> You know what's REALLY interesting about this strike? It's that
> the writers are asking for a share of the product of their labour.
Well, not just a share, but an increase in the residual share of the *re*-production of their labor.
> Imagine a industry-wide strike in say mining, in which the
> workers demanded a share of the profits from the ore that
> they collectively got mined and marketed.
I think that's already how coal miners get paid. The difference is that once the coal company sells the coal, it's gone. We can quibble about what is a 'fair' share of the proceeds of the sale of coal (and Dog Knows, it's never been a great share), but I think we can agree that it is a model that's based on a 'share' ...
In this case however, the writers have been paid their 'share' for the episode, or whatever ... plus they earn a share of the 'residual' revenue, like many in the entertainment industry on the 'creative' side. It's just not how much of a share that they'd like.
In fact, reading the WGA's current position, I don't see anything 'new' here: it's really just a change in percentages that they are asking for.
http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2485
/jordan