Strike Watch: Until the Mess Gets Here

It's a mess ain't it sheriff?
If it ain't, it will do till the mess gets here.

You may know this exchange from the trailer for the Coen brothers' singularly absorbing No Country For Old Men (of which more in an upcoming post), but it stands in fairly well for the situation this week, with just hours now to go before we know if the Writers' Guild of America will indeed go out on strike--or, quite feasibly, grant an extension and brood on things a bit more.

There's been a fair amount of sound and fury lately, and if you can't quite say it signifies nothing--for it gives a fair picture of the rampant antipathy between writers and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers--it's mostly resembled lawyer talk.

Perhaps the strongest threat unveiled--and the strongest reminder that trade unionism comes out of some very nitty-gritty national history--was the declaration by Leo Reed, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 399, that, "...for me as an individual. I will not cross any picket line...I firmly believe Teamsters do not cross picket lines."

This declaration, accompanied by Reed's noting that there's some latitude in the Teamster rules for its members to refuse to cross a picket line if certain conditions are met (which drew a quick demurring response from the AMPTP's Nicholas Counter), added considerable heft to the WGA strike threat.

Arriving in town just in time to take soem of the blame was mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez of the US Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. A commissioner for the service since 2000, Exactly a year ago today Gonzalez was trying to sort out a dispute between striking drivers and mechanics (the trash haulers were represented by teamsters Union 396) and Taormina Industries in northern Orange County. Perhaps it helped to have the building garbage aroma on his side; he got the workers back on the job (with the actual settlement terms left pending) in eleven days.

For the writer-producer dispute, he'll have to make do with the odor of sanctity coming from the wounded egos (and bank accounts) of the writers, who were still squabbling a bit among themselves with just a day to go till their Halloween-midnight contract deadline. The Artful Writer blogger Craig Mazin, currently directing his own feature, pointed out he was contractually bound to work on his project, causing a fair few comments on his influential site typified by, "Craig, If the Teamsters are unwilling to cross our picket line, how come you're still planning to cross it?" Shot back Mazin:

The Teamsters' collective bargaining agreement protects and indemnifies individual members who choose to not cross another union's picket line. My collective bargaining agreement with the DGA does not contain that provision.

End of argument, okay? Both the DGA and The Teamsters are required to urge their members to go to work. The Teamsters, however, cannot be individually punished for not crossing a WGA line.

DGA employees can be disciplined.

If I don't show up for work, then all that happens is this: I get fired, I get replaced, I get sued, I will absolutely be wrong both morally and legally for violating my contractual promise, and some other man or woman will quickly step into my place to finish the film, which will get released.

Please explain how this benefits anyone.

Otto Friedrich pointed out in City of Nets (as Marc Norman also in his new What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting) how Louis Mayer hoodwinked the unionists seventy years ago. He interrupted a game of solitaire during a party in his own home to suggest what would, after he sold the idea to a dinner party of 36 notables, become the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences--"a Hollywood organization hat would make it unnecessary for anyone to organize any unions......the distinguished contributors promptly started giving each other prizes." Thus the Oscars were born, but what was then called The Screen Writers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild didn't didn't come into being until six years later. (The former was a group, that in he dangerous parlance of the day, contained its share of Reds). When they ultimately struck after studio er, rollbacks in 1936, moguls like Daryl Zanuck (see my post re this last month) fought back hard, and as detailed fictionally in Budd Schulberg's "What makes Sammy Run? The blacklist was formed.

Most screenwriters now are devoted capitalists, but even before that, individualists. Although the WGA's letter asking writers to answer a questionnaire re what they're now working--the "script validation program"-- in was signed by poresige names like Andrew Bergman, Bill Condon, Stephen Gaghan, Terry George, Carl Gottlieb, Susannah Grant, the aforementioned Norman and Ed Solomon, it drew flak from some members for its intrusiveness. Legal reps for the producers also took a crack at it, drawing a quick counter from WGA President Verrone that it duplicates a procedure used during the 1988 strike. Said the letter:

You're probably also aware that the studios are stampeding to rush projects into production. Each day brings more rumors of projects being rewritten, green-lit, brought back from the dead. As best we can tell, there are some 180 active projects heading toward pre-production, about three times the norm.

But despite a degree of dissension, the writers are broadly united in long-stored resentment carrying the resentment, brought to a head by an early MPTP negotiating plank suggesting residual rollbacks. That idea was deemed so insulting that even after the producers yanked it off the table, many opined that its original inclusion was sheer, aggravating gamesmanship.

The writers got considerable wind int heir sails handing out informational literature to their now fondly regarded brothers, the Teamsters, an another sign of solidarity was the commencement of a post by writer (Cold Case) and Contract Captain (Kate Purdy and several other members "to continue to build union solidarity". (An inaugural post was titled "Ode To the Teamsters") Mazin quickly set up a link to it. Said the site:

Will there be a strike?

In my opinion, yes. Yes, there will be a strike. I don't want a strike. No one wants a strike. But, the AMPTP refuses to engage us on any real issue.

With the WGA's crucial meeting scheduled for Thursday, the announcement of strike, postponement--or ever so remotely, an agreement--should come at one minute after midnight that evening. And though that misses Halloween by a day, the message to the industry would seem to add up to, be very afraid. The real mess is coming.

(Patric Verrone, Writers Guild Awards, 2006; photo by Vince Bucci/Getty Images)