Another guild weighs in with letter to WGA head

A letter to Patric Verrone, president of Writers Guild of America, West:

--Patric Verrone responds

More news on the strike

Patric Verrone's response:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 14, 2007
WRITERS GUILD WEST PRESIDENT PATRIC M. VERRONE RESPONDS
TO IATSE PRESIDENT THOMAS SHORT

Los Angeles - Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) President Patric M. Verrone today issued the following statement in response to a letter received from International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) President Thomas Short:

Dear Tom,

I am in receipt of your letter of November 13th.

As I'm sure you know, for every four cents writers receive in theatrical residuals, directors receive four cents, actors receive 12 cents, and the members of your union receive 20 cents in contributions to their health fund.

To put it simply, our fight should be your fight. We've received support from the Teamsters, the actors, many IATSE members, and unions throughout the world.

As we've stated clearly, we are willing to negotiate; we have wanted to negotiate; we are here to negotiate. Despite the fact that the AMPTP conceded progress was being made on November 4th, the last day of negotiations, they walked out and have not returned.

So please help us by doing everything you can to get the AMPTP to come back to the table and settle this strike, which, as you say, is devastating to your members, to our members, and to the entire town.

In solidarity,

Patric M. Verrone

The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) represents writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable, and new media industries in both entertainment and news. For more information, please visit: www.wga.org.

Comments

[coco]

Thankyou for writing this letter, it seems to me that this is personal between Patric Verone, David Young and Nick Counter. All of us working paycheck to paycheck are just caught in their crossfire. Much like our present administration and Iraq.

[Below the Line]

Young sounds like a class act, hes an absolute joke. WGA nice work!!! Is it really that important to you to see us all out of work for 6 months, and the looks you will get from us each show.

[JC Fernandez]

Short has apparently been reading Michael Moore's School of Truth textbook.

He claims Young is quoted as saying "I just lay back and look at the havoc I've wreaked... I'm not going to apologize for that."

Except they are actually two separate quotes. One in which he says: "I just lay back and look at the havoc I've wreaked." And the other quote: "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." To place the two as one quote with ellipses to replace a key sentence changes the entire meaning of the quoted passage.

Similarly, Short claims that the article also states "Young and his team have spent months preparing for this moment." Except no such passage exists in the article.

[The Duke]

I know there's no love lost between the WGA and IATSE and that this is largely political, but I couldn't agree with this letter more.

[DA in LA]

What a joke. If the IATSE is trying to get writers not to feel for the plight of its membership - consider this a big step toward that goal.

This letter is full of spin and lays zero responsibility on the studios - you know, the guys who have refused to negotiate since June. What the hell would January matter if they wouldn't meet with the WGA all summer? And misquoting another union leader? Why not just give Counter a kiss?

Consider me a writer who could not care less about the "below the line guys." When you go on strike, I'll hand you a copy of this letter.

[Felix]

Good idea there DA in LA. Don't care about your union brothers (who for the record have never gone on strike in LA). Sheesh. This letter doesn't have all 50,000 IA guild member signatures at the bottom, so don't believe that it speaks for everyone. Just like your leaders don't speak for everyone in the guild. I do agree that out of context or not, David Young opened mouth, inserted foot....

[Astounded]

How on earth does this letter help IATSE members? How is this good for Mr. Short's union? By publicly denouncing the WGA, he's ensuring that there's less appearance of a united front, and therefore allowing the strike to go on longer. How can IATSE members justify having this person as their leader?

IATSE stagehands are on strike on Broadway. Actors Equity and WGA have come out publicly in support. Why would IATSE's leader jeopardize support for his own members by releasing this kind of letter? What problem does this solve?

[Eric of Reseda]

Apparently, Short, members of his union and others who rail against Young & Verrone don't understand that this fight goes FAR beyond Hollywood. Labor has conceeded FAR too much in it's war with management for decades. As corporate fat cats reap OBSCENE contracts, they export more and more American jobs, screw the consumer with higher prices and crappy Chinese imports, etc., etc., all the while doing their ABSOLUTE best to keep wages down and healthcare more and more elusive. American workers' reward for being among the most productive on the planet...

[rodney bauer]

Mandatory Anger Management, A Court Ordered Remedy, by Rodney Bauer
Grip / IATSE 52

A few weeks ago, in the crisp early morning, I was walking my dog, 'Spot', and my vision blurred. My ears began to ring. My heart started thumping. We were near my neighborhood high school and just as we were passing near an adult crossing guard, who was directing traffic and pedestrians in the parental rush to drop off students, something weird happened. I found out what happened that night, in the hospital.
Hospital Psychiatrist: How do you feel Mr. Bauer?
Me: Huh?
HP: I wonder how you are feeling now, Mr. Bauer?
Me: Who are you?
HP: I'm Dr. Fixit. Do you remember speaking with me earlier today?
Me: Where am I?
HP: You're in the hospital. You had an episode.
Me: Huh?
HP: Yes. Early this morning you were walking Spot near the High School when you suddenly started yelling and screaming and waving your arms in the air. You were cursing and swearing and rolling on the ground. You were so disorderly and scary Spot ran home by himself. The police were called and eventually you were subdued by ten of them and brought here for psychiatric evaluation.
Me: Oh.
I thought about that for a minute but couldn't remember any of it. The last clear memory I had was when I said to Spot, "Look Spot, there's a nice tree to sniff".
Me: I never had an episode before. What happens next?
HP: We talk. We try and figure out what caused the episode. We fix it.
Me: OK.
HP: Is there anything that happened that has caused you stress?
Me: Yes. My wife died, my son hates me, I filed for bankruptcy after 9-11, I had to live with my parents for two years because I lost my apartment, my father died and I had to move out of the house because my mother decided she hates men, and the writers went on strike.
HP: Ahhh!
Me: Ahhh?
HP: I heard about the writers strike. Is that still going on? I wanted to be a writer a long time ago but it was too risky. Everyone knows making a living in the so-called 'arts' is tough in America, so I became a psychiatrist instead. Steady work, you know.
Me: Nice. I'm happy for you.
HP: Are you a writer Mr. Bauer?
Me: No. I'm a grip.
HP: Ahhh! I see that in the credits of movies and always wondered what a grip is. Do you hold things or what? Do you ever meet any movie stars?
I sorta looked at Dr. Fixit, the hospital psychiatrist, and my eyes started to get glassy. He quickly moved on.
HP: How has the writer's strike affected you?
Me: I'm out of work because of it. Everything is shutting down, no work.
HP: You belong to a union, Mr. Bauer?
Me: Yes.
HP: If I remember my labor history isn't it likely that the unions will stick together and settle the dispute pretty quickly?
Me: I don't think so.
HP: Huh?
Me: My union yelled at the writers union for going on strike without my union's approval. There was a failure to communicate, I guess. Apparently my union has taken the implied 'united' out of the old definition of 'union'. Or maybe the writers forgot to get united with my union first. I'm not sure.
HP: Your union isn't supporting the writer's strike?
Me: I don't know what's going on. Nobody has said anything about what is going on. What the plan is. I was reminded in a newsletter that we don't strike or slow down production. Our contract says something like, "you are forbidden to strike or slow down or you will be locked up on a slave ship where you will row for the rest of your life while being whipped and hit with blunt instruments".
HP: I guess it doesn't matter if you support the writers much now, cause you're out of work anyway.
Me: Right.
HP: Do you think the people who the writers are negotiating with are aware of the lack of cohesion between your union and the writers?
Me: Unless they are dumber than rocks.
HP: Hmm. I seriously doubt that. I think I read somewhere that the entertainment business in general is a great thriving economic force in the world. Bigger than the Detroit car makers in their heyday. Of course nobody would want to admit they are making money hand over fist so they probably try to keep a low profile.
Me: They still make cars in Detroit? I thought we gave that up a few years after firing all the air traffic controllers.
HP: No, that can't be true. Someone is still making cars in Detroit, I'm sure. And air traffic has improved tremendously since Reagan fired those controller clowns who wanted to have a decent life.
Me: I think there was a failure to communicate.
HP: You seem to have a fairly balanced view of what is going on in the world of labor and unions and so on, seeing as you don't have much hope and nobody is telling you anything. It has always been one of mankinds greatest gifts and strengths to carry on even when there is a total lack of leadership, governance, justice, fairness and so on. Why do you do it?
Me: Because I like being a grip.
HP: No, I don’t mean why do you work as a grip, I mean why do you persevere?
Me: Because I'm dumber than a rock.
HP: Good for you! Humility always works! I'm going to recommend you are released from this hospital tonight but you must go to court tomorrow. They will recommend an anger management group therapy for you, with guidelines which I'm proud to say I co-authored, and I'm going to prescribe some drugs for you.
Me: Oh good. I like drugs.
HP: Wonderful! OK, goodbye Mr. Bauer, and good luck!

[mary eve]

rod humility is the key...recall how humble we were when there was No Writers Strike and gallons of work to go around....ah we practiced Anger Management via the eclectic elixirs of powders and liquids!!!! Tweaking and repeating the recipes - on a daily, no hourly, no perpetual basis. Corpse Revivers. We had nothing, we had everything and enjoyed it beyond any scripts.