Inside the WGA’s Counterinsurgency

20Dec/070

Inside the WGA’s Counterinsurgency

Another strike-related email, hot off the wire. This one is attributed to Jay Kogen and it has a great analysis of the strategies for both sides. Since you can read what the AMPTP is doing in any major media outlet, I'm going to cut to the part about how the WGA is fighting back:

The strike is working. We are having an effect. Sure, this hurts us, but our sacrifice hurts them more. They were actually surprised by the November strike date. They didn't have time to save the TV season or finish all their scripts for the SAG strike. They've started to hand back money to advertisers and they stand to lose a lot more when their nine billion dollar upfronts come and they don't have a new season to promote.

In spite of "stock piling" there are lots of movies that aren't getting made. The pipeline is thin, and as the SAG strike approaches they needed to be making more movies (not less) to beat down that union. The studios are looking down the road and see that what we are doing will effect TV sales, movie sales, DVD sales, cable sales and subscriptions, PPV sales, etc. Plus they are helping to drive an ever shrinking audience elsewhere. Everyday that passes they dig themselves a deeper hole they'll have to get out of.

The WGA has filed charges against the studios with the NLRB because the studios don't legally have the right to walk away. By law they have to bargain in good faith. Admittedly, this is a gesture and no one thinks the Bush administration will ever help us here. But it's important in the battle of public perception that everyone know we are the ones trying to negotiate in good faith. We are the ones who want to put the town back to work. They are the ones keeping that from happening.

The WGA has talked to Wall Street. They are making business sense, and major shareholders are listening and bringing pressure down on the companies to settle this.

Advertisers are being contacted. Unions from all across the country representing millions of workers are asking how they can help. They would be willing to boycott advertisers. The advertisers are being made aware of this and soon the boycotts of large sponsors like Proctor and Gamble will begin. And it won't just be unions. The public will help. The public is on our side. Sure the members of IA somehow blame us for striking and not the AMPTP for forcing us to strike, but most of America supports us. Who knows -- they might join in.

The WGA is approaching some of the companies from the AMPTP that want to make a separate deal, and is attempting to negotiate with them one on one. Not the big 6 or 7 companies, but the next level. Those companies don't have a problem with what we are asking for and would rather get back into production. If we can make enough of those deals some of us can get back to work, and the coalition of the greedy will feel the competition breathing down their necks.

In addition, the WGA and many of its top talent are starting to make deals with Google and Yahoo and other internet strongholds. This should snap some sense into the studios. If they want to remain relevant in the next ten years, they need to dominate the next medium which will be the internet. If other companies, with enough money to bring eyes to their sites, start to get into the game, the studios will be left behind. If I were them I'd be very scared of that possibility and I'd want to do anything I could to prevent top names from helping to establish a new medium that they don't own.

We are also approaching legal experts to challenge the networks' legal right to own the productions, distribution, and exhibition of entertainment. In the old days that was considered a monopoly. We have left it alone for years because they have been our partners but now they aren't acting in good faith and it's time to make sure there is more competition in the market place. We have the desire and ability to take this issue all the way to the top courts in our country. The studios aren't going to like that.

There is more pressure coming at them as SAG will stand with us, and if we are still out in June they'll go out with us and shut down whatever production is left. They will have upfronts in May without product to sell, and the 9 billion dollars they usually make goes out the window. Studios have execs on salary doing nothing, and time is ticking.

Kogen mentions the DGA briefly, but as I've read elsewhere the DGA is increasingly a non-factor. If they don't make a good new media deal, which they likely won't, the strike continues.

Here's the conclusion:

Why We Fight (in case you forgot):

The AMPTP has made a grave miscalculation. We know we are fighting for the very ability to make a living in the future. We know we are losing money now we won't get back – but it is for the greater good and for the least powerful among us. We get that. We're good with that. The corporate mind can't fathom it.

What we are asking for is fair, and reasonable, and affordable but in a negotiation there is NO WINNING, only a deal to be made where we get less than we hope for but more than they want to give. That said, for this strike to end we will have to get some kind of fair compensation for showing and selling our shows online. The way to do that is to not argue with each other, but rather, to keep the faith that your union is working hard to make a deal that will get us back to work. And to keep giving the union your support in anyway you can -- whether it's marching, or showing up at rallies or simply staying hopeful.

The only other option, as far as I can tell, is that the union falls apart, and we are all on our own against these guys. If you think you don't have power now as a group, try it on your own. If the union gets destroyed then we will have given up fifty years of gains that were struck for and won by our brethren – not to mention any chance that young writers in the future will get a fair deal. There's too much at stake to let that happen.

There will be curve balls and surprises and we will have to continue to struggle. The pressure from our membership and a town out of work will build. But if we stay together and hold out for what we believe in, we will no doubt achieve a better deal than the October offer and be all the stronger in future negotiations.