Yesterday the WGA voted by over 92% to end the 14 week-long writers strike. Writers still need to discuss and ratify the new contract - in LA the meeting has been scheduled for February 25th – but it is all over but the shouting.
With writers however, the shouting is usually the most interesting part. This time around the tensions that often make WGA strike meetings the most entertaining show in town never really surfaced. Why?
One reason is the Internet itself. Blogsites like United Hollywood, Strike Life and The Late Show Writers on Strike kept frustrations from festering to the toxic levels needed to trigger intramural paranoid fantasies (paranoid fantasies are after all a WGA specialty).
Even more important was the decision to mount continuous pickets. In The Elements of Persuasion we talk about how working (and walking) closely together stimulates mirror neurons, increasing brand loyalty and bonding. It works for Starbucks. It worked for the WGA. Writers who spent months in close proximity carrying picket signs and chanting now know how emotionally powerful and healing “walking the line” can be. The LAT has a nice page on what it all felt like. Click here.
There are a few issues still on the table. Most important is jurisdiction over “Reality
TV”. In my book it is shameful that the WGA allows writers – any writers
– to work under contracts that offer no health care and no pension. But as I
was reminded on the picket line, the WGA is a Guild, not a Union.
That distinction is rapidly fading. The increased militancy the picket line bred, particularly among the strike captains from whom future WGA leadership will be drawn, means the days of sweetheart deals for the media conglomerates is all but over. To all those who went on strike to secure the future – JOB WELL DONE!
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