It is maneuvering. An attempt to put pressure on the striking writers so that they will put pressure on their union leaders to settle. Notice the attempt to disassociate the writers from the unions by the governor. Also note the attempt to put pressure on the showrunners, some of the highest profile writers. From my limited understanding, the '88 strike was settled in part by pressure from showrunners onto union leadership...
There was the leaked news that the DGA (Director's Guild) may go in to negotiate their new contract early (now rather than in March) and then presenting the new standards to the WGA fait accompli. Since the WGA and DGA have a bad history (6 years back the DGA undercut the WGA negotiations) the fear of a repeat would push the WGA into accepting what they could get. Which is probably exactly why the news was leaked, irrespective of any truth to it. I would presume that if the DGA would jump in, it won't be for a few more weeks. They want to wait long enough for the corps to feel the pinch and want to make a deal, but not so long that the writers are feeling it and the corps think if they last just one more week they will win.
But for the moment, solidarity appears to be running strong among the other unions, if for no other reason that if they don't hold the line on the internet here, all of the other unions will have a much harder time getting any piece of that pie. Also I understand that there are more outlets for work now, so hopefully they will be able to put food on the table. People knew that this strike was coming, so hopefully they stashed money away.
The key words on that quote are "short term". The negative impact won't be felt fully until 2009. Of course the longer the strike lasts the suckier 2009 and 2010 will be for the studios.
I just want to say, I'm really loving the strike talk here. I'm wanting to be all supportive, and know no one in meatspace who cares about stuff like this.
Someone I know at
Sarah Connor Chronicles
tells me Warner Bros. laid off everyone yesterday to "make a point." Ew.
Fuck sake. I dare not open the show runners blog, then.
He hasn't posted about it.
My friend says one of the non-writing producers even tried to get them to keep him on since he was only doing cut notes and casting, but TPTB's scythe was the Great Leveler. Everyone goes. I guess they'll get someone else to edit the episodes for them.
What sort of point does that make? That WB is a bunch of dicks?
(no, I get it, just....what the hell.)
Yeah, I'm presuming this is a different situation from production simply being shut down, as that was an expected consequence.
TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES has been sold abroad. I know they're launching it big on Virgin 1, a new UK TV channel. So they need those episodes, and they've paid upfront for them. Obviously, if Josh is refusing to work on them, they're in a mess.
So from a business point of view, I can see exactly what Warners are doing. But still, they're really shitting in their own backyard long term.
eta: Somebody told me the Ugly Betty people are currently shooting draft scripts, as they have nothing else to work from. Heh.
I've been trying to figure out why this strike has felt so emotional to me (considering I don't really know anyone involved) and I think it comes down to two things:
1. I feel like I know these writers, even though I really don't, because of all the blogs, posts, and other ways they communicate with their fans. Like Allyson says in her book, I (and I think many of us here) love the writers for their sexy brains.
2. I know that writers aren't all artsy scarf people, but I really can't imagine anyone more unlike a writer than a teamster milk delivery truck driver or any other sort of teamster for that matter. So the solidarity is really cool to me.
