Support the Screenwriters Strike

Official Statement of the Labor Commission

When the irreverent early 20th century comedian W.C.
Fields was once caught reading the bible he explained
that he was “looking for some loopholes.” On Monday
November 5th, 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of
America (WGA) took a bold strike action to sew up some
of the loopholes which have allowed the entertainment
industry to make exorbitant profits from their labor.
The Socialist Party USA (SP-USA) stands with the WGA
and calls upon the Association of Motion Picture and
Television Producers (AMPTP) to concede to the WGA’s
demands for a just contract.

Unlike the often inebriated actor Fields, the AMPTP
has found many profitable loopholes. While
screenwriters are paid industry rates for work aired
in traditional media venues such as television and
movies, they receive only a small fraction of the
profits generated in the “new” media outlets of DVD
sales and internet based programming. Writers
currently receive only 5 cents per unit for the sale
of a DVD. For entertainment delivered via internet
streaming video WGA members receive only 1.2% of gross
revenue. There is also currently no language in the
contract regarding the producer’s right to insert
product placements into WGA member created scripts.
Such practices amount to a patently unfair pattern of
labor exploitation. Demands by the WGA seek minor
modifications to the existing contract. Rates for the
sale of DVD’s would double to 10 cents per unit.
Internet based programming would increase to 2.5% of
gross revenue and writers would have greater control
over the placement of products into their scripts.
The AMPTP should return to the bargaining table
immediately and agree to these quite reasonable
demands.

The potential success of this strike stems on two
factors – the internal resolve of the WGA and the
solidarity efforts of fellow trade unionists and the
community. Although the WGA’s own rules regarding
strikes do not allow the guild to directly discipline
strike-breakers and non-union scabs its leadership has
the ability to ban writers from membership. In
addition, the WGA has amassed more than $12 million
dollars in strike funds. The SP-USA calls on the
strike committees of the WGA to ensure that their
leadership and contract bargaining team maintain the
resolve to strike until victorious.

Other unions involved in the production of movies and
TV should immediately recognize the need for
solidarity with this action. Reports are that some
Teamster locals such as Local 399 have instructed
their member-truck drivers not to cross WGA lines.
The SP-USA encourages such acts and calls on the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters to make this an
official policy. Absent this, we encourage locals and
individual workers to respect all picket lines.

This strike has many potential educational benefits.
If successful it will demonstrate to other workers in
“new” media forms that strategies traditionally
associated with manual labor are still viable. In
fact, the one constant in all forms of labor – mental
and manual – is the desire by owners – be they
managers, supervisors or producers – to maximize
profits at the expense of workers. Unionization,
collective action and worker solidarity are still the
most effective means to reclaim some part of the
profits generated by our work.

Perhaps most important beneficial effect of the WGA
strike is the lesson delivered to the millions of
television and movie viewers. As the strike
continues, patterns of television and movie
consumption are sure to be disrupted. This should
serve to shatter the illusion that these mediums are
exempt from the everyday reality of most working
people. Behind the teflon smile of your local
newscaster, the witty charm of John Stewart or the
precision timing of the humor of David Letterman lays
the real human labor of dozens of writers. In this
world behind the screen a CEO like Robert Parsons of
Time-Warner commands $22 million in yearly
compensation from revenue generated by the labor of a
working writer such as Craig Hoetger who struggles to
piece together a yearly salary of $40,000. Now is the
time to put aside the remote control for a few minutes
and recognize the type of human solidarity necessary
to end such gross inequality.

The SP-USA calls on its members to provide solidarity
to all WGA picket lines. We also call on television
viewers to boycott the so-called “reality-based”
television shows which studios have used as a way to
avoid the unionized writers of the WGA. Finally, we
hope that workers engaged in all sectors of the “new
economy” – particularly the service and white-collar
professions – draw strength from the example of the
WGA workers and make similar efforts to collectively
reclaim the fruits of their labor.