 In defense of parodies and theme pickets: WGA Strike Against Multinational Corporations | Dec. 20th, 2007 @ 12:27 pm  |
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Then, someone from the WGA offices happily distributed the link to a hijacked parody website that even many rank-and-file WGA members felt was over-the-top. All of this is happening right along with the WGA's continuing series of concerts, rallies, mock exorcisms, pencil-drops and Star Trek-themed gatherings.
Amidst this alternating mix of personal attacks and picket line frivolity, we must not forget that this WGA strike is beginning to cause serious economic damage to many people in the entertainment business
See Deadline Hollywood, "AMPTP Hot and Bothered"
Why is the AMPTP upset by this "frivolity"? Because the CEOs and Moguls who look at their labor force as people who should take orders and be silent, are shocked that their workers are standing up for themselves. Why do they make fun of Star Trek themed picket lines? Because the bosses don't want any kind of picket lines and they certainly don't want picket lines supported by large groups of people. Why do they complain about parody websites? Because those of us who are not members of the WGA read them, and they make us laugh, and like all good satire they reveal to us a lot of the truth.
So it was a surprise to me that a weblog of a writer I occasionally read Jim Cirile at Coverage, Ink/Writers on the Storm
, complained about these tactics. I read him because as a poet I am interested in the problems of creativity and how they intersect with business.There is a feeling from people like Jim C, people who are not used to looking at their employers as bosses, that such tactics are impolitic. What I would like to show in this post and subsequent posts is that these tactics are unique extension of necessary union tactics. These tactics should be admired and imitated by other unions.
In fact I think that other unions should make a deal with the WGA that future strikes by other workers will have the aid of these writers and satirists!
I like Jim C. so I felt a needed to respond to the post. I quote my response in whole below. I was a bit heated but he told me thanks for the post, so I suppose he was not too staggered.
I quote the post in whole and then my response, with a few syntactical corrections.
WGA Management Officially on Crack
Monday Dec. 10 -- In a staggering display of poor judgment, the Writers Guild of America, currently neck-deep in a strike effort against the AMPTP (film producers), either deliberately or inadvertently sent an official WGA communique to the entire WGA West membership plugging a spoof site ridiculing the AMPTP. The site, www.amptp.com, lampoons the AMPTP's poor judgment and is entertaining satire to be sure. But at a time when thousands of people are out of work heading into the holidays, most of whom will never see any benefit from any WGA deal, only lost income, the industry is getting more and more nervous, and key industry figures like Thomas Short, president of Hollywood union IATSE, are publicly criticizing guild management for incompetence on the front page of The Hollywood Reporter, in my opinion the Guild should have exercised some sensitivity here. To be sure, this comes across as a childish move--certainly not the deft and professional negotiations many of us were hoping for.
To be clear, Coverage Ink supports the issues the WGA is going for here. But boneheaded moves like this can't possibly help the Guild or the strikers. Goof sites are fine, and I've written a few myself. But when they're officially sanctioned by one side, it makes the sanctioner look like a complete jack-ass. Brilliant tactical maneuver, WGA.
UPDATE 12/11: WGA President Patric Verrone responds thusly:Jim,
Thanks for writing. So you know, this web site was done without Guild knowledge or input but, when we saw it, we thought members would be interested. We remain committed to resolving this contract as soon as humanly possible. Remember, the AMPTP walked away from the table on Friday, not us. We are ready and willing to bargain at a moment's notice.
Seriously.
Best,
Patric
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So this confirms that no less than WGA President Patric Verrone signed off on this mail. God help us all. I defer to the first post below from "anonymous" as to a few more reasons why this WGA mailing was a serious shot in the foot. --JC
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My Response a bit more extended than at Jim C.'s weblog was the following:
I don't get it. The fact is that this parody was right-on. It is what we who are only fans of writers and creators expect of you, a good parody that is also true.
Listen, I am not a member of WGA, but I am a former union organizer and once a member of the USWA and at one time, as a taxi driver, a member of the Teamsters. I am a veteran of many strikes and pickets. The publicity that the writers have been producing for this strike has been fantastic. The fan supported picket lines have been amazing. The reason why the bosses are so upset about it is because they did not expect that so many people would support "elitist" writers. The bosses thought that they would win the propaganda war. And why not? They own the media. They have the money. They can hire the big P.R firms. So it is a shock to them that they are not winning the propaganda war hands down. They look at themselves as the masters of the universe. Who are these writers to stand-up to us? Who are these writers to be better at propaganda than the big media moguls?
No matter who is striking, the bosses always use the same kind of propaganda, over and over again. "We are in this together... The strike is the fault of the greedy union leaders who are only interested in their own power.... The 'real' rank and file workers are on our side... They, the rank and file, want to work with us, the bosses... We are all on the same side, but the union leaders are divisive and ideological... We have the best interest of all of 'our' workers and the industry as a whole at heart." It is always the same line.
When the your bosses complain about how upset they are about the tactics and the "antics" of your union it is because your union is getting under their skin.
Let me say, by law, by corporate by-laws, the big corporations are not allowed to have their worker's interests at heart. The so-called "non-owner stakeholders" of a corporation, the workers and the surrounding community, are supposed to be subservient to the stated goal of the corporate-entity of making money for the owners. By the corporate by-laws only profit matters and if that means screwing the workers then that is that. The CEOs are greedy because that is their job-description. It is not their fault. It has nothing to do with personalities. It is simply the system and the institutions they work for. If they tell you that they are not greedy, that they are concerned with the workers in their industry, then they are only doing so for public relations purposes. And the only thing that will change that is some kind of counter power. Unions and their ability to act collectively and to rally the public to their side offer one possibility for what John Kenneth Galbraith called a counter-veiling power.
Unfortunately, the truth is that the WGA alone is neither big enough nor powerful enough to be a counter-veiling power, alone. They need help from many others. But to slag on the union for doing something successfully, something that we non-writers that support you admire greatly, is not seeing the reality of the situation.
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I will write more on this subject later.
If anyone wishes to copy any part of this post, or even plagiarize it as their own and post somewhere else, please feel free.
Jerry Monaco
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