The Solidarity Is There For Sure

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About 100 show runners wrapped up a three-hour meeting at the Writers Guild of America, West, headquarters in the Fairfax district. Guild leaders gave a status report on the first three days of the strike, discussing how many shows had been shut down and what to expect in the coming weeks. They also shared info on suspension letters they had received. Union leaders said they were hopeful that bargaining sessions with major studios would resume, but said no date had been set.

Kari Lizer, the creator and show runner of ‘The New Adventures of Old Christine,’ had this to say:
‘What really came out of it was that all of the show runners are really together and unified and decided that they’re going to toe the line and try to make the strike as short as possible,’ she said. ‘What prompted this is that in the ’88 strike show runners were disenfranchised because they were almost seen as management and that was a mistake, so there’s been a real effort this time to really get the show runners who have a big stake in this whole thing obviously to unify and be on the same page and be leaders in this for their staff.’

‘By not doing our [producing duties], we realized we could potentially shorten the strike,’ Lizer said. ‘This is not about protecting our little piece of the pie. The bigger picture is what matters.’

‘24’ show runner Howard Gordon was part of the ’88 strike and notes how different it is this time for people in his position. ‘People are far more educated about the issues now and it’s really a strong group of people,’ Gordon said. ‘It was very energizing and the solidarity is there for sure.’

--Maria Elena Fernandez and Richard Verrier