WGA West President Patric Verrone sent a message of thanks to SAG members appropriately timed to Valentines Day:
To the Members of the Screen Actors Guild,
As you undoubtedly know, our 100 day strike is over and the WGA has a contract that covers new media. On behalf of the 12,000 members of the WGA West and East, I want to thank the Screen Actors Guild leadership, membership, and staff for your tremendous involvement and support.Throughout the run-up to the strike SAG and WGA members and staffers spent countless hours preparing and briefing one another on the new media issues that we believe will affect us all in the years to come. We shared our proposals and held numerous strategy sessions among our leadership as well as making dozens of joint show visits to network and cable programs to prepare and engage our staffs and casts.
During the strike SAG members showed their solidarity by joining our picket lines throughout LA and New York, featuring both rank and file members and entire show casts. Your support was especially visible when SAG members made positive (and sometimes provocative) statements at our rallies and in the press. But it was never more vital to our cause than when SAG members chose to honor our picket lines on talk shows and, most especially, at the Golden Globes. The pressure that generated on the Oscars was undoubtedly a turning point in the strike.
For all of these reasons, I offer my personal, heartfelt, and sincere thanks. My gratitude extends to not only the hundreds of SAG members who walked and honored our picket lines but the 80 SAG staffers in LA and NY who worked those lines on every one of the 100 days of the strike. I especially want to single out your Organizing Director, Todd Amorde, your Deputy National Executive Director, Pamm Fair, board members Anne-Marie Johnson, Valerie Harper, Frances Fisher and Justine Bateman, your National Executive Director, Doug Allen, and most of all, your president, Alan Rosenberg. Alan's personal involvement in our struggle on an almost daily basis gave our unions welcome encouragement and me tremendous personal peace of mind.
Now, as your union heads down the path that we blazed with your support so too must we return that support. We have learned a great deal from our struggle.and we are offering everything we have learned to help you face the challenge ahead. As you well know, our employers are diversified, multinational conglomerates. They drive a hard bargain and fight like hell. Among their favorite weapons is their ability to divide membership from leadership and from one another. They control mass media and have sympathetic correspondents who spread rumors and innuendo designed to make members think their leaders are inept, inexperienced, and even insane and to make leadership think their members are disaffected, dissatisfied, and disloyal. Any union's bargaining strength is a function of what management thinks of its members' determination and its leadership's approval. Alan and Doug have been thoughtful and tenacious leaders throughout their tenures and I implore you to give them your faith, your resolve, and your patience in the months ahead. The more you trust them to do their job, the better they can do it.
What the Writers Guilds accomplished this year was the result of our internal solidarity, as well as support from sister Guilds and unions nationwide, led by yours. I wish you every success in matching our solidarity and in building that support and we will do everything in our power to help. Our slogan throughout this campaign has been, "We are all in this together." Moving ahead, I hope that "we" will continue to include you.
Thank you again and good luck in your upcoming talks.
As a grateful WGA writer who truly appreciated the SAG support, I know I do not speak only for myself here– Should it ever be necessary for you guys to strike, I will be there with a sign in my hands.
Thanks again, SAG. You guys really showed some spine and some class.
A WGA Writer
Comment by WGA Writer — February 14, 2008 @ 8:39 pm
I have been reading D.H.D.,along with everyone else,since the wga strike began and I want to thank you for all of the many hours of reporting. You rule! What really bothers me and many of my so called,below the line workers,is the lack of acknowledgement by the wga of our sacrifice.Not to mention the fact that the leadership went begging teamsters to honor the picket lines.I’m not a teamster,I,m a set dresser.I understand that tom short was not in support of the wga strike but,he does not speak for the majority of iatse members in this town.It’s hard to believe the moguls in their press release acknowledged us,and they’re supposed to be cold hearted bastards. Thanks again for all you do.
Comment by kirk — February 14, 2008 @ 9:30 pm
Kirk — I would love to thank IATSE for their “sacrifice” but in my 100 days of striking, I never saw a single IATSE member on the picket line. Where were you?
Comment by LB — February 14, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
Patric Verrone stated:
“As you well know, our employers are diversified, multinational conglomerates. They drive a hard bargain and fight like hell. Among their favorite weapons is their ability to divide membership from leadership and from one another. They control mass media and have sympathetic correspondents who spread rumors and innuendo designed to make members think their leaders are inept, inexperienced, and even insane and to make leadership think their members are disaffected, dissatisfied, and disloyal. Any union’s bargaining strength is a function of what management thinks of its members’ determination and its leadership’s approval. Alan and Doug have been thoughtful and tenacious leaders throughout their tenures and I implore you to give them your faith, your resolve, and your patience in the months ahead. The more you trust them to do their job, the better they can do it.”
The sending out of an ill-timed petition urging Screen Actors Guild to disenfranchise some of its rank and file members by suggesting they should not be allowed to vote on a contract that doesn’t “affect” them, or to suggest that they cannot vote on a strike authorization, because they have not had the ability to earn as good a living as the signers of the petition have, is a perfect example of what Patric is referencing.
Another example is using the media to make a big splash for a day that only highlights the lack of knowledge of certain S.A.G. members of the workings of their Guild.
On the back of every S.A.G. card is the phone number and website of the Guild. I suggest that if all these S.A.G. members truly care about getting a fair and equitable contract for the membership, that they come to the W&W meetings held daily through the end of this month, and learn how the process works, and contribute their valuable knowledge.
Every single actor started at the bottom. Remember the thrill of getting your Screen Actors Guild card?
The Guild negotiates minimums. Give a leg up to those who need to make enough to get their health care. With salary compression, and another union undercutting basic-cable contracts by offering companies 10-15 free exhibition days,(no residuals, thus no contribution to Pension & Health), it is more and more difficult for the rank and file to earn a basic living wage.
Come sit with us in the upcoming negotiations — Your presence is where your power can be used to get a fair contract, benefitting all members of our beloved Guild, and yes, to avert a possible job action.
“We are all in this together.” - Patric Verrone
Frances Fisher
Screen Actors Guild National Board
Comment by Frances Fisher — February 15, 2008 @ 12:28 am
I’m sorry that you haven’t been given proper acknowledgment by the WGA for your sacrifice, Kirk. Perhaps the wounds have to heal first. The media did a pretty good job of portraying the BTL’s as hating the writers, demanding they go back to work, blaming them for their loss of jobs and houses, and telling countless tales of woe from BTLs castigating the writers for striking ending in “go back to work, we’re suffering.” Perhaps it was all the work of studio shills but it takes a toll. So does all the shouting from cars at writers on the picket lines.
Unfortunately, there weren’t many BTLers shouting their support, or at least not openly, except for one or two here.
I’m a writer, so I was out on the picket line, but I’m not WGA, so technically I don’t see benefits from the strike either… and I certainly don’t get to vote. In fact, I’m classified as BTL myself in my day job, and yet I was out there on the picket line. Since I worked in post, I was fortunate to get more time in salary before I got laid off too, but when I was working, I nearly killed myself picketing during the day and working an eight hour job at night… with IATSE. Tom Short’s letter was devastating. While I had coworkers sympathetic to the strike before that letter, it evaporated afterwards… only two actually remained sympathetic and were willing to listen to how his letter misquoted and distorted what he quoted. The rest almost stopped talking to me. None of them lifted a finger to help the writers in any way.
And I can’t even say that I met any other BTL’s on the picket line, other than fellow script coordinators and Teamsters. I’m sure they were out there, and I just never got to meet them. In fact, I met more BTLers on Nikki’s blog here than I did on the picket line. I certainly did meet a lot of SAG people on the picket line. So while your sacrifice should be acknowledged and thanked, perhaps you might consider forgiving the people, for whom it seemed like Tom Short did speak for the majority of IATSE and for whom it seemed like, if they weren’t just reading Nikki’s blog, but elsewhere, the majority of vocal BTLers were berating the writers, not supporting them. I’m not saying it’s right to not acknowledge your sacrifice, but it is certainly easier to be grateful and openly appreciative of the brothers and sisters who stood beside us.
Comment by A between the liner — February 15, 2008 @ 12:35 am
Even though I’m a below-the-liner (or BTL), I am an aspiring writer, so I don’t know if my opinion or support counts as a pure example of the general BTL stance, but I have been a vocal supporter, both on these and other boards, and in public, of the WGA strike. Why? Because I generally support workers against greedy multinational corporations in almost any fight involving worker’s rights and benefits. As many writers tried to point out in the heat of the struggle, this is about much more than writers and the Studios that try to shaft them; it’s about standing in solidarity against the global march toward corporate hegemony, corruption and greed and the alarming erosion of worker benefits, rights and conditions - something so many fought so hard to secure in days gone by. In other words, making a long story short, I still shop at Trader Joe’s and not Ralph’s.
Comment by JB — February 15, 2008 @ 9:11 am
“Kirk — I would love to thank IATSE for their “sacrifice” but in my 100 days of striking, I never saw a single IATSE member on the picket line. Where were you?”
Their “sacrifice” would have been the lost wages/jobs during that 100 days. Not making a commentary on who’s fault, just sayin’.
Comment by WouldANodKillYou? — February 15, 2008 @ 9:46 am
I find it very upsetting that some of my fellow WGA picketers are bemoaning the fact that they didn’t see any Below the Line workers out there with them. First off, while I didn’t meet a ton, I did talk to a few of them. They were there.
But more importantly, these people lost their jobs during this period and to expect them to come out and join a picket line rather than go find another job so they can support their families is really selfish and arrogant. These people work their asses off to make sure our scripts become a reality, and I thank them for any support they could give.
Only a few people post here so you’re getting a biased view but do know that the majority of writers I’ve met feel the same way– This strike could never happen without the support of the entire town, especially our fellow unions, and we thank you for it.
Comment by George Glass — February 15, 2008 @ 10:51 am
As a grateful WGA writer who truly appreciated the SAG support, I know I do not speak only for myself here– Should it ever be necessary for you guys to strike, I will be there with a sign in my hands.
Thanks again, SAG. You guys really showed some spine and some class.
A WGA Writer
My position exactly. Thank you again, SAG, for the many good things you did and said on behalf of the WGA. And this: how about we team up next go-round and how about we start preparing for the next go-round tomorrow? The producers have money, we have numbers and we need to use our numbers better.
A WGAeast writer, lifetime member
Comment by Brandon Cole — February 15, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
George — That’s a really interesting POV. But it’s fantasy. This strike *did* occur without the support of some other unions in this town. I was out there every day and saw nary a DGA or IATSE member. Is it your position that ALL those people were working the whole time?
If you think it’s arrogant to assume that other unions who have a stake in the outcome of this strike would join the line now and then, then I suppose you won’t be picketing for them when it’s their beef. I sure will be. Because I have character and I realize if the AMPTP is screwing one union, it’s going to screw them all. Even if I have a job at that time, I will make it my mission to put in hours on their lines. And I won’t be throwing stones at them for fighting the good fight.
Comment by LB — February 15, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
to the grateful WGA writer in post #1:
And there’s this: I spoke at the membership meeting Saturday urging the leadership to demand the “no sympathy strike” clause be stricken from the contract so we could stand by SAG if the actors need us. My 2cents was that the actors who joined our picket line and spoke at our rallies and refused to cross our line for awards’ ceremonies and talk-show appearances had helped our cause IMMENSELY and we owed SAG plenty. There was one or two other members who spoke also along these lines but the mood in the room was, “Sit down and shut up. This strike is over.” But next time, you know? Next time if we have any sense, we’ll join up with SAG and the DGA and IATSE even and, if I had my way, the Teamsters also, in one united front.
WGAeaster, one of many
Comment by Brandon Cole — February 15, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
You put a lot of people out of work with a misguided strike, only to complain about the crappy deal you got.
The WGA did the impossible, you made the AMPTP look good in comparison.
From the rest of the industry that took a 25% pay cut for YOUR cause, shut up, go back to work, and try to write something that will last more than 13 weeks. We don’t want or need your thanks.
Comment by frustrated — February 15, 2008 @ 1:40 pm
To those bemoaning the lack of other unions walking the picket line: why was it that any time the temp dropped below 60 or there was a bit a rain or because it was Friday or the holidays there wasn’t ANYONE walking at most of the studios? Walking a three-hour shift twice a week doesn’t really entitle you to beotch about other unions. Get to writing.
Comment by Shhh Tough Guys — February 15, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
Has the Bush administration succeeded in throwing out Free Speech along with our other constitutional rights & civil liberties? What’s this ’shut up unless you agree with me, otherwise up yours?’
Let’s remember that the writers also lost wages, sold their cars (in L.A.!) to make house payments, and tightened their belts to make do.
The AMTMP is crap - there’s no way they could look good unless they turn against their own cla$$ interests (don’t think so), or unless self-delusional people help polish their halos.
I come from a long line of teachers & health workers. When my mother struck her hospital, she felt bad about the quality of care her patients would get. The scab nurses imported from other states who were paid several times more than my mom didn’t know or care about her patients, they didn’t know that particular hospital’s procedures - thereby possibly endangering the patients. The corporation who owned the hospital wanted to take advantage of the nurses’ feelings of responsibility - they wanted to hold patient care hostage to defeat the nurses’ demands for better job conditions. Check out the conditions of a hospital’s workers, and check out the morbidity/mortality rate. There’s a correlation.
Same situation with nursing home workers - their patients are dependent on them for their quality of life. Do you really want your mother taken care of by someone paid minimum wage, or by less than the minimum wage if paid under the table?
Same with teachers who want to teach their students, but striking when left no choice. I’ve been on the picket lines with teachers, health workers, room cleaners, janitors, security guards, restauant workers - one thing’s the same. One thing is the universal - THE BOSSES ARE OUT TO SCREW YOU, and they love it when you cooperate.
Comment by Anonymous — February 15, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
I saw pics of picket lines in the single digits (New York) and in rain, also of pickets in Madison? Minnesota? in two-digit below zero weather. Maybe you should check the archives in UnitedHollywood.
P.S. My son picketed in NY so that confirmed it.
Comment by ligaya — February 15, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
These bitter anecdotes remind me of tne myth of the Welfare Queen in her Cadillac using food stamps to buy champagne & caviar. But maybe you believe in the Welfare Queen.
Comment by ligaya — February 15, 2008 @ 3:46 pm
I never missed a day on the picket line. During that entire time I walked alongside all kinds of people: TV writers (lots of ‘em), fellow feature writers, fans, SAG members, and BTLs. People drove by and honked their horns in support.
All of the above were–and are still–appreciated.
But there’s another side of the strike, too. A real ugly side. People got aggressive and tried deliberately to inflict harm. On at least two separate occasions somebody tried to run me over. One of those guys was a grip on his way to work–he was getting paid, I still wonder what his problem was. The other was, you guessed it, a reality TV editor. I recognized him because we’ve met before and I have a really good memory for faces. I try not think it was personal. But who knows?
Anyway, those two people were not appreciated. Nor was the woman who saw me with my dog one day while I was wearing my strike shirt and said, “Your fucking writers, I hope you and your dog die.”
Here’s the bottom line: if you supported the strike, great. And thanks. If you didn’t, well, that’s okay, too. Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion and I certainly understand the need to earn a paycheck.
Anyway, when, and if, SAG goes on strike I’ll support them and be out on the line whenever I can, as often as I can.
And if the BTL needs my support for anything, I’ll be there.
Why?
Because you support the collective cause–if it’s right. And if the cause is important enough, it talks all kinds of individuals to support it. And every individual has to determine what “important” is, that’s how contract gains are made.
Comment by Jake Hollywood — February 15, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
I am not a WGA member, though I am a working playwright. Nonetheless, I showed my support for the strike by baking cupcakes and muffins at home and bringing them to the writers manning the picket lines. It is this type of gesture that never gets mentioned at all, and those who made these supportive gestures are the true unsung heroes of the strike. For had the strike not succeeded as it had, it would have had a disasterous ripple effect throughout many elements of the entertainment industry, including the theatre, where the concepts of authorial autonomy, authorial control, and the primacy of the playwright are under constant attack by producers.
Comment by jalowe1957 — February 15, 2008 @ 5:12 pm
I’m a working, middle-class WGA writer who is immensely grateful to SAG for their support in this strike.
SAG folks, if you ever go on strike, I will be out there regularly, picket sign in hand, walking the line with you, as you did with us.
IATSE, Teamsters, IUOE… same thing. If any of y’all ever strike against the AMPTP at any point, I’ll be one more writer walking the picket line with you.
Patrick Meighan
Culver City, CA
Comment by Patrick Meighan — February 15, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
“why was it that any time the temp dropped below 60 or there was a bit a rain or because it was Friday or the holidays there wasn’t ANYONE walking at most of the studios?”
I was at WB Gate 2 every Wednesday morning at 6 am (for about a month, we started at 5) when it was 39 degrees and stood in the rain and hail with the entire staff of “ER.” I made a point of doing the earliest shift so I could talk with BTL workers face-to-face and let them know this strike was about not letting greedy multi-national corps take away health & pension benefits and fair wages from ANY union member. I also want to add that as a strike captain, I saw Teamsters, DGA, SAG, fans, IATSE, wanna-be WGA, teachers, flight attendants, retirees — you name it, all kinds of people came out on the picket lines when they could. And while having trucks refuse to cross our line was a boost, I NEVER begrudged anybody who went on the lot to earn their day’s pay. Thank you, those of you who supported the writers, and I, too, will walk beside you if & when you find yourselves in the same struggle.
Jennifer G.
Comment by Jennifer — February 15, 2008 @ 9:40 pm
Some of us writers were BTL before we got our guild cards, and I hope someone slaps me severely upside the head if I ever forget where I started. While some of us continued to work steadily either as writers or BTL, others of us have not been so fortunate. Strike or no strike, I know how scary it is to be out of work for long periods of time. I don’t have enough credits to qualify for health care through the guild or to live solely off residuals. I had to take a non-industry job so that I might continue to write in my downtime. Some of that earlier talk about writers needing to go out and get “real jobs” was pretty funny. It’s kind of necessary when one needs to pay rent. I showed my support not only for the guild, but for those BTL who had little-to-nothing to gain by this strike, by walking the line in the early hours of the morning before reporting for a nine-hour workday in a cold, extremely PC environment wearing soul-sucking pumps (corporate pumps bite knives, people) and starchy-assed shirts. That said, I’m grateful for that experience as the people I currently work with are the ones who watch the shows that we all work on (and they’re sick of reality shows, btw) no matter what our job title is. They are our audience, and as a writer, it’s hard to write for them if we don’t know them. Hollywood is extremely competitive so I feel privileged when those rare opportunities do come along to work in a job that I love doing in a casual environment.
Whether I ever get hired again or not, I still write, but god, I would love to be doing it full time. And I miss wearing jeans and elegant flip-flops to the office.
Comment by Mercenarious — February 15, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
Patrick Of Culver City-
If, and it’s a big if, IATSE ever considers striking, you can count on me to create an member level out reach committee who’s sole purpose is to engage members of the other unions/guilds that would be affected by such a labor action.
It was something I tried to do with your strike, but the WGA members I reached out to, that were so enthusiastic about it initially, seemed to lose interest after discussing it with WGA staff.
So, in the very unlikely chance of an IATSE work action, you can look forward to hearing from me!
Dan of Los Feliz
Comment by Dan — February 16, 2008 @ 7:06 am
Does anyone not find it interesting that now that the strike is settled, the DVD format war is suddenly over? Paves the way for a MASSIVE consumer move to blu ray. Tons of not just new movies but OLD movies are going to be bought and sold on blu ray now… and not only is WGA not going to reap the rewards, but SHOULD SAG be smart enough to get their DVD formula improved (could they really be stupid enough not to??) WGA won’t benefit because of MFN… I definitely don’t see the producers honoring their handshake on that (”that wasn’t ever meant to included DVD formulas” is a quote i’m sure you’ll hear).
Will SAG demand WGA get their increase on DVDs? hmm
Comment by DVD bust out — February 18, 2008 @ 7:16 am