Now it's getting ugly. When the Writers don't work, the shows don't happen. And the fall-out is becoming depressing – All the folks who work the cameras, lighting, sound, make up, wardrobe, catering and a dozen other fields are getting caught in the net. And some are getting fired. A lot of very talented people no-one thinks about are now facing Christmas without a paycheck. The jobs may not come...but the mortgage bill certainly does.
The Networks are using the strike as camouflage to decimate their employee rosters by issuing suspension notices to hundreds of staff at independent production companies that have so-called 'housekeeping deals' with the Nets. Basically, anyone working for a company that doesn't have a pilot or a show currently in production is gone...Or at grave risk.
This is horrific. Not only are the suits who run the Networks so intellectually and creatively barren they're forced to rent other people's creativity to make their own jobs even viable, they now plan to use the consequences of their insentient refusal to share the fruits of this indispensable collaboration as cause for abandoning those people to welfare.
The fact that Studios are issuing these notices so soon proves just how belligerent their attitude towards the WGA and its members truly is. These are the authors of such Nielsen-conquering cash-cows as Gray's, Law and Order and dozens of other prime-time favorites. And this is their reward.
If the strike drags on, many people believe the Studios will use the same ruse to cancel their less profitable movie deals – And all the attached staff. A standard contract contains a “force majeure” clause that allows a deal to be put on hold or even dropped without any penalty. But the target must first be suspended for a certain time. And when you bear in mind that those in charge at the typical Network have permafrost for blood, two days is clearly enough.
As you know, the Net's favored option to fill-in the schedules is an increased diet of mind-rotting 'Reality' shows, as most are penned by non-union Writers. Well, hundreds of families are now facing the 'Reality” of a miserable Christmas because their bosses refused to share the pie, then used the entirely avoidable consequence as an iniquitous excuse to discard them without true cause or justice.
If you can write a happy ending for this, let me know.
The Networks are using the strike as camouflage to decimate their employee rosters by issuing suspension notices to hundreds of staff at independent production companies that have so-called 'housekeeping deals' with the Nets. Basically, anyone working for a company that doesn't have a pilot or a show currently in production is gone...Or at grave risk.
This is horrific. Not only are the suits who run the Networks so intellectually and creatively barren they're forced to rent other people's creativity to make their own jobs even viable, they now plan to use the consequences of their insentient refusal to share the fruits of this indispensable collaboration as cause for abandoning those people to welfare.
The fact that Studios are issuing these notices so soon proves just how belligerent their attitude towards the WGA and its members truly is. These are the authors of such Nielsen-conquering cash-cows as Gray's, Law and Order and dozens of other prime-time favorites. And this is their reward.
If the strike drags on, many people believe the Studios will use the same ruse to cancel their less profitable movie deals – And all the attached staff. A standard contract contains a “force majeure” clause that allows a deal to be put on hold or even dropped without any penalty. But the target must first be suspended for a certain time. And when you bear in mind that those in charge at the typical Network have permafrost for blood, two days is clearly enough.
As you know, the Net's favored option to fill-in the schedules is an increased diet of mind-rotting 'Reality' shows, as most are penned by non-union Writers. Well, hundreds of families are now facing the 'Reality” of a miserable Christmas because their bosses refused to share the pie, then used the entirely avoidable consequence as an iniquitous excuse to discard them without true cause or justice.
If you can write a happy ending for this, let me know.
