Happy Labor Day

Hope you all are having a good Labor Day Monday. It was great to see and hear so much support for unions and labor movements in Denver. SEIU and many other groups were out in full force. Particularly at the final speech at Invesco Field.

FYI (if you didn't know) from wikipedia

Labor Day has been celebrated on the first Monday in September in the United States since the 1880s. The form for the celebration of Labor Day was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday—a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations," followed by a festival for the workers and their families. This became the pattern for Labor Day celebrations. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civil significance of the holiday.

May the coming years bring more support and strength for our critical labor union members and families. An Obama presidency surely will mean that Labor will regain a too long silenced voice in government. Si Se Puede.

There's more...

WGA Strike: A Tentative Deal

Almost Over.

The graph from last January of falling studio stock prices, shows why.

Writers met Saturday in New York City and Los Angeles to hear the proposal. The New York City membership (WGAE) generally was for lifting the strike. I don't have word yet on Los Angeles (WGAw.)

The Board can a) lift the strike on its own, b) schedule a 48 hour vote, or c) schedule a 10 day vote. I think option b, a 48 hour vote is most politically likely. That puts everyone back to work Wednesday, yet lets everyone be clear it is their choice to take this contract. Which in my view is as it should be, after this much sacrifice and work.

If the writers don't take the deal, most of it will be withdrawn. They will lose all their leverage -- the Academy Awards, Upfronts (selling the fall season), pilot season, hiring for the fall shows -- till June when SAG joins them on the picket lines. That's three more months of walking in circles for nothing, as there is no guarantee they'll get any better deal then.

The writers will take the deal (I say confidently.) Not perfect, but no negotiation is.

United Hollywood

Letter From The Presidents With Deal Summary

This was sent early this morning to membership. The delay in publishing the deal points, we've learned, was because the companies dragged their feet enshrining some of the final details in an attempt to renege on some of what they had promised. The last-minute fight to keep that from happening took until late last night.

To Our Fellow Members,

We have a tentative deal.

It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery. It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, "When they get paid, we get paid."

Specific terms of the agreement are described in the summary at the following link - http://www.wga.org/contract_07/wga_tent_summary.pdf - and will be further discussed at our Saturday membership meetings on both coasts. At those meetings we will also discuss how we will proceed regarding ratification of this agreement and lifting the restraining order that ends the strike. Details of the Los Angeles meeting can be found at http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2763.

Less than six months ago, the AMPTP wanted to enact profit-based residuals, defer all Internet compensation in favor of a study, forever eliminate "distributor's gross" valuations, and enforce 39 pages of rollbacks to compensation, pension and health benefits, reacquisition, and separated rights. Today, thanks to three months of physical resolve, determination, and perseverance, we have a contract that includes WGA jurisdiction and separated rights in new media, residuals for Internet reuse, enforcement and auditing tools, expansion of fair market value and distributor's gross language, improvements to other traditional elements of the MBA, and no rollbacks.

Over these three difficult months, we shut down production of nearly all scripted content in TV and film and had a serious impact on the business of our employers in ways they did not expect and were hard pressed to deflect. Nevertheless, an ongoing struggle against seven, multinational media conglomerates, no matter how successful, is exhausting, taking an enormous personal toll on our members and countless others. As such, we believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike.

Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success. We activated, engaged, and involved the membership of our Guilds with a solidarity that has never before occurred. We developed a captains system and a communications structure that used the Internet to build bonds within our membership and beyond. We earned the backing of other unions and their members worldwide, the respect of elected leaders and politicians throughout the nation, and the overwhelming support of fans and the general public. Our thanks to all of them, and to the staffs at both Guilds who have worked so long and patiently to help us all.

There is much yet to be done and we intend to use all the techniques and relationships we've developed in this strike to make it happen. We must support our brothers and sisters in SAG who, as their contract expires in less than five months, will be facing many of the same challenges we have just endured. We must further pursue new relationships we have established in Washington and in state and local governments so that we can maintain leverage against the consolidated multinational conglomerates with whom we bargain. We must be vigilant in monitoring the deals that are made in new media so that in the years ahead we can enforce and expand our contract. We must fight to get decent working conditions and benefits for writers of reality TV, animation, and any other genre in which writers do not have a WGA contract.

Most important, however, is to continue to use the new collective power we have generated for our collective benefit. More than ever, now and beyond, we are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

Has the strike been worth it?

Bet your ass.

The studios tried to steal the internet. Failed.

You did that.

Without massive support from everyone, from readers of blogs, to the ordinary television viewer, to the people at my breakfast diner, from actors and the writers walking around in circles, this could not and would not have happened.

We're all in this together. Good work and congratulations.

There's more...

WGA Strike: We've Got Everything We Need

Negotiate Me, Baby

Unofficial talks continue under media blackout.

The WGA gets stronger every day.

The Screen Actors Guild is firmly on the writers side. Not only on the side of the writers, but getting ready to stage their own walkout in June.

Either this settles quickly, or kiss the Academy Awards goodbye, kiss the up-fronts goodbye, kiss pilot season goodbye (it's pretty much gone at this point anyway), and if SAG goes on strike, kiss Fall 2008 goodbye as well.

At some point, you can kiss goodbye a whole bunch of studio executives, 'cause they're going to get thrown out on their ass by Wall Street, as studio stock prices continue to crater.

Here's SAG's position (posted from United Hollywood):

Letter to SAG Members -- Weaknesses in the DGA Deal

This letter was just sent out to SAG members by Doug Allen (Executive Director and Chief Negotiator) and Allen Rosenberg (President). Emphases in red are from us at UH -- LK.

Dear SAG Member:

Everyone hopes the WGA strike will end with a fair deal for the writers. There has been much speculation about the impact on the WGA strike of the tentative agreement between the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the employers' representative, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Some have rushed to anoint their deal as the “solution” for the entertainment industry. We believe that assessment is premature.

All we know of the deal are the general terms described in a joint AMPTP/DGA press release. That press release leaves many important questions unanswered. Apparently, many elements of this deal remain unresolved and/or have not been reduced to writing.

The DGA press release suggests progress in some areas, but until the details are known, that is only speculation. Several examples: The formula for new media “electronic sell through (paid downloads or EST)” is based on the higher distributor’s gross revenues, rather than producer’s gross revenues, but the definition of distributor’s gross is vague and not sufficient to protect against manipulation by the employers. Also, information regarding employer “deals and data” will be available to the DGA to monitor distributor’s gross and paid downloads on the Internet, but the press release does not detail what data, who provides the data, and what happens if the data is not provided. The devil is in the details. In the tri-guild audits under the current guilds’ collective bargaining agreements (including the DGA’s), for example, some audits are still open after eight years, because of problems with enforcement under current contract language.

Some have suggested that the new DGA deal contains a “fair market value” test for revenues included in the new media residuals calculation, to protect against self-dealing when one part of a conglomerate sells new media content to another part of the conglomerate at an unfair, low price in order to reduce residuals. We hope this is true, but the press release does not use “arms-length transaction” or “fair market value test” language, and says only, “If our exhibitor or retailer is part of the producer’s corporate family, (DGA has) improved provisions for challenging any suspect transactions.” This language could mean anything, and certainly does not guarantee against self-dealing by media conglomerates to hurt creative talent.

Fair market value and distributor’s gross are two issues that the AMPTP demanded that the WGA take off the table, along with four other items, which resulted in talks breaking off in December. Now after prolonging the strike for another month, the AMPTP has negotiated these two issues with the DGA.

That is the good news. There are also even more serious problems with other provisions described in the DGA press release, particularly those involving new media. For example, why are residuals for electronic sell-through (paid downloads or EST) for directors based on their lower DVD formula (.3%) rather than the higher pay TV formula (1.2%) in their current agreement? All three guilds – SAG, WGA, and DGA – filed for arbitration to overturn management’s attempt to impose the DVD formula for residuals on the calculation of residuals for downloads under the current agreement. The DGA stated in their arbitration filings that payment of the lower amount is a violation of the collective bargaining agreement and the proper residual formula is the higher pay TV percentage. The concession by the DGA in the new deal, to use the formula that management improperly imposed under the current agreement, is an AMPTP roll-back. The new agreed-upon percentages for television (.7%) or feature films (.65%) are much lower in the DGA deal than the percentage that the DGA claims is appropriate in its arbitration (1.2%). And these “increases”, which are based on the discredited DVD formula, do not increase residuals on the sale of DVD’s, but only apply to downloads; despite the fact that DVD’s will generate billions in revenue to the studios and networks for years to come.

The very high thresholds in the DGA deal for full jurisdiction for made for new media content may well incentivize non-union work below the threshold amounts ($15, 000/minute, $300,000/program, $500,000/series, whichever is lower). What will stop the industry from making cheap, non-union pilots at below $300,000 per episode, for testing first on the Internet before the productions migrate to broadcast or basic cable?

Your Guild has signed 210 Internet producers to SAG contracts in the past two years and only seven of them (or 3%) would fall inside the high DGA jurisdictional thresholds. We have worked hard, just as we do with low budget features, to capture this Internet work and to make sure it is done union. This DGA proposal appears to abandon jurisdiction over a huge swath of actual Internet productions, which we currently cover.

This deal gingerly addresses certain issues now, with the apparent hope that in three years or more, revenues will grow and the agreement can be improved to capture more of it. Bargaining history in the entertainment industry, however, teaches that it is much harder to get a fair share of revenue after management puts it in their pockets for years. Residual compensation should be based on a fair share of revenue generated by covered content from the first dollar. Rather than a “percentage of revenue, payment from first dollar” approach to residuals, the DGA deal instead provides for a 17 day window for free streaming of television programs over the Internet without compensation (24 days for the program’s first season). The deal also allows a one year buy-out of $1200 for Internet use v. $20,000 for one re-run on broadcast television.

For these specific reasons, and because so much of the new DGA/AMPTP deal is unknown, no one should assume this new deal is a template for anyone else, certainly not for actors. It is up to the leadership and membership of the DGA to decide if their new deal with the studios and networks is acceptable, but whatever they decide, their decision will not determine what will be satisfactory for the leadership and membership of Screen Actors Guild. Each guild must act in the best interest of its own membership, including rejecting management-imposed “pattern bargaining.”

In solidarity,

Alan Rosenberg, President
Doug Allen, Executive Director and Chief Negotiator

The studios continue to think they can own the internet.

They can not.

Unless they give everyone a fair deal, this strike will last.

And last.

And last.

And last.

It will last for years, if that is what it takes. With SAG joining the WGA.

No kidding. No fooling around. Shut everything down.

PS. If you didn't get the joke of the video, beyond the obvious, it is this...

There is financing waiting in the wings. The studios have screwed up. People like myself are buying cinema grade cameras and going out to shoot our own Academy grade movies.

Fuck the studios.

When it comes time to distribute "What's Your Pattern?" or "Guru Trap", there will be means of financing available to me which does not involve the studio system, and which leaves me as a writer/director, with ownership, not sucking studio tit begging them to give me 1.2% of 20%, i.e. .3% after they take their costs and get creative with the numbers and be thankful. Hell no.

Some writer/directors are already doing 25-50% first-dollar deals with Wall Street or Silicon Valley money and they retain creative control. Seriously.

The studios could have been in on all that. But those bastards got greedy and tried to own everything. They thought we didn't have alternatives. Pigs.

By the time they wake up, ownership will have moved where it belongs -- to the creative forces who invent story and bring it to life. Writers, directors, actors, editors, cinematographers, musicians, and the rest of the creative players.

The studios can go play with themselves in their executive bathrooms.

There's more...

Strike! Strike! Screen & Television Writers Strike!

At 12:01 AM ET this morning, the Writers Guild of America went on Strike on the East Coast

Three hours later at 12:01 AM PT the Writers Guild of America went on Strike on the West Coast

The Teamsters are honoring picket lines. Hurray!

In LA County alone, a $30 Billion Dollar U.S. per year industry is shutting down. Because 10,000 writers of television and film have said, "Enough."

The Show Runners who both write shows and produce them have vowed not to lift a pencil for the duration of the strike: Pencils Down Means Pencils Down.

One of the major sticking points of the negotiation is how not just DVD's are priced -- that has been an issue since the mid-80s. Writers currently receive $0.03 to 0.04 per DVD sold, while the DVD retails for $20 bucks on average when new. The DVD case itself typically sells for $0.50, and the writer of the entire movie or television episode, gets less than a nickel.

But if that was all there was, these negotiations would be settled. This fight is over future rights -- how much writers will be paid for internet downloads, and for forms of use of their work not yet even invented.

The Studios' position is, they are taking the risk of developing these new methods of distribution, therefore they shouldn't have to pay or only pay a small tiny little bit till it turns out if anything at all comes of it.

The Writers say, we're not getting paid to share your risks; residuals are our "negotiated equivalent to royalties. They are compensation for the reuse of works of authorship. They’re not a reward for a job well done. They are a payment for continued exploitation of a property."

The writers are correct. That is the precise definition of residuals. The Studios are trying to change the rules in the middle of the game, which is the definition of bad faith. Which is why the writers are willing to strike till forever. If the studios get away with changing this definition, the writers have lost forever, truly no kidding. They will never get paid for their work, as the studios simply will say, "Well, that method of new distribution didn't work out; gee, sorry, we don't have to pay you."

Thus... the strike is on. Short of common sense breaking out, expect it to be long and brutal.

The writers literally can not give in. They are fighting for the essence of the right to be paid fairly over time for their work. Writers will drop dead in the streets with their picket signs before they surrender on residuals. Residuals is their house payments, braces for their children, and how they retire. Residuals is everything.

The studios know they are wrong, and are simply attempting a power grab. When it gets to hurting too badly, expect them to quit -- after firing everyone who let this get this far. Or expect the studios to negotiate with the Director's Guild, the DGA, and for the studios and the DGA to reach a deal, which the writers will then buy into. That is a much more likely possibility if the writer's strike drags on and on (and on and on.) It would be a way for the studios to save face.

Worst case, next summer -- almost a year from now -- the actor's guild, SAG, will save everyone, by negotiating their own deal, which everyone will then accept. But till something else happens...

STRIKE.

The best single source of genuine news (not the crap in the New York Times) in my view, is The Artful Writer. Highly recommended.

The Artful Writer is also filled with great back stories on how compensation in the film & television writing biz truly works. Click up top under "The MBA" and "WGA Issues."

Good luck WGA members. My heart is with you.

Additional resources:

GNB's original story: In the Beginning was the Word

Deadline Hollywood: Live Blogging: WGA TALKS COLLAPSE: EAST STRIKE ON! Question Is Who Walked Out On Whom? Real Progress Made On Key Issues Today; Hollywood Looks To 'ER' Producer/Writer To Prevent Long Costly Bitter Walkout

Deadline Hollywood

There's more...

UNION! UNION! UNION!

Thousands Riot in Chile

Over 400 people were arrested and hundreds injured yesterday when Chile's largest trade union (Chilean Workers Center) called for a day of protest over President Michelle Bachelet's Socialist administration economic and trade policies.

Police threw tear-gas at protesters as clashes broke out in several cities during the nation-wide protest. Most of the violence was in Santiago, near the Presidential Palace, where riot police turned water cannons on protesters blocking the streets.

This riot wasn't just students. It was middle class. Even though Chile's economy (more below) is doing quite well with copper's high prices, the middle class feel the rich are getting richer while they are not only being left out of the economic boom but getting screwed in the bargain. Yesterday the middle class made it clear they were done being screwed.

Call it a Chilean version of Labor Day. Or the Boston Tea Party.

Guardian Unlimited

Thousands of Chileans took to the streets yesterday in a burgeoning middle class revolt against the 17 years of coalition government that has ruled since the fall of Augusto Pinochet in 1990.

Television images showed senator Alejandro Navarro, of President Michelle Bachelet's Socialist party, bleeding from the back of his head after apparently being clubbed by a police officer. Mr Navarro, who was treated in hospital, supported the protest.

"This protest will start to change things. There will be one after another," said Arturo Martinez, of United Workers Central. The union is tapping into widespread anger at economic inequality in Chilean society. As riot police and ruling party politicians tried to play down the protests, the capital was filled by protesters demanding higher pensions, better public transport, subsidised housing and a halt to rising food and electricity prices.

President Bachelet initially defended her record as a progressive politician, then conceded and promised "subsidies to all" families in need and a "short-term solution" for economic inequality.

Yesterday's protest comes after weeks of labour action, including strikes by poultry workers in southern Chile and copper miners in the north. Union leaders called the demonstrations to protest against the government's "neo-liberal" economic policies and to further the national debate about the country's minimum wage.

Salaries for workers have been at the forefront of public debate after recent statements by Bishop Alejandro Goic calling for "an ethical [minimum] wage" for Chilean workers.

Bloomberg

Chile, with 15 million inhabitants, is the world's biggest producer and exporter of copper, ahead of the U.S. and Australia. The economy expanded 6.1 percent in the second quarter fueled by higher investment, domestic consumption and exports. Copper prices rose 16.7 percent this year.

``People see the money and they say to themselves, `Why don't they spend it,''' said Julio Espinoza, an analyst at brokerage BiCE Corredores de Bolsa in Santiago. ``It's a very difficult situation.''

Giving into the demands would add to pressure on inflation, already at the upper end of the central bank's target range, and might lead policy makers to boost interest rates to stem rising prices, he said.

The price of copper, Chile's main source of foreign exchange, has rocketed this year to as much as $3.71 a pound on July 20 from as low as 60 cents in 2001. Copper for delivery in December rose 3.15 cents, or 0.95 percent, to $3.34 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange at 3:12 p.m. New York time.

``When you press a balloon, sooner or later it explodes, and in this case the people are the balloon,'' said Luis Perez, a 32 year-old employee at a law office in Santiago, after joining the protest. ``The country has money in the pockets but it doesn't help poor people.''

With state revenue benefiting from the two-year surge in copper prices, the government should be spending more, said Roberto Daza, a 41-year-old taxi driver in Santiago.

``We have a terrible health system, hospitals are crammed with patients,'' he said. ``Chile has lot of resources from higher copper revenue that should be distributed more equitably among the people,'' he said.

Codelco, owned by the Chilean government and the world's largest copper producer, said on Aug. 14 that it added a record $4.67 billion in profits and taxes to government coffers in the first half of the year.

My mentor, my boss for six years is a senator in Chile, representing the Tarapacá Region, Chile's northenmost administrative and one of the poorest regions in the country. There's nothing on Fernando Flores' blog (auto-translated by Google) about this so far but we shall see. Check back.

I'm with the Chilean middle class. Hell, I'm with the American middle class. Want to have a general strike? Go Union go! Not a fan of the violence so much, but hey... I'll be happy to help clean up the blood. I like a good spot of trauma I do. *smiles sweetly*

This Republican crap about how we should take the money and give it back to the rich via tax cuts so they can trickle it back down. Bullshit if I ever heard it. Sure, you need to take a reasonable amount of capital and reinvest in capital improvement and in new projects. But then you need health insurance for everyone, education for everyone, retirement and vacation, childcare for everyone. Take care of the people doing the work so they have time to raise their families, learn new domains of knowledge, invent entirely new fields of opportunity, and rest when their work is done, all in good health.

What is just plain wrong is taking the money made by the people doing the work (that's you and me) and handing the vast overwhelming majority of the money to the few people at the top who make the major business decisions, own most of the company stock. It's bullshit. I'm not talking about paying out on 401K's. I'm talking $2-50 million dollar salaries and options for CEO's and other top executives and corporate officers.

It isn't a question of not having a market economy. It's a question of the government not making sure all its citizens are provided for. As the citizens of Chile are making clear.

Go Union go! And here in the United States... Happy Labor Day.

There's more...