In the past few days I've been mentioned here, and here, here (thanks, snarkydork!), and oh yeah, here. I've been called a skanky stupid hipster (hipster being the only one that I really took umbrage to) and was told that I ruined Christmas*. Specifically:
I wonder how tired that family is who is laid off at Christmas...sitting there wondering how they're going to feed their children, much less buy presents for the kids...because people like YOU are so incredibly selfish you can't stop to think of them for one moment and think striking is a viable option, thereby putting them out of work.
I guess those who celebrate Channukah or Kwanzaa or (wait, there's one more) are on their own.
Since there's a lot of people out there uneducated on the specifics of why we're striking (fr'instance, we are not "going back" on a contract - our old contract expired) United Hollywood has an excellent FAQ here. But when it comes to those people who yes, we are putting out of work, I thought I'd highlight the following:
But what about all the people who are going to be out of work because you’re striking? Like camera assistants, and grips, and electricians, all the crew people? Don’t you care about them?
We care very much about the community we’re a part of. And this is their fight too, even if many of them don’t know it.
Production crews don’t receive individual residuals like writers, actors and directors – but they do receive residuals as a group. And that money funds their health and pension funds.
These groups, (like IATSE, the Teamsters, IBEW, the Plasterers and Cement Masons, and so on,) represent the crew members. And last year, 55% of the money that went into their health and pension funds came from residuals.
If we lose this fight, their health and pension funds will be directly affected. In a huge way. Residuals on the internet, which is what we’re fighting for, will account for most residuals soon. If we don’t get a share, neither will those unions, because of the way collective bargaining works – what we get, they will get. And what we lose, they will lose.
If we lose, their health and pension will take a massive hit, which will only get worse with time.
...
When the strike was announced, I was less than thrilled. Not because my writing salary would be taken away - I haven't worked on a WGA signatory show since 2003. (A lot of animation work isn't covered, which is why it pays a lot less, and there are no residuals except a one-time fee for the show's creator.) I'd hit a real wall when it came to my career, and I was working three jobs trying to cover my bills and figure out what next? Law school? Vet school? Cooking school? Pack it all up and live off the grid? (Wait, that means no wi-fi, right?) Then I got that you-are-expected-to-picket-twenty-hours-a-week email and I was angry , but I did it, because, while I was pissed I knew it was the right thing to do.
I ended up at NBC because they were the only place that was doing late-afternoon pickets, so I could head out to the line after working my shift at the gym. There I found Wan and Patty and Tomas and David and Steve and Bob and Diane. Some of them were working pre-strike and some weren't, but all had faced the struggle of the blank page every day. All of them at one time had dealt with a difficult studio or a terrible agent or the empty promises of you're great, we love you, you're our number one choice! followed by oh, I hired my sister's husband. All of them laughed when I told them the story about how a network told me and Older SlackBrother J. that we didn't know how to write for kids after scripting seventeen Lizzie McGuires.
Writing is such a solitary act that you forget that there are other people out there just like you. Which is funny, when you think of it. You write about the human experience but sometimes you forget to have it.
That's not to say I'm happy that people have been put out of work so I could have a four-hour kaffeklatsch between work shifts. Striking is always a last resort, and unfortunately, the AMPTP didn't really give us a hell of a lot of choice. And while they might be stingy with the residuals, the residual effects of the strike have been apparent for me. I have a renewed sense of purpose, a direction, a sense of camaraderie that we really are all in this together and we'll stick it out 'til the end. Which will hopefully be twenty-two minutes and we discover in an act of deus ex machina that Nick Counter was actually replaced by an alien cyborg sent here from the future to destroy entertainment as we know it.
Stay tuned.
*An anecdote to my Scrooging: check out day four of BetheBoy's monthlong holiday cheer campaign here!
