You think you've seen fighting words? These are fighting words.

This letter from IATSE president Thomas C. Short was hand delivered to WGA West president Patric Verrone yesterday afternoon.

Page 2, after the jump.

Comments

[Ben Hughes]

As someone who works in the film and television industry (yes unfortunately I have to be a union member) I am sickened by the selfish tactics and avarice being displayed by the WGA and it's members.

WGA calls itself a union of workers and is attempting to show solidarity with other unions and liberal organizations across the country.. this makes me sick. If everyone in these organizations new the full story about WGA members existing compensation they'd probably ask why they're getting involved to provide a bunch of millionaire fat cat writers even more millions.

In David Young's recent letter to the Membership he says "This is a paltry amount for work that we have created" (www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2572). This is an extremely offensive statement to the rest of the Hollywood creative community who're not nearly as greedy as this union and by your actions you've put out of work.... this statement is repeated in an even more offensive manner in additional rhetoric being issued and supported by the WGA and it's members like the video titled "Why We Strike" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ55Ir2jCxk). It opens with the words "When an author writes a book, they get paid for every copy sold, and a songwriter gets paid every time their song is performed or published". True, but you cannot compare the creative process of books to movies and television! Tom Clancy and Stephen King are the ONLY creative contributors to their work, movies and television programs are a creative collaboration of hundreds, sometime thousands of creative artists... and don't tell me you're going to try and compare yourselves with Lennon and McCartney or Carole King or Bob Dylan? These singer songwriters have amazing talents when it comes to producing, arranging performing and recording their material... talents you do NOT have, talents that you need the rest of the Hollywood creative community for.. a creative community that you seem quite happy to drive away from the industry by putting us out of work with no resolution in sight.

In addition when he announced the strike Patric Verrone said "The companies are seeking to take advantage of new technology to drastically reduce the residual income that sustains middle class writers and keeps them in this business". Really Patric? You call yourselves middle class! Well let's look at that for a moment, for writing 1 episode of an hour television drama WGA members get paid a minimum of $56,653 (www.wga.org/subpage_writersresources.aspx?id=1610) ... so for a series (around 4-5 months work) that's over half a million dollars! I know, I know I've heard the rhetoric, WGA's already on record saying that it takes many years to reach that level of success, it's often months between projects for writers and what sustains them through these dry spells are residuals... you know what? Everyone else in this industry has to battle for years and years to achieve "success" except our paycheck are considerably smaller than yours (for the same episode of television our minimums are less than $2,000) and we do not get residuals to tie us over between projects!

WGA and WGA members; you are going to kill an entire industry with these selfish, gluttonous tactics that you're employing... you're going to drive REAL middle class people out of the industry, people who aren't as disgustingly selfish as yourselves, people who don't have agents and multi-million dollar production deals, people who don't need their ego's stroked to go to work everyday, people who just want to work and are now not able because you decided in your greedy best interests to put us out of work so that one day you can make more millions whilst we continue to struggle with paying mortgages and putting our children through school.

[Below the line worker]

Ben,

You think a writer writes 10 episodes in a single season? They don't.

Also, writers are the author of their work, just like songwriters and novelists. They turn over their authorship in exchange for residuals.

[Mike K]

As someone who does NOT work in the film and television industry (or publishing or recording industries, either) I am wearied by the selfish and ignorant comments of people like you, Ben.

To the best of my knowledge, Tom Clancy and Stephen King never had the means to print, bind, market and distribute their creative outputs on a global or national level. They needed help, too. In every case, the publisher took on the risk of those aforementioned tasks against the promise of future profits. Clancy and King were paid royalties because of the success of their collobaration. They wouldn't have made a cent standing on their local street corner waving 400 page manuscripts and begging for your $24.95.

True, screenwriters are not usually the only creative force involved in the product you watch up on the screen at the local cineplex--although I doubt that the truly significant creative inputs number more than a handful at any given time. The production artist who helps set the mood for a given set, or film, contributes creatively, but the story is rarely impacted by their contributions.

Is your argument that because some small portion of WGA Guild members earn significantly more than you, that their compensation is by definition fair? Surely not, right? Is it that screenwriters are not deserving of residuals for repeated use of their creative efforts because the medium allows for "thousands" of creative inputs? Surely not, right?

You mention that "everyone else in this industry has to battle for years" to acheive success, but that your paycheck is lower. Should I infer, therefore, that no battle involving compensation that exceeds your own is just?

It's just nuts. Short-sighted, selfish on your own part, and nuts.

Good luck on that screenplay.

[Raised Union]

I wonder if the IATSE is going after the AMPTP too? Or has the AMPTP just succeeded in turning union against union?

I can't imagine it would have been intelligent on the WGA's part to blindly continue negotiations in good faith (while the AMPTP sat across the table in bad faith, waiting to force a strike) and NOT be preparing for a strike like this. No one WANTS to go on strike, but it is certainly not a decision made overnight. Of course there was months of discussion and preparation.

[Anonymous]

The FULL quote, rather than the truncated and thus misleading citation by Mr. Short:

"'I just lay back and look at the havoc I've wreaked,' Young quipped, only half joking, during an interview last week at his office at WGA West Coast headquarters in the Fairfax district. 'They [the studios] don't care for the fact that I tried to build as much strength for our side as possible. I'm not going to apologize for that.'"

(From the LA Times' November 12 print edition.)

It's not that Young doesn't regret the havoc. I think everyone does. But he's not going to apologize for striving to make the strike as devastating as possible, because that is one thing that can hasten a return to negotiations.

[The Worker Bee]

The ONLY rational and appropriate response to this is - I AM SO SORRY THAT YOU FEEL THIS WAY, I REALLY AM. Really, that's how you address a child in the middle of a snit, you comiserate and identify but you don't budge - not one inch. ESPECIALLY when said child is wrong and unreasonable. So, as a WGA member, IATSE, I am SO sorry you feel this way. I really am.

Oh, and Ben, I am SO sorry you feel that way, I really am...

[none]

I'm WGA writer and I'm sick and fucking tired of seeing Julia Louis Dreyfus' shit eating grin walking the picket lines. And what's up with "picketing with the stars"? we're on strike for christs sake. doesn't the wga realize people are suffering? maybe i can make it through or some other guy, but a lot of people are gonna lose their jobs. stop spending so much time spinning this story and smelling your own farts and get back to the fucking table!!

[none]

I'm WGA writer and I'm sick and fucking tired of seeing Julia Louis Dreyfus' shit eating grin walking the picket lines. And what's up with "picketing with the stars"? we're on strike for christs sake. doesn't the wga realize people are suffering? maybe i can make it through or some other guy, but a lot of people are gonna lose their jobs. stop spending so much time spinning this story and smelling your own farts and get back to the fucking table!!

[Patrick Meighan]

Proud WGA member, here, with a reminder that IATSE's health and welfare fund is paid for out of residual compensation.

If the WGA caves and accepts $0 in residual compensation for re-use of broadcast content in new media venues--if 0% becomes the precedent for internet residuals--it's not just the writer (and the actor, and the director) who gets $0... but the IATSE health and welfare fund. That matters, 'cause as more and more tv and film content is diverted onto the web, the re-broadcasting of television and film will increasingly go the way of the dodo, which means the residual will too. IATSE's only hope of fully funding its health and welfare fund in the future is to get a share of new media residuals, which will only happen if the WGA wins this fight and sets that precedent... a precedent the studios would kill to keep from happening.

All this is to say, IATSE, the writer's fight is your fight too. We're just on the front lines, is all. But believe me, if they break us, IATSE, they're coming after you next. So either back us up and hope we win, or strap up and get ready for your turn.

Patrick Meighan
Culver City, CA

[steve graves]

Geez Ben, where do I begin?

As a union member who works on motion pictures and aspires to write them I must voice my objection to essentially everything you wrote. What exactly is 'unfortunate' about belonging to a union and enjoying the benefits of collective bargaining? And exactly how many screenplays have you written, Ben? Do you have any concept how much work goes into a final draft, or do you just assume that writers spit out their finished products with the same careless zeal that you scribble your ridiculous comments? You're obviously upset because you're out of work, and that's understandable, but if there weren't writers to create the movies and television shows that people thankfully watch then you never would have had a job to be bitter about in the first place. The writers deserve residuals for their efforts just like you deserve a pension for yours. I'm sorry they make more money than you do Ben, but if you gotta beef with capitalism don't take that out on the scribes. I guarantee the average writer works a helluva lot harder for a helluva lot less than you ever will.

Hang in there, WGA. Sometimes the only option is to fight.

Steve Graves, Local 80