Hollywood Labor News

This article in the L.A. Times says that the TV and motion picture producers' organization is girding for possible strikes by the Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild. The two unions' respective contracts don't expire for quite some time but in both labor organizations, officers are being elected on militant platforms and in both groups, staff members are being fired who don't seem in tune with that thinking.

The studios are right to be concerned. There's a very bloody battle waiting to happen if they persist in keeping to the old financial model of paying writers and actors. The industry's revenue sources are changing and the methods of compensation are going to have to change. The only good sign is that everyone seems to recognize, this far in advance, that a war is inevitable. That may give them enough time to play the games necessary to settle things before they explode. (That's not the best sentence I ever wrote but you know what I mean to say…)