WGA West board member Nick Kazan has posted an analysis of the current situation at UnitedHollywood.com under the headline "AMPTP Tactics Don't Fool Anybody." Among his conclusions: Yeah, WGA West exec director David Young hasn't made a deal before and so what? It's not a bad thing.
"It means he’s never made a lousy deal, never made a sweetheart deal; he’s never been chummy with Nick Counter, and he refuses to bend over and give them what they want and expect," Kazan writes. "He’s not part of their club. Thank God."
Kazan also points out that the AMPTP now prefers to call WGA negotiators “organizers.”
"Yeah, we’re organized… like we’ve never been before – and that scares them," he says. "But the implication behind their smear tactics (that our leaders are crazy) reflects the opposite of the truth: We’re the ones who’ve tried to be flexible."
Kazan also calls Counter a bully. "He’s used to getting his way, and he thinks his archaic game plan will still work. The paradox here is that for the companies there is, or ought to be, a financial calculus: the strike is costing them more than a settlement. But Nick Counter doesn’t care about their bottom line. He only cares about “winning” the deal – even if, as has happened in the past, the companies lose in the long run."
-- Dave McNary
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