It's the Bottom of the 9th, the Bases Are Loaded...

Just my 2 cents: we're in a very important moment in the strike. How we play out the end-game will color relationships for a long time afterwards. Reading the email traffic and the writer-bulletin boards, I have to admit, I'm concerned that people are feeling very emotional about the deal.

Personally, whenever I'm finalizing my own deal on a new project, I'm usually feeling pissed off that I didn't get everything I wanted, and I fantasize, "Fuck it, I'll just walk away. I don't need this shitty job". To close the deal and get back to work, it usually takes my wife, agent, and lawyer to talk me back to my senses.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing the "take the deal no matter what" point of view. I'm arguing against being overly emotional as we talk about the details of the deal before the meeting Saturday. I suppose one purpose of a public forum is to allow participants to blow off steam. But the group therapy part of the event isn't what we're really there for.

We need to understand what was negotiated and why. These meetings, to me, are an opportunity to have clarity about those details. We still have to ratify the deal, so if we don't like what we hear, then we'll have a chance to vote to continue the strike.

I'm a Strike Captain at Fox and we've been polling our teams. Some of the Captains have reported that a majority of their teams feel that if the deal isn't right, the strike should continue. But those feelings are in the abstract and come from a place of anxiety. Will those members feel the same way after they've heard the specifics of the deal? We'll see.

Anyway, I think my 2 cents are up, but I think it would be a helluva lot better at this moment to close out the strike in a way that will strengthen our relationships with one another, rather than to create new rifts. We are going to be back at the table in 3 years and it'd be better to have a unified membership when we're facing another difficult contract about the same issues. The AMPTP will be unified. So should we.