Strike Watch: After Them, The Deluge

Comparing the ever-likelier industry strike to the French Revolution seems like irresistible fun about now. Taken from the union side, the easy analogy is of an uprising against the nobility and the clergy who had been bleeding the peasantry (and importantly, a rising middle class) dry. The question increasingly seems to be, which revolutionary is Patric Verrone playing? Danton certainly was near the center of things for a good while, and it cost him his head. (His sin was moderation in the face of the people's blood lust.) That leaves a role for Robespierre, who rose to leadership with Danton, betrayed him, and lost his own head three months later.

Danton failed to watch his own back, a mistake Verrone won't make. But he is dealing with a clear and present crisis in the very public and declamatory alienation of Thomas C. Short (above), president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the overarching group for a group of Hollywood craft unions, lashed out yesterday (as reported by Variety's Dave McNary) over Verrone infringing on what Short feels is his union's territory:

In a missive sent Thursday, IATSE topper Thomas Short blasted the guild over its plan to bar WGA members from penning animated features if there's a strike. Short, who's tangled with the guild in the past, pledged he'll see the WGA -- and its leaders -- in court since feature animation writing is IATSE's turf.

"If the WGAW follows through with the threat, the IATSE is prepared to take legal action against the individuals and institutions involved," Short said in the letter to WGA West president Patric Verrone.

Short's vituperative response referred to the writers union as "the house of hate commonly known as the Writers Guild of America West."

Verrone was unapologetic in response, asserting that the guild's simply trying to protect its own members by barring them from writing during a strike.

"Members of the Writers Guild write the overwhelming majority of animated feature films," he said in a statement. "We will not allow the employers to take advantage of our writers to produce this work during a strike. Honoring picket lines is a fundamental trade union principle.

Verrone's fixation on the plight of animation writers has been alluded to in previous post here--also disclosed was my wife's work as a sometime writer of animation, whose next gig could fall prey to Verrone's policy--but picking a fight with the not very retiring Stout brings to mind the apocryphal quote attributed to what that spiritual father of the Revolution, the anti-clerical Voltaire, said when asked on his deathbed whether he'd finally renounce the Devil: "Is this a time to make enemies?"

A post directing readers to screenwriters Craig Mazin and Ted Elliott's strike watching The Artful Writer site was put up in some haste on Monday the 8th, given Mazin's message that, "as I'm pretty busy shooting the movie, I'm turning the blog over to a long-time friend and pro writer, Jacob Sager Weinstein." But after an October 12 Wall Street Journal piece lauding the site (in one quote) as "a touchstone and a bellwether", Mazin was back on the job, grateful for the plug "Getting dubbed "Hollywood's Must-See" ain't bad either, and it's probably the first and last time I'll earn that moniker." And renewing his downbeat assessment:

Things are getting worse.

The WGA rhetoric has now turned toward DVD residuals, which is utter nonsense. Everyone in the negotiating room knows that DVD residuals are the epitome of a sailed ship. Harping on doubling that rate is as pointless and absurd as the companies' proposal to tie residuals to profit.

The fact that we seem to be moving backwards in terms of the seriousness of rhetoric is deeply disturbing. With weeks to go, tensions have steeply mounted. Furthermore, the companies have essentially initiated a lockout on feature writers. They're not spending any more money on feature writing (so we hear) until a deal is struck.

The situation is volatile, and seems to get more complex and vituperatively the day. Perhaps another son of the struggle a couple hundred years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte, sounded the right cautionary note "Vanity made the [French] Revolution; liberty was only a pretext."

(Thomas Short photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images)