Getting Ready for Saturday Night

Getting Ready for Saturday Night

Rumor Patrol  

The WGAw's general membership meeting will be held at the Shrine Auditoriumat at 7pm (NOT 6:30pm as we reported earlier) on Saturday night.


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As of Thursday afternoon, we are all still waiting on specific contract language. Lawyer and blogger Jonathan Handel has pulled together media reports of alleged WGA deal points on his Digital Media Law blog. But none of the rumors or media reports mean much. If it's not in the contract language, it's not real.

We've been emphasizing all week that a strong showing on the picket lines would give the WGA's lawyers and negotiators the maximum leverage to make sure the contract language is in keeping with what the companies pledged during informal talks. And the numbers this week have been great. WGA staff estimate that over 1500 turned out for today's mass picket at Disney.

But there's another bit of leverage at the WGA negotiators' disposal: the possibility of writers all going back to work quickly. For that reason, the prospect of ending the strike quickly is very valuable. If the contract language isn’t finished in good faith, that possibility would be destroyed.

As we wrote here earlier today, the WGA constitution lays out a few timelines for when the strike could be called off. One permissible timeline would have a ratification vote completed by Wednesday.

In light of that option, many members have contacted U.H. privately or posted comments stating the importance of having time to digest the deal points and make up their minds in a responsible way. Keenly aware that there are pilots, tv shows, movies, jobs and a popular ceremony hanging in the balance, they are not asking for weeks, but rather days. When weighed against the three-year life of this contract (or possibly twenty-year life, if DVDs are any indication) 72 hours seems a very reasonable request.

WGA presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship have stated that no action will be taken until some consensus emerges among the membership. We have faith that they will do that. When they say they will let the membership decide, we take them at their word.

Should it become clear on Saturday night that the memberships in New York and LA need a day or two to digest the deal points, we think they will respect that. Likewise, if it's clear that the majority of members strongly supports the contract, we could be back at work on Monday.

The WGA is a democratic union. We argue, we criticize, we make one another crazy. But during this strike, we have stood together with unprecedented and historic unity. We can make it a few more days if necessary.

No one inside or outside the union has forced us into anything, and that won't change now.

Answering Questions About the WGA Constitution

Answering Questions About the WGA Constitution

Rumor Patrol  

We've been hearing a lot of procedural questions in the last few days, so in an act of serious selflessness, we decided to do a little paging through the WGA Constitution so you don't have to.

Here are the questions we've been hearing most:

Can the Board lift the restraining order (meaning the strike) without a general vote of the membership?

Yes. In Article IX, Section 3b, it states that the restraining order has to be authorized by the membership to start, but that it remains "in effect until withdrawn by the Board."

The Board has the constitutional right to lift the restraining order at their discretion.

That doesn't mean they will, by the way, and no one should interpret this information to mean that the Saturday meeting will automatically result in the strike being lifted if the Board meets, as they are rumored to be doing, on Sunday.

How long does it take to have a ratification vote?

The Constitution provides for three timelines in Article VII, Section 2b:

20 days' notice to members, 10 days' notice, or 48 hours.

The 48 hour option is reserved for meetings dealing with restraining orders [i.e. strikes] or the "membership being called to discuss and take action on related matters." Like, for example, the ratification of a contract that directly impacts the restraining order.

Does that mean that the 48 hours will start at the Saturday meeting, and we'll have to cast a vote by Monday?

No. Because of the notification requirements in the Constitution (same section) the 48 hours couldn't begin before Monday at the earliest. (Or that's how we read it.)

Could the Board lift the strike order sooner, and we could still have a 10-day or 20-day ratification vote?

That is possible under the Constitution. But again, the Board has repeatedly guaranteed that nothing will happen without the input (and approval) of the membership. They are planning to get that input at the Saturday meeting.

When will we have the deal points to see for ourselves?

The current rumor is that the companies have promised to finish the contract draft language on the deal points by Friday, so that the deal summary can be released to membership.

If the companies don't do that, then obviously we won't be able to evaluate the deal points before the Saturday meeting -- remember, any deal points not yet put in contract language are not final. They could be changed, to our disadvantage, in contract if we don't get them nailed down now.

We at UH hope that the companies will live up to what they've promised, so the membership can see the deal points and evaluate them for ourselves in a timely manner.

What does this mean in relation to the Saturday meeting?

Well, it's not a Constitutional question, but here's the answer: EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE THERE.

We're going to be briefed on the negotiation as it stands. Hopefully, the contract language will be finished, which means there will be some finality to the deal points that are presented to us. We'll get to hear what's going on -- and we'll have the right to decide what happens next.

We all want to get answers, so we can make the best decision possible on whatever deal terms are put forward to us. And the Saturday meeting is the place to get those answers.

The Board will be there, and they'll listen to what we say, because that's their job. The only way our voices might not be heard -- is if we don't show up.

Verrone: If We Lose That Solidarity, They Take Advantage of It Big Time

Verrone: If We Lose That Solidarity, They Take Advantage of It Big Time

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UPDATE: WGAw membership meeting this Saturday, February 9, at 6:30 PM. Shrine Auditorium, 649 W Jefferson Blvd 90007.

Last Friday, WGAw President Patric Verrone gave this interview to United Hollywood's Jeff Berman. When asked about rumors, Verrone says flatly, "They're never true."

Rumor Patrol: Conan on Colbert, Colbert on Conan

Rumor Patrol: Conan on Colbert, Colbert on Conan

Rumor Patrol  

This tip was sent in from a source in NYC:

A car picked up Stephen Colbert outside his studio tonight and brought him to Conan's taping, and then Conan showed up at Colbert. I guess they are doing their own strike solidarity thing on tonight's shows.

All of the late night hosts have been steadfast in their support of not just their own writers but also the hundreds of employees who were affected by the strike. A Conan/Colbert couch swap (man, that sounds dirty) promises some must-see nonsense. We can't wait.

Rumors, Facts, Picketing and Leverage

Rumors, Facts, Picketing and Leverage

Rumor Patrol  

We've had the phones ringing off the hook today, with people telling us they've heard that "a deal is imminent" and "both sides have agreed to the deal points." This rumor has picked up so much steam in such a short time that it's a little scary.

We're in a news blackout. So we can't get confirmation or denial from the WGA. But here's what we do know: last time we all got excited about a rumor that a deal was about to be reached, it turned out to be untrue, and the collective damage done to our morale was considerable.

So here are a few things to factor in:

• SAG just reaffirmed their commitment to supporting the WGA last night. Patric Verrone stood onstage at the SAG Awards with Alan Rosenberg. Several actors weighed in supporting writers, and Rosenberg himself said: "The strike is about protecting the next generation so they can continue to create, continue to give great performances that can be rewarded."
  


• The companies know that if they can't negotiate a deal with us, there will be no Oscars, because of SAG's support.
  
  
• It's possible that good-faith negotiations are going on right now; but because of the news blackout, if the congloms were stalling (as they have in the past,) we wouldn't have any way of knowing about it.

So we would argue it's dangerous to assume either way, because we don't have the facts.

The last time we got our hopes up, frankly, they were dashed. Let's not forget it. Buying into blind optimism -- and it's "blind" because we're in an information vacuum -- is a dangerous thing to do.

But while we don't know what's going on in the negotiating room, we can still directly influence it. Negotiations succeed or fail due to leverage, applied at the right time and in the right places.

SAG has given us more power with their support; and every day that we show up on the lines, and keep up the blogging and the publicity and the determination publicly to get a fair deal for our work, we hand power to the men and women negotiating for us in that room.

That is the best way to end this strike quickly.

Our advice: ignore the rumors. Keep up the pressure. Because that pressure is the only thing that's going to get us, SAG or anyone else in this town a fair deal.