Do You Support the WGA Strike?

[Golliwog]

I think the Writers Guild is enjoying its power.

There must be talented free lance writers out there who are hungry enough to be eminently employable.

 

[LarsVenice]

I support the strike. It's true that there are talented free-lance writers who would undercut the writers' ability to get fair payment for their work. The situation for writers here used to be worse, and it would go back to the old exploitation if the union did not prevent it. Songwriters get royalties when their work is resold, and script writers should be treated similarly.

 

[PreTTy PeTe]

i want my Journeyman back

 

[darcey]

I support the strike because it's about the same old battle. Management wants ALL the profit.
I realize that "capitalism" requires an exploited group of workers, but this is the 21st century. Can't management be a LITTLE more subtle about screwing over the help ??

 

[drhladnjak]

Personally, I'm tired of the strike already. I'm not a big TV guy, but I have made a point of watching specific well-written shows like Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives over the past couple years.

If anything, it's just making more people like me have less of a reason to watch television at all, which in the end is going to hurt everybody involved in movie and television production. I don't particularly feel bad for the media companies, because if they wanted to they could end this tomorrow by giving in. However, I do feel sorry for all the rank and file workers like the cameramen, hairdressers, janitors, etc. The amount of money they'll lose in the strike is probably much more than what the writers will win in the end over the remainders of their careers.

 

[nickscotti]

I hope they both reach a mutually agreeable contract. But I will never forgive either side for the biggest tv screw-up of the year. NO FUCKING "24"!!!

 

[JakeBequette]

I just want my stories back.​

 

[Ninja108]

not when they have demands they know the moguls will never accept in a million years and keep others unemployed while they can run to their guild for assistance

 

[levenshulme31]

The writers of all the shows you are all missing so much are the ones who create them. Without the writers the actors have nothing to say, the directors nothing to direct and the producers nothing to produce and the studios nothing to sell and hang their adverts off.

Yet the same actors, directors, and especially producers and studios will all get their slice of the revenue from download and internet sales. Sales which will generate billions of dollars in the coming years as more people shift their viewing habits to on-demand services rather than being tied to tv schedules.

Why should not the creators of these shows get their fair cut of the money their words generate?

Why should their work make only other people rich?

I miss The Daily Show. I miss it because it is very funny. It is very funny because writers write the jokes which I laugh at. QED writers seem VERY important to the whole show. I therefore don't want the writers to be fucked over by the employers. My missing the show for a while is no great sacrifice for me, only a mere inconvenience. The writes however have a great deal to lose and I for one fully support them.

They deserve every penny they are asking for and I hope they get it.

 

[Kulindahr]

Sure.

It's cheap entertainment.
And it's funny to watch people be stubborn and lose more in income than they would have gotten under the new contract they want.

I'd have a lot more respect if they were doing what unions were meant to do back in the day: raise the conditions of workers, not enrich their exclusive membership. Unions today tend to be like guilds, and guilds pretty much exist to keep the employment pool limited so they can keep prices high and get wealthy off that.

 

[vulgar_newcomer]

yes (12345)

 

[levenshulme31]

Sure.

It's cheap entertainment.
And it's funny to watch people be stubborn and lose more in income than they would have gotten under the new contract they want.

I'd have a lot more respect if they were doing what unions were meant to do back in the day: raise the conditions of workers, not enrich their exclusive membership. Unions today tend to be like guilds, and guilds pretty much exist to keep the employment pool limited so they can keep prices high and get wealthy off that.

If this is the case then why do shows have such large writing pools?

If you invented a new gadget would you be happy if you only received a royalty from physical store sales but nothing from online sales? The company which makes and markets your gadget gets paid wherever it is sold but you don't. Fair?

 

[chatolandia]

I support it, because they are part of a team of people that is not getting what other members of the team get.


They are important, as the lack of shows has shown, and the movie studios should know that.


And nowadays the majority of the income from studios is not generated from first run of TV shows or Movies, but from DVDs/Downloads and other re-showing of their work.

so yes, I support it

 

[chatolandia]

Yes JDS, unless we stop buying...

or going to the movies

or getting pickier about where we spend the money

 

[PreTTy PeTe]

i want journeyman back

time travel to fix the past

yea

 

[doctorsun]

I support their cause, but they need to fucking resolve it and get back to work. The studios and producers aren't the ones suffering, it's the fans of the TV shows and movies that are being delayed.

 

[Kulindahr]

If this is the case then why do shows have such large writing pools?

If you invented a new gadget would you be happy if you only received a royalty from physical store sales but nothing from online sales? The company which makes and markets your gadget gets paid wherever it is sold but you don't. Fair?

If that's supposed to be an analogy, I'm not seeing it.

 

[BluesDog]

i want my Journeyman back

I thought that I heard that "Journeyman" was cancelled--- I hope not.

 

[Jory]

I do feel sorry for all the rank and file workers like the cameramen, hairdressers, janitors, etc. The amount of money they'll lose in the strike is probably much more than what the writers will win in the end over the remainders of their careers.

What I've heard was if the strike goes way too long that they just going layoff the rank and file and make them reaply for their jobs when the strike ends. In fact one of the progressive talk show host told one of the writers about this his reaction was basiclly. So?

 

[Sausy]

If the studios are going to reap a windfall from the new media outlets,then it damn well makes sense that those who provide the scripts that make all the programming possible get their fair share.The writers,despite the toll that the strike has possibly fatally inflicted on the remainder of the season,deserve everything they can get.If the studios are bragging about how countless millions can be made with internet,cell phone rights,etc...then they are not in a position to reject a fair settlement for the writers because claims that the money isn't there yet.Too many hard working people in business have been given the short end of the stick by the studios who benefit from incredibly profitable deals that were not originally foreseen to be so lucrative.The artists and writers who are responsible for those multi millions coming in put their heart and souls into their work.They are the product and there would be no profits without them.
The performers rightly support the writers....so should the public at large.