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Public Employee Press
DC 37 members picket
with striking writers The writers strike that began Nov.
5 is a labor struggle that stretches from coast to coast from sunny Hollywood
to the frigid streets of New York City and is winning widespread support.
Everybody feels the pinch from Late Night show viewers and Saturday Night
Live addicts to those who love the weeknight series that rope us in through the
power of their drama all created by the writers.
Crains New
York Business bemoans the effects of the strike from the management side: Writers
strike hits suppliers. Losses mount as talk shows, series shut down.
But
from labors point of view, the writers cause is just. Members of the
Writers Guild of America are withholding their labor in a tradition that stretches
back to the early days of their union and others, such as the Newspaper Guild
and the Broadway stagehands, who were on strike to save their jobs as this issue
of PEP went to press. Organized writers even picketed the federal Works Project
Administration during the Depression of the 1930s, bearing signs reading: Writers
Demand Jobs.
On Nov. 8, writers from popular shows such as Law
and Order: Special Victims Unit, Saturday Night Live and As
the World Turns turned out in force. Picketing in front of the palatial
headquarters of Time-Warner AOL at Columbus Circle, they got a boost from a large
contingent of supporters from District Council 37 and District Council 1707, AFSCME.
This
is what you do when youre in the labor movement, said Blue Collar
Division Director José Sierra.
White Collar Division Grievance Rep
Phyllis McLean said she was there to support a fair deal for writers.
The
dispute hinges on managements rejection of the writers demand to be
paid when movies and television shows they have written are re-used on the Internet.
As the nature of distribution changes, the writers could go hungry if their contract
does not provide payments for new uses of their work.
Unlike many strikes
in modern times, this strike is highly visible. Well-known actors also
union members are showing up to add visibility and support on the picket
lines. Unlike management, they realize that without the writers they can literally
say nothing. On Nov. 8, members of the Screen Actors Guild stood alongside DC
37 members on the picket line, supporting the writers. DC 37 Executive Director
Lillian Roberts noted, This is the kind of support it takes to win a strike
and to build a strong labor movement!
As PEP went to press,
talks in the writers strike were set for after Thanksgiving. Bargaining
in the stagehands strike resumed at press time.
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