I am proud of the brothers and sisters at the WGA. You have done a good thing for the union movement. The level of solidarity of your unit is a lesson to us all. The use of new media to get your message out should be taken up as much as possible by all unions. The level of strike support by non-WGA members should bring hope to all of our union brothers and sisters.
A strike is never won completely. You can never know for sure when victory is yours. I have seen great contracts signed after a unified strike and the actual long term prospects that the strike gave access to lost by frittering away of unity. I have seen mediocre contracts signed in the midst of contentious union in-fighting with the result that the specific union and the union movement as a whole has come away stronger and ready for future struggle. A strike is not won or lost on the day the strike ends. It will be the future that will tell. If this fight leads to a Hollywood more united against the conglomerates, to a SAG and WGA in continuous collaboration, to greater connections with the union movement as a whole, and to a spread of the lessons of this strike to other unions in Southern California and across the country, then the victory will not be just in the here and now for this contract but a permanent victory that will grow.
So this is what I have to say: Start organizing now for SAG, for the Teamsters, for other Hollywood unions and for your future contract. Don't forget the lessons you learned in this fight. You are writers, you should write those lessons down. Create a collective history so others can see.
I have a few hopes for the future, the future of the writers' at the WGA, of the website United Hollywood, and the future of the Hollywood union movement. I will list the obvious along with the not so obvious. I hope at later times to write two longer posts on "the measure of victory" and "the lessons for other unions of the WGA strike."
1) Most immediately you need to support SAG and the Teamsters in their upcoming contract negotiations. Do not fall asleep on this, especially in regard to the Teamsters.
2) You need to find a way to unite all Hollywood unions in one bargaining coalition. (I do not yet hope that there will be a single industrial wide union but that should be an aim of the most conscious union members.)
3) Is there any possibility that some tech savvy writers might volunteer to help other unions in need? Damn it! there have been a few organizing drives that I have been involved with, and one major strike here in NYC, that your kind of righteous propaganda, use of youtube, picket line interviews, web log-rolling could have helped us to get the news out to the public that we are not "greedy" truck drivers or transit workers, but just brothers and sisters making a living. (Also star power would help.)
4) I would like to know more about rank and file connections between Hollywood unions and other unions in Southern California.
5) I would like to hear some respectful but clear eyed discussion of IATSE and how to incorporate IATSE into a "United Hollywood" movement.
Going forward will prove the success of this strike. Don't let victory slip through your fingers by relaxing. As Verrone said, you must build on your unprecedented unity. Organize the unorganized! Join with other unions.
The strike captains I read on the internet, heard in interviews, and the ones I met on the picket line in New York were the backbone of this strike. Don't let anyone tell you that this strike wasn't yours because you made it yours. In my 30 years of involvement in the union movement I have rarely met a more motivated group of strike and line captains. They made it a pleasure for me to show up at the picket line in cold, rain, and sleet. I want to thank them.
I want to thank your leadership and your rank and file for giving the union movement a win that can be built upon.
Jerry Monaco
On Feb 15, 2008 9:27 AM, Greg Boozell <gboozell at juno.com> wrote:
> "HARLAN ELLISON - Wednesday, February 13 2008 22:49:43 *
> *
> YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO RE-POST THIS ANYWHERE:
>
> Creds: got here in 1962, written for just about everybody, won the
> Writers Guild Award four times for solo work, sat on the WGAw Board
> twice, worked on negotiating committees, and was out on the picket lines
> with my NICK COUNTER SLEEPS WITH THE FISHE$$$ sign. You may have heard
> my name. I am a Union guy, I am a Guild guy, I am loyal. I fuckin' LOVE
> the Guild.
>
> And I voted NO on accepting this deal.
>
> My reasons are good, and they are plentiful; Patric Verrone will be
> saddened by what I am about to say; long-time friends will shake their
> heads; but this I say without equivocation...
>
> THEY BEAT US LIKE A YELLOW DOG. IT IS A SHIT DEAL. We finally got a
> timorous generation that has never had to strike, to get their asses out
> there, and we had to put up with the usual cowardly spineless babbling
> horse's asses who kept mumbling "lessgo bac'ta work" over and over, as
> if it would make them one iota a better writer. But after months on the
> line, and them finally bouncing that pus-sucking dipthong Nick Counter,
> we rushed headlong into a shabby, scabrous, underfed shovelfulla shit
> clutched to the affections of toss-in-the-towel summer soldiers
> trembling before the Awe of the Alliance.
>
> My Guild did what it did in 1988. It trembled and sold us out. It gave
> away the EXACT co-terminus expiration date with SAG for some bullshit
> short-line substitute; it got us no more control of our words; it
> sneak-abandoned the animator and reality beanfield hands before anyone
> even forced it on them; it made nice so no one would think we were
> meanies; it let the Alliance play us like the village idiot. The WGAw
> folded like a Texaco Road Map from back in the day.
>
> And I am ashamed of this Guild, as I was when Shavelson was the prexy,
> and we wasted our efforts and lost out on technology that we had to
> strike for THIS time. 17 days of streaming tv!!!????? Geezus, you
> bleating wimps, why not just turn over your old granny for gang-rape?
>
> You deserve all the opprobrium you get. While this nutty festschrift of
> demented pleasure at being allowed to go back to work in the rice paddy
> is filling your cowardly hearts with joy and relief that the grips and
> the staff at the Ivy and street sweepers won't be saying nasty shit
> behind your back, remember this:
>
> You are their bitches. They outslugged you, outthought you,
> outmaneuvered you; and in the end you ripped off your pants, painted yer
> asses blue, and said yes sir, may I have another.
>
> Please excuse my temerity. I'm just a sad old man who has fallen among
> Quislings, Turncoats, Hacks and Cowards.
>
> I must go now to whoops. My gorge has become buoyant.
>
> Respectfully, Yr. Pal, Harlan Ellison"
>
>
> Greg
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/