Negotiations are scheduled to resume mañana in the AMPTP/WGA standoff. I will be surprised if they result in a quick meeting of the minds. The more likely scenario is at least one more flare-up where both sides claim they've made major concessions to settle the thing and the other side has not responded in good faith.
But I must admit that a lot about this strike has not gone according to script; that things that seemed inevitable based on past WGA strikes have not occurred. In the past, we always had a loud faction within the Guild that decried striking; that said that whatever Management offered was good enough and that we should grab it and get back to the keyboards. I've barely heard a peep in that direction this time, not even from certain parties who'd say that if the offer was for us to henceforth pay them to let us write movies. I have also not seen my Guild rupture along the usual fault line of the Haves and Have-Nots; of the so-called "working writers" and the usually-unemployed.
In every past WGA walkout of my life, the major talking point from the Producers was that the strike was not truly supported by the "working writers," the ones who actually comprised the industry. It was those outta-work, nothing-to-lose types that were driving the strike, they said. It was never true but it was a hard assertion to knock down. No matter how many Larry Gelbarts and Phil Alden Robinsons got up and proclaimed their militancy, the story would spread that the strike was nothing more than a temper tantrum of bitter, unemployable guys who earned their livings working at Radio Shack. (For some reason, of all the dopey places one can work these days, Radio Shack became the place most often cited. At one WGA rally during the '88 strike, someone even stood outside passing out employment applications for Radio Shack.)
Hasn't happened this time and I'm amazed.
I'm not sure how much of that is attributable to the outrageousness of the Producers' position and how much is due to good p.r. work by my Guild, rallying the important folks and getting them out front-and-center. I'm sure it's both but I'm not sure which has been the more important. When the Producers' spokesguy Nick Counter goes out and makes his assertions that we don't understand the business, you get the feeling that even he doesn't believe it…but I guess the guy has to say something. Regardless of how this thing turns out, the folks who employ him to keep unions from gaining any muscle in town can't be too happy at how this one's been managed.