The Weinstein Company Reaches Interim Deal With WGA – Good News?
Posted by John Campeaon 11. 01. 2008in News Chat
Some minor good news on the WGA strike front. Last week it was reported that the WGA had reached an interim deal with United Artists, and now it’s been made official that The Weinstein Company has also signed an interim deal with the WGA which will allow writers to work on Weinstein projects.
As I mentioned before with the United Artists deal, I very much like the concept of interim deals in this situation. It’s a simple stop gap measure to keep things moving, neither side is bound by it and only have to live with it until a broader deal is reached with the AMPTP (The producers association). It keeps the system moving while a permanent binding agreement gets hammered out, and it’s EXACTLY what the WGA and AMPTP should get in place while working on their permanent deal. In an interim deal, you don’t have to worry about not getting what you want… because it’s only good for a short period of time in theory.
HAVING SAID THAT…
I’ve had conversations recently with a couple of friends of mine who are VERY pro-WGA and VERY pro-union who absolutely HATE this interim deal stuff the WGA has set up with United Artists. They say it weakens the union and the principles behind it. To quote one of them:
“This is bullshit. Are you a union or not? You can’t have a union where some people in it get to work while others can’t. You stand together or you don’t. If I was in the WGA right now and being told I can’t work by my union, but Eddie holding the picket sign 10 feet away from me gets to go back to work tomorrow, then I’m fucking pissed”.
Personally, I don’t agree with that assessment of “all or nothingness”, but I can see where it would be frustrating for some people, especially in the Union. But sometimes the best progress is made one little step at a time instead of all at once.
This post was written by :
John Campea who has written 6783 posts on The Movie Blog
visit author's website | Contact the Author
I guess I understand the all or nothing point of view, but I actually think these interim deals are kind of a brilliant move by the WGA.
Sure, they’re only sending some of their writers back to work, but at least they’re sending some of them (not to mention the non-writer casualties who get to go back to work, too). It’s good press, and every studio that signs one of these deals is basically further legitimizing the writers’ position and making the producers look worse and worse. Also, every studio that signs is further incentive for the hold out studios to sign a deal in order to not lose market share to those studios that are going back to work.
Hey Jim,
Well… yes and no. Since we have no idea what the terms are of these interim deals, it’s hard to say if they’re better for the writer’s or the studios at this time. It doesn’t “legitimize” anything.
All it means is that the small studios in question (TWC and United Artists are very small companies) thought these temporary deals were something they could live for FOR NOW.
See i agree with your friend that you can’t have a union where some get to work and others don’t (and i can fully understand them being pissed off). That’s why i find the whole concept of a ‘union’ (and i mean the word very specifically; i’m pro-democracy and workers rights) to be utter bullshit and a concept that just doesn’t work.
If your organization supports every one of it’s members (as it should) then that should include their opinions and choices. Certainly you can disagree and try to persuade them of your side of the argument, but you shouldn’t be able to force their mouths shut, force your agenda on them, and bully them to that end. I would never support an organization like that.
No human organization should act like a hive mind, unless they are the Borg.
As much as I agree with all that you said, John, I just don’t think this sits well with me. I desperately want the strike to end (I miss my shows), but this feels like a sneaky way to get around the strike. It doesn’t really serve either side as an advantage, but it’s more of a selfish maneuver. Rather than stand with their fellow union members, Some writers are basically abandoning the strike to go back to work, meanwhile, they still stand to reap rewards for the strike once it is over. In the example, Eddie goes back to work and starts getting paid again while I stand in a picket line and get no money. Eddie pays me no money for standing there for him. He just makes his money and keeps it. Then, once all my trials and suffering for the benefit of the strike are over, and our union gets whatever benefits they negotiated for, Eddie gets them too, but he did not earn them like I did.
At the same time, the producers at Universal get to go to work now too. They don’t have to suffer like the other producers do, even though they are support the same demands as those producers that aren’t working. In fact, Universal is now likely to be more resistant to a new deal with the WGA, because they are no longer losing money to the strike.
They are trying have their cake and eat it too, and I don’t think it is going to make the strike better, and likely will make it worse.
-Calviin
Sorry, I wrote Universal, but I meant United Artists. I had the HD format war on the mind.
Kudos to Phil Gee for turning the Borg into a union.
It seems like eventually everybody will be signing interim deals and just postponing the strike to a later date. It’s just procrastination.
Professionally, I think it’s stupid. If you’ve come this far (What was it John? $1.8 BILLION), you might as well keep pushing on.
Personally, hopefully the ABC can strike a deal so that we get more than 8 episodes of LOST this year. Although I doubt that because as I understand it, Carlton Cuse is one of the negotiators on behalf of the WGA.
Crap, only 8 episodes … Devestated
zzzzzz…..
…. although I side with doug… If you’re in a union then you all strike ’til the battle is won, you don’t let some people go back to work unless their salary is shared equally amongst the union (i doubt this is happening?). WGA just plummets in my opinion every time, any other industry and this strike would have been settled long ago *settles back and enjoys british tv which is not subject to this bullshit*
I actually grew up in a town where unions were an extremely important part of life because the only real jobs out there were in manufacturing.
The WGA is not behaving like any union I’ve ever known. They’re a guild. The three big guilds in Hollywood do a lot of things that don’t really sound like the way unions should or do work. In the unions I’m familiar with, the members have almost as much power as the leaders. When a contract negotiation happens, every big decision prompts a vote by the entire union. It’s a democratic decision. I’ve seen very few things from the WGA that felt democratic. I have a feeling that these interim deals are a complete surprise to large amounts of their membership.