the nails to make your voices heard this Tuesday whatever your feelings are about ending the strike and approving the contract.

I also neglected to mention last night that the biggest standing ovation at the meeting was for our bothers and sisters in SAG who have supported and stood by us during this struggle. I pledge right here and now that if the SAG membership opts to go on strike, I’ll be walking the line with them just as they have done for us.

Okay, here’s the email from the WGA:

Dear Fellow Members,

I am are pleased to inform you that this morning the WGA Negotiating Committee unanimously and unconditionally recommended the terms of the proposed 2008 MBA to the WGAW Board and WGAE Council. The Board and Council then voted unanimously to recommend the contract, and to submit it to the joint membership of WGAW and WGAE for ratification. The ratification vote will take place over the next few weeks by mail ballot and at a special membership meeting. You will receive ballot materials and a notice of informational meetings during the next week.

There is, however, another issue to address: whether to lift the restraining order, and end the strike, during the ratification process. We are asking the members to decide this issue. A vote will take place on Tuesday, February 12, 2008. A yes vote means you are voting to end the strike immediately; a no vote means you are voting to continue the strike during the ratification process. Ballots can be cast at the Guild Theater from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm. If you aren’t able to cast a ballot in person, proxy ballots can be downloaded at http://www.wga.org/contract_07/proxy-2008.pdf and faxed. Proxy ballots and voting instructions are at wga.org. Until the votes are counted, we are still on strike. We will announce the vote count on Tuesday night.

There will be no picketing Monday or Tuesday: all pickets are suspended until the WGA membership votes to either end or continue the strike.

Thank you for your solidarity and support. We are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

What Happened?

Sat, 9 Feb 2008 21:51:14 -0800

It seemed that everyone was resolved (or resigned depending on who you talked to) that we would be returning to work next week before the meeting started. On paper, the deal didn’t look all that exciting but many, including myself, wondered if we were going to ever get a better deal by continuing the strike. Many of us wanted a chance to chew over the details of the contract but apparently the rumor was that the AMPTP gave the negotiating committee an “end the strike by Monday or the deal’s off” ultimatum so we were all anticipating having it shoved down our throats. Honestly, that sort of stuff just makes me bristle -- when someone throws it down like that on my own contract negotiations, I tend to just say, “pass” -- so I wasn’t coming into the meeting feeling like there was going to be much dialogue.

My mood wasn’t lifted much when Patric Verrone began the meeting by recommending we accept the deal. We then heard point by point, how they got what they got and didn’t get and why they did or didn’t get a particular thing. Every person on the dais was clearly fried. If anyone needs 48 hours to think about what just happened the last few days, it’s those people up on stage. It was clear that they were frustrated by the negotiations as well.

I’m still unhappy about a couple of big things, chief among them, there is no good deal for non-network shows (read cable) streamed or downloaded from the internet. As far as I can tell, some of the most popular downloads are cable shows (Greek, Wildfire, Battlestar, to name just a few) so this is a sad defeat. I don’t understand how the streaming formula is any different from what the DGA negotiated except that it converts the 1200 dollars into a percentage. Maybe that will be better explained in the next couple of emails from the guild.

While I believe the tone of the room was polite, I sensed that there was anything but unanimous and complete acceptance of the negotiated terms. In the end, it was agreed that there would be a 48 hour vote so we won’t be going back to work on Monday after all. Good, because it will take me at least 48 hours just to figure out what this all really means. I’m sick of striking -- I don’t know anyone who isn’t. I could tell that our leadership is pretty tired of it too. Because of this, I sort of feel that no matter what, this deal will be ratified but I’m by no means satisfied by it. By going back to work next week the rest of the season will be rescued and there will even be a cobbled together pilot season. The Oscars will go on (but no one seriously believes that was a motivating factor, right?) and the 2009 feature film season will go on as scheduled. That sounds to me like the AMPTP won. It sounds to me like they were in control of the entire negotiating process. I will probably accept the deal anyway -- I can see the horizon of my financial limitations to carry on and I miss work. But I can’t help wondering what would happen if we said “hell no” and stayed out on the line for another month.