US TV Writers Strike

In most cases I am equally against right-wing union bashing. What is frustrating is that unions such as Equity and the BMU, both of which have many high-earners among their members, seem not to have been touched by the same legislation that has seen other industries all but robbed of their representation. I thought the "closed shop" was supposed to have been outlawed - if that is the case why has someone I know been told she has to be an Equity member in order to get jobs?

Yes you do have to strike at times - the postmen and the prison officers had my full support. It's not as easy to support an actors/musician's/writers strike when some of them already have big bucks.


It's not the jobbing actors I am laying that charge at but it always seems to be the way that those with the most are the quickest to moan about unpaid royalties (ie. Richard Briers, George Baker).

It's not a closed shop. It just requires a bit of effort to get membership. There's a big difference.

Membership of Equity is available through work in the following areas:

Theatre
- as a paid performer or stage manager.
- as a director, designer or choreographer undertaking paid work in the theatre
Opera and Dance
- as a singer engaged by an opera company as a chorister, principal singer or guest artist
- as a dancer employed by a ballet or dance company

Singers
- as a concert, session or pop singer you need to have evidence of one professional, paid engagement

Variety and Circus
- as an artist who usually undertakes paid short term engagements or gigs, you need to have evidence of four of these within the last 12 months, plus one forthcoming engagement
- as a dancer engaged in a cabaret floorshow or troupe either in the UK or overseas
- as an artist working on a long-term engagement such as on a cruise ship, in a theme park, in a circus or a holiday centre etc

Television, Films, Commercials and Radio
- as a performer undertaking work in any of these areas on a standard Equity contract
- as a presenter on television or radio

Walk-on artists
- as a walk-on, supporting or background artist, if you can show evidence of at least six days' paid work over a period of 12 consecutive months undertaken on an Equity agreement.



Perhaps if you exercised more care when you post instead of making your usual catch-all sweeping statements we wouldn't have endless pages of you contradicting yourself and back-pedaling.

Briars, as it happens, is a tireless campaigner for the benefit of all Equity members. The vast majority of the membership are NOT rolling in money. Most receive on or around the minimum pay - in theatres that equates to approx £350 per week, with under £100 per week for rehearsal. I know people who work as clerks in insurance offices who get more than that.

Those who have created successful careers for themselves (and have a body of work as rich as Briars) are quite entitled to pay commensurate with their skills and experience.

I'm sorry, but your opinions are pointless when you have no grasp of the basic facts.

I believed my choice of terminology ("high earning members") was ambiguous enough to imply that while Equity HAS high-earning members, it doesn't mean every one of them are. All down to how the individual reads it, I guess.


Whilst I've only seen one article in relation to Richard Briers, I have come across the George Baker example more than once, and it wasn't so much a case that he was being a tireless campaigner for his fellow Equity members but to pursue royalties he claimed he was owed in respect of Wexford!

£350 a week would be considered a high wage around these parts - ask anyone who'd love to earn that as "minimum" pay!

And you would say he wasn't entitled to those royalties, would you? Perhaps you think he was "paid enough" the first time?



Pardon? Simon, I really don't mean to be personal, but have you any idea what wages/cost of living comes to, or is it all covered by the State?

A theatre actor on minimum gets:

3 x weeks rehearsal at £96. per week: £288 total.
4 x week run in performance at £350 per week: £1400
Total for 7 weeks: £1688

UK minimum pay for someone over 22: £5.52 per hour.
Per 40 hour week: £220.80
Total for 7 weeks: £1545.60

That's a £20 a week difference between an actor who may have trained for 4 years and the bare minimum allowed by law to pay an unskilled worker.

Do you really want to pursue this further?

A couple of interesting articles on what might be affected with the strike planned to start on Monday...

http://www.variety.com/VR1117975267.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-striketvgrid-html,0,7606966.htmlstory?coll=la-home-center



Interesting how the networks have basically held off axing series this year, with only the US version of Blackpool the major casualty so far. I'd imagine though if the strike continues once the produced episodes are all aired they'll axe quite a few things rather than hanging round for the writers to come back.

I wonder what the pay differences are between UK & US for DVD commentaries.

For example Red Dwarf had commentary from all of the main cast for all 8 series, yet with Scrubs they only do one commentary per series boxset and not even together, just random episodes.

I know there are far more episodes to series quota with Scrubs compared to Red Dwarf but seeing as in most cases, especially with modern programmes, the cast are willing to do commentaries for UK Series' that are released on DVD it doesn't seem to be the same in the US, is this all part of this strike at all?

I will point out that I haven't read the article properly but saw it was something to do with DVD royalties

Apparently quite a few series were axed as a result of the 1988 series, anyone know which ones did at all?

The 1988 strike also proved that in the short term a writer's strike isn't total disaster as producers started pulling material from all sorts of hats.

Early season 2 of Star Trek: The Next Generation was comprised of scripts originally written for an aborted 70's Star Trek TV series, and Mission: Impossible returned for another 2 year run with what were initially remakes of 60's episodes to name just two examples.

Added also to the fact that US network TV works on a season run much longer than the actual number of recorded episodes, with new episodes shown gradually around reruns, going ahead with a shorter than usual season as long as the majority of scripts are completed is also perfectly viable (also in the 1988 strike, many shows that season ran with 4/5 episodes less than planned without anyone noticing due to the repeat run).

I have to say they were the poorest episodes ever to see the light of day, apart from one where Deanna gives birth to an alien implanted in her.

The "clip show" cobbled together was truly dreadful.

An article on how it will affect the UK - though it pretty much states the obvious in how The Daily Show on More4 is most affected and will ultimately be replaced by Location, Location, Location if the strike continues.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/06/television2

Well The Simpsons record commentaries for every episode - a rarity I know and Simpsons writers are probably paid more than most at a guess - but Mike Scully, who is senior staff at the show, is behind the strike it says in the Guardian article. Don't know the ins and outs etc, but thought it was relevant to your point

Interesting, I wonder where the Family Guy cast/crew stand on this? I know Seth McFarlane commentates on every episode (From Series 3/4 at least) I wonder if this will effect future releases, depending on what the outcome of this dispute is?