Hi everyone. We all know about the writer's strike, but now there's another one. All the stage hands walked out on Broadway Saturday. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071111/ap_on_en_ot/broadway_labor

You know, I've said for a while now that unions are, to some extent, a thing of the past. I live in a manufacturing town. In this area, over last last 10-20 years, unions have done more harm than good. They take your dues every week, they pat you on the back, but when the shit hits the fan and they call for a strike, either the company says "F$$k it, we close" or they just replace the union workers with non-union. It's not been good things when over half of the major players in town have closed and moved away.

I'm wondering what's gonna happen with the entertainment industry. It's not like there aren't literally thousands, if not more, out there that want to be the next big Hollywood writer. How hard would it be to replace stage hands. The unemployment rate is REALLY high, and to me at least, these people, who I can understand, are just pouring fuel on a fire. I know it's wrong to scab. I wouldn't scab. It's not worth the risks, but many people that have been out of work for a while, would have no problem scabbing. I watched an entire plant get replaced over a strike. I had an interview there until I found out what was going on. At that point I told the HR rep that I couldn't work for a company that didn't care for the employees any more than that. I'm rambling.

POINT: Do you think all the striking going on in the entertainment industry will be good for them in the long run, or will they all just be replaced by scabs?

 

Scabs?

For someone who doesn't seem to like unions, ya sure slung that out kinda quick, huh?

 

Entertainment unions and Industrial unions are two totally different things.

 

In an industry that is as greedy as the entertainment industry, I just don't see them sitting around not making money.

 

Re-runs are awesome! Cheap as free too. Not like advertisers are going to ignore the chance to sell, sell, sell.

 

I semi support unions. With the entertainment industry I support the writers. They only make about 2 cents for every dollar the company makes. it is a pittance of a pittance.

Now industrial unions I'm against these days because they get too damn greedy. Like the auto industry. They get lots of stuff from the company like a pension, yet still want more and more all the time. I don't blame companies for dumping the US workers and moving to another country or hiring non-union workers.

I do support unions in the area of better working conditions like in a mine or something, but not in the auto industry where they just want more money.

 

I kinda don't care. Eventually, it'll be resolved. And my Netflix queue is full, so it probably won't affect me in the meantime.

Far as replacing 'em, I don't see that happening. Yeah, there's lots of folks who want to break into Hollywood, but once the strike is resolved, anyone who wrote during it would find it impossible to get into the guild, and probably find themselves shut out. Besides that, there's a reason the writers who are on strike are writers. They've demonstrated talent and ability. Hollywood knows this.

With the stagehands...I don't know. That sounds much more like manual-type labor that'd be easier to replace. I say Broadway should start hiring illegal immigrants.

 

Allow me to shit all over this statement.

1. Greed is a factor in any 'industry'. If not, people wouldn't have a reason to work.

2. Unlike most unions where it is a salary vs hourly issue (i.e. haves-vs-have-nots), the SFA is made up of people from vastly different economic standings. The big name stars you see walking the picket line aren't doing it to increase their money, they are doing it for the low men on the totem pole - the struggling writer on an indie film, or the guy who can't get on staff of a crappy late night UPN show. In a market where one bad weekend at a box office can sink a career, they are trying to insure some kind of stability and safety net for their fellow writers.

3. The vast majority of work in the entertainment industry is work-for-hire. 90% of the time, these people don't know where their next job will be or if they will have one. As such, they have no opportunity to get basic fringe benefits such as health insurance for their families. They rely on their unions to keep them healthy.

4. I don't give a shit what people say, you have NO entertainment without the writers. No movies, no tv shows, no comics, no novels, nothing. In the screen business it is a collaborative effort, but it all starts with what the writer puts on paper. Unless you wanna keep watching all the shitty reality shows forever.

 

I'm not trying to argue or piss anyone off here, but isn't that kinda what I was saying. It seems like a fickle business that given any reason, and they'll replace you. You go on strike for example, and they can replace you. I don't know, it's not my industry. I'm just looking in a window and talking about what I see.

 

1. They can't just go down to the temp agency and say, "Hey, send me a screenwriter over." I don't know if you've ever read an actual script before, but there are specific formats and rules you have to follow. Matter of fact, some agencies automatically throw a script in the trash is the margins are off by 1 point. Even if you are an accomplished storyteller, screenwriting is a different beast and it takes time to learn it.

2. Which is part of the reason you go on strike, for your rights. It isn't like you made a hamburger or sold a pack of cigarettes. You are, in essence, selling your creations to another person for them to make money off of. Why shouldn't you get a larger cut of what wouldn't exist without you? Writers have to constantly fight for an equal share of the pie, and have yet to receive it.

 

Regardless of whether or not Unions sometimes end up with corrupt leaders, they are a necessary tool for the workers of the world. it was unions that put an end to slave labour, and child labour, and brought the world things like medical and dental, vacation, maternity leave, and liveable wages. Without unions, kids would still be getting stuffed up chimneys, or sent into coal mines for pennies a day.

 

So far we're in agreement, if only because of a deep seated hatred for the entertainment industry. As others have pointed out, it is one of the greediest and most corrupt in existence. I find it really hard to feel any sympathy for out-of-touch executives crying piracy or poverty because you didn't rebuy your entire Beta collection in VHS and then over and over again in DVD/UMD/BluRay/HDDVD/iTunes just because, when these same assholes set up Hollywood in California for the sole purpose of avoiding royalties due to Thomas Edison in NY for his then-revolutionary kinetoscope or "motion picture camera."

Even if this strike really does get out of hand and last awhile, we can still look forward to another wonderfully exciting and creative sequel to both Survivor and American Idol. Doesn't anybody else see a connection between the rise of reality TV and the industry kicking all of these writers out into the street?

Have you ever actually read the newspaper? If you did, you would see the auto industry, among others (steel and airlines, for starters), dumping health care and pensions left and right. Chrysler, in fact, recently not only just dumped most of theirs on a trust to be administered by the union but are also underfunding their contribution to it. You do know that many executives willfully run their companies into bankruptcy for the sole purpose of dumping pensions and other obligations (common stock that you or I might hold), right? Or did you actually think bankruptcy laws tightened for anyone but the common man a few years back?

What people like you and inept/crooked executives fail to understand is that neither cheap foreign slaves nor unemployed Americans will be able to afford your goods and/or services. You want to see the American economy entirely collapse? Fine, keep exporting decent paying jobs to India, China, Mexico, wherever. Just don't come crying to me when now-unemployed people start defaulting on their mortgages, cut out all the luxuries your store sells (you are/were a Gamestop employee, right?), or, God forbid, resort to crime just to survive. And enjoy your lead laced toys, dirty low quality chocolate, and indecipherable tech support too. If you can afford any of those after you lose _your_ job, that is.

I really don't see why a fellow American shouldn't be paid a fair living wage to build a car when I have to pay upwards of $20K for that same car. Besides, if the auto industry hadn't pissed away all the money they were supposed to be putting aside for health care and retiree pensions, we wouldn't be hearing all the whining and crying about "legacy costs." The fact is, they were all too eager to enjoy the benefits in exchange for these promises but now they're trying to skip out on the bill. Would be great if we could do the same to _them_ with such impunity wouldn't it?

You know what would top a 1-dimensional anti-union tirade though? How about another idiotic plan to solve the energy crisis by making everything harder instead of easier. Surely additional taxes and restrictions on cars and gas will force Americans, especially those who can barely afford to get to work as it is, to use public transportation that doesn't exist!