Papamoka Straight Talk: WGA Strike Ending Vote

I had no sooner clipped the coupon for the rope that I was going to hang myself with from the Sunday paper Home Depot flyer and I was saved by what is supposedly the end to the Writers Guild Strike. Much like most of America and I’m sure all you Canadian satellite dish TV borrowers (wink, wink), I have been at my wits end with reruns and reality television programs that seem to go nowhere other than proving that there are jerks in the world that will do anything for a dollar.

I’ve backed the Writers Guild of America from the start of the strike because of the simple fact that writers create the content that shows up on the screen. Everything you see on your television or buy online of any television series was written by someone and in that effort they deserve to be monetized wherever that product is sold. If somebody is getting paid to resell that content then the writers deserve payment too!

Over at the Washington Post they have this to say on the WGA strike resolution vote.

Guild Leaders Urging Writers to Vote

By LYNN ELBER
The Associated Press
Sunday, February 10, 2008; 6:34 PM

LOS ANGELES -- The Writers Guild of America moved swiftly Sunday toward a resolution of its three-month-old strike, with guild leaders deciding to recommend the contract to members and ask them to vote on a quick end to the walkout.

By calling for separate votes on ending the strike and accepting the contract, the union cleared the way for the entertainment industry to return to work almost immediately.
Membership meetings will be held Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles to allow writers to decide whether the strike should be brought to a speedy end, said Patric Verrone, president of the guild's West Coast branch.

"This the best deal this guild has bargained for in 30 years," Verrone said.

The tentative contract secures writers a share of the burgeoning digital-media market, he said, including compensation for Internet-delivered TV shows and movies.

"If they (producers) get paid, we get paid. This contract makes that a reality," Verrone said. But, he added, "it is not all we hoped for and it is not all we deserved." - Washington Post

Neither party really wins in these sort of situations but they are necessary for the progression of fair business and fair labor practices for future generations of writers and producers. All of the lost wages by the writers and producers working for the entertainment industry will never be recouped but the principal of the strike was sound. Congratulations go out to both sides for coming to a possible resolution to some of the issues they have.

In the end the real winner in this discussion is the customer that views or reads the products created from the minds of not just individual writers but groups of them that make that favorite television show possible. You the viewer will benefit from the fact that the people writing those dramas, comedy and family based shows will have fresh writers ready to burn up the keyboards and make your television come to life once more. Now that the throw up reality crap is not the only thing to watch, real mind blowing twists and turns and plots of deviation with an evil undertone where the sexual innuendo is a mile a minute will broadcast into our homes once more. And that is just the cooking shows….

Papamoka