The Writers Guild of America, in which I used to be rather active, is often wracked by divisive elections and issues. We often do not do more for the betterment of TV and movie writers because we're too busy attacking one another's wisdom and integrity. I will resist the impulse to compare this to the American political situation except to say it's way too similar.
Recently, we had a particularly contentious vote that re-elected Daniel Petrie, Jr. as our president with a pretty decisive 70% of the ballots. The loser in that contest was Eric Hughes, a gent I don't know at all, who followed the now-common tradition of our Guild and promptly filed a complaint with the Department of Labor. I have no idea what the complaint was but it has just been dismissed as lacking merit, the election has been certified and the Guild can now get on with the pressing business of ratifying what I think is a pretty crummy new contract.
This press release will tell you a little about the new contract and how we arrived at it. It will also tell you it's a great deal with breakthrough terms for our members…and while I like and respect a number of members of the Negotiating Committee, I think the offer before us is not a very good one. It may be as good as they could do without wielding a strike authorization. In fact, it probably is…and it may also be true that if they'd asked the membership for a strike authorization, they either would not have received one or it would have passed by such a tepid margin as to weaken our position. Still, none of that changes the fact that the terms we will soon be asked to accept are pretty lousy. As but one example, there has been a long tradition — one our predecessors fought hard to establish — that when you write a TV show and it's rerun, you are entitled to residual payments. That has been a vital component to the income of writers for decades, but we are now about to begin the precedent of making exceptions. The new contract specifies that any two of the first three episodes of a new TV series can be reaired within 60 days without payment to the authors. I think that rollback is reason enough to reject this contract and start painting picket signs but I doubt most of the membership will feel that way.
There are some gains in the new deal but not many. The minimum script rates are raised 3%, which is about the lowest percentage rate they ever get increased by in these contracts. There are a number of areas of concerns to writers that have been either totally ignored or dismissed with the promise that a committee will be convened to discuss the matter. The latter is generally just a way of cushioning a "no," and making it look like the Guild got something when, in fact, it got something that will lead to nothing. DVD compensation, which many had said was in dire need of improvement, is among the topics unaddressed.
Unlike some who are decrying this offer and lobbying against ratification, I do not think it represents a failure of resolve by the Negotiating Committee and Board of Directors. A common criticism in such situations — unfair, I think — is that our guys weren't "tough enough." In fact, I think that in most walks of life, being "tough" is a sham; not unless there's some genuine threat to back it up. Our negotiators rarely go into battle with much in the way of weaponry. The folks with whom we negotiate believe that the WGA lacks the solidarity to strike, and that whenever we do muster some energy, they can pretty much count on us to expend it on internal bickering. Given our past behavior, it is not an unexplainable view.
We also have the recurring problem of the Directors Guild undermining our bargaining. I wrote about that problem in this post, and the more I hear about what went down this time, the more I think it's our main obstacle.
I intend to vote against the new contract and urge other WGA members to do likewise. It's just about certain to pass, but it might give our negotiators a teensy bit of help next time if this deal passed 60-40 instead of 90-10. And then, once it's ratified, we can get back to our main pastime in the Guild, which is the attacking of each other and the Guild staff.