The last day of official picketing ended with a high point at Fox.

Writers were joined on the picket line by many supporters. The honking at the Pico gate reached new decibel levels as crowds of picketers filled the sidewalk and waved their signs at the passing traffic.

The signs told the story: "WGA-DGA-SAG", "The House is Not Divided," "DGA-WGA Member," "Union Solidarity".

The appearance of so many SAG and DGA members made the point that even though the AMPTP spin machine works hard to create the impression that there is dissension between the unions and in the ranks of the WGA, the opposite is true.

Of course the strike has created tensions. How could it not?

There should be tensions when so much is at stake and so much has been sacrificed in the fight with the congloms. But our common interests outweigh that tension, and our solidarity is real.

Something's very different on the picket line.

Since Thanksgiving, the energy on the picket lines has fallen off. One picketer was even seen reading a book while he walked the picket line.

It seems like only yesterday that we were chanting to stop trucks from crossing the picket line or "2-4-6-8, Why won't they negotiate." The turnout and the energy paid off. The AMPTP rejoined us at the negotiating table and that was great.

But now....we wait....in a news blackout.

Getting the agreement to restart the negotiations felt climactic, because so much energy had to be expended to get the AMPTP to do the right thing, but "restarting" the talks didn't mean "concluding" them.

This was submitted by WGA member Christopher Trumbo, member for 40 years, and son of WGA member Dalton Trumbo. His insights into the history of the guild are especially valuable now, as the strike continues and the AMPTP tries to divide us.

SAG Board member and regular U.H. contributor Justine Bateman sends this open letter to all WGA members. -JA

To the WGA membership,

As you prepare to examine the proposed deal points and assemble for your meeting tonight, if the decision is made to continue striking, I will see you on the lines Monday. If you decide to recommend the deal to the membership at large for a vote and it is ratified,

The strike is over. The WGA contract has been ratified. SAG and AFTRA are now center stage and there is still a lot of work to do before the town gets back to normal. At this moment it's useful to look back at our own history. There are lessons to be learned about how the process can move forward even against what seems like overwhelming odds.

There are many who labored behind the scenes to support the writers' strike. At United Hollywood we worked with people who put their energy on the line but wanted to stay off the media's radar. Not content to just talk a good game, these are members and supporters who knew that if they wanted to make a difference, they had to work at it.

One group in particular came of age during the early part of the strike: the writer-directors. Nicknamed the WD-40, forty writer-directors met to search for ways they could help facilitate the negotiation.

From the beginning of the strike, most journalists accepted the AMPTP's lead and described the DGA and WGA as antagonistic to one another. Nicholas Counter was frequently quoted in the trades as preferring the DGA as a negotiating partner. The writer-directors objected to that characterization and felt that the AMPTP was doing what it always did in positioning the Guilds against one another to diminish each union's power.

RUMOR: WGA members are starting to hire "freelance picketers" to do their strike duty.
STATUS: Unconfirmed

Universal strike captain Jan Kimbrough noticed this Craig's List posting on Day Four:Reply to: gigs-473080663@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-11-08, 3:15PM PST

I can't make it to my picket tomorrow and I need somebody to take my place. I want to go see friends in San Diego while I have time off work, and I'll pay somebody $40 to cover my four-hour shift. My strike "captain" doesn't care as long as there are people out there. I'll give you my shirt and signs and all that crap.

If this works out on Friday then let's do it next week too. I'd really rather not have to deal with it.

We're told that the long strike of 1988 had two far-reaching consequences: the audience discovered cable and reality shows grew in popularity.

What will be the legacy of the 2007 strike?

Hard to say. The negotiations are still ongoing. But one fact is abundantly clear even at this point.

Writers love the internet.

Given that the AMPTP was trying to control the internet, there is something ironic about the way writers have taken to the web as the place to try out ideas or vent or be funny about issues that can seem simultaneously enraging and arcane, like the DVD formula with its string of percentages: 1.5% (or 1.8%) of 20% of the studio’s gross on DVD sales.

By various accounts, after only a few weeks, striking writers and their supporters have put between 750 and 1,000 videos on YouTube.

WGA President Patric Verrone - who along with other members of the WGA Board and Negotiations Committee will be walking the various picket lines today - joins us for an interview on United Hollywood Live (12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern).

We also welcome actress Justine Bateman, who has spear-headed a SAG Call To Arms, and showrunner Bill Prady to the show.

Strike TV is an Internet fundraiser. It's an online "channel" featuring original video shows created by working professionals in the TV and Film Industry. These shows are self-funded and owned by their creators. Funds raised by ad revenue will go toward the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund, assisting union directors, actors and below the line members who are affected by the strike.

(WGAw President Patric M. Verrone released the following statement a short time ago)

December 13, 2007

To My Fellow Members:

The AMPTP and each of its member companies have a legal obligation to bargain in good faith with the WGA. Their unilateral walkout from negotiations last Friday and their on-going refusal to bargain is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. Therefore the WGA today filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against the AMPTP with the National Labor Relations Board.

The DGA’s announcement today that it may begin negotiations with the AMPTP in January in no way relieves the AMPTP of their legal obligation to negotiate with us. The only legal way for the AMPTP to remedy the Unfair Labor Practice charge we have filed is to return to the bargaining table.

Two articles in the New York Times today (11/16/07) put a personal perspective on the strike. Bill Carter's "Late Shows Move to Help The Workers Not on Strike" and Jennifer Steinhauer's "Writers' Strike Opens New Window on Hollywood".

Carter reports about efforts by Talk Show Hosts to keep their staffs paid, even if they can't be on the air. Steinhauer profiles the personal stories of writers, costumers, assistants, electricians, and thousands of others who are now or who will soon be out of work.

What these stories have in common is one underlying fact: the AMPTP won't sit down with the WGA.

Notwithstanding the AMPTP's full page ads, they'd rather spend their energy and money on avoiding talking to the writers and negotiating a fair deal. And why?

(With all the best to Frank Pierson and thanks to Jon Avnet)

The latest AMPTP offer, Thursday's "groundbreaking" proposal, certainly wasn't what any of us hoped for. If we assume the AMPTP sincerely wants to end the strike, then everything they've done so far is counter-intuitive. Given the stakes, their behavior is crazy-making. Most members were shocked and demoralized that the offer was so inappropriate.

But when has anyone enjoyed a negotiation?

Personally, I hate negotiating. At first it feels good when I'm thinking about what I want. My mind's racing with the possibilities. But when the process starts and the first counter-offer comes in, I go through the seven stages of grief. If I want a deal that I can live with, I have to tough it out.

This was submitted by WGA member Robert Eisele, who was present for both the strike in 1985 and the longer strike of 1988.

"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it."
-- George Santayana, 1905

In 1988, writers endured a strike of nearly six months. In 2008, we are now approaching the halfway point of the length of that strike.

Although most Guild members in ’88 stood strong

This is excerpted from the email that Warners strike captain Brian Hartt sent to other captains this week, with permission. Brian is an Emmy-nominated writer who coordinates all of the Warners picket teams, as well as being the showrunner on Mind of Mencia who helped get 4 West Coast and 2 East Coast shows on Comedy Central covered by the WGA contract . His tireless work and dedication are inspiring.

As I'm sure you all know, the AMPTP walked away from the table Friday.

You all should have, by now, gotten John Bowman's response to the "nice try" press release by the company's lap dog. Let me stress something that John mentioned - their press release came out minutes after they walked away.

On Monday, February 11 from 2-6pm, United Hollywood and Strike Swag invite all members of the United Hollywood community to be photographed for a PR campaign to promote the new United Hollywood site.

The concept of the campaign is to show writers, actors, directors, crew, staff and fans standing united to meet the challenges of the digital present. That's right, the challenges of now.

For the last few days, many of us have been feeling that the AMPTP was getting ready to "sucker punch" us. The hiring of an attack dog PR firm (known as the "Masters of Disaster") made it pretty obvious that the congloms didn't intend to settle, and they planned on making things ugly.

Well, the other shoe sure dropped on that one.

At today’s Los Angeles City Council meeting, over 300 writers and supporters came to hear Councilmember Eric Garcetti speak to the City Council about the writers strike, and the need to bring the AMPTP back to the table so negotiations can resume.
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The AMPTP did not bother to send a representative, apparently feeling that the $20 million a day damage to the Los Angeles economy is more the City Council's problem than theirs.

Garcetti introduced an emergency motion asking for both parties to resume bargaining, and to come to a just and fair deal as quickly as possible. He also pointed out that the writers are still at the bargaining table, ready to negotiate, and called specifically on the AMPTP to return as well.

Robert J. Elisberg, WGA Member and contributor to The Huffington Post, wrote a piece excerpted here called, "WGA Strike Primer: Settling a Final Debt."

It's not officially over yet, of course. There still is the matter of approving the contract. It's a 10-day process, a blink by strike standards, but long enough. Arguments of all views will be made, we do know that -- these are writers after all

Interesting things, facts. They are simply what they are. And yet sometimes you can read a lot into them.

Here's a fact:
On December 18, the Writer's Guild testified before the Los Angeles City Council about the economic impact of the strike.

Here's another fact:
The AMPTP didn't show up. [Gosh, just like at the negotiating table.]

Instead, they asked the MPAA to take care of it. The MPAA represents the AMPTP before all levels of government throughout the world. The MPAA also provides economic data and information on the motion picture and television business to the public.

And one more fact:

This piece is by WGA strike captain Alfredo Barrios, a former corporate attorney turned writer. It offers insight into what the AMPTP methods and rationale for undermining the writers' resolve. Thanks to Ashley Gable for submitting this to us. -JA

We’re two months into the strike, and I’ve noticed a certain confusion and fear emanating from certain quarters about how things have been “handled”

(The piece below comes from a WGA member who would like to be known as "Red Sox Fan.")

The Ol' AMPTP Mindf*ck™

Has anyone noticed a pattern in the last couple weeks' worth of negotiations?

Monday is energetic and everyone's buoyed by the residual anger from the way last week ended. Tuesday there's a sense that they're "really talking." But by Wednesday, there's a creeping sense that nothing good is actually happening.

And on Thursday, the companies do the AMPTP Mindf*ck™.

First, it was the New Economic Partnership. This week it's "we're going to take our marbles and go home. Which means you can't play because we own all the marbles."

Statement from Chief Negotiator David Young and the WGA Negotiating Committee.

We have attempted to negotiate with the AMPTP companies since July. First they ignored our opening proposals. Then they told us we had to choose between their two horrible proposals. Then we removed DVDs from the table. Their response was to walk out of negotiations and tell the press that we were the ones who walked. Last week they presented us with another set of ultimatums. They didn’t even wait for a reply but broke off negotiations and walked out again.

There is a strategy at work here.

In any negotiation there are bottom line goals and “fringe” goals. The AMPTP wants to make the WGA reduce our demands to the bottom line so we’ll negotiate down from an acceptable deal to a bad deal If we do this, as we did with DVDs, you can be sure they would not hand us the deal we want. They would simply try to further wear us down.

Robert J. Elisberg's latest Huffington Post column, WGA Strike Primer: Spin the Bottle, puts the latest AMPTP ploys and PR stunts into perspective. The entire piece is a must read but here are some highlights...

Regarding the AMPTP releasing a press release just 20 minutes after storming out of negotiations (again) and demanding the WGA drop six issues or else the companies "petulantly won't even talk," Elisberg writes...

United Hollywood Live (12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern) will be joined by Robert J. Elisberg, whose excellent article on The Huffington Post questions why the AMPTP - made up of competitors - is allowed to negotiate as a single entity against the WGA. The show will also feature a live remote from the Trekkie Day rally at Paramount Studios where the writers of all Star Trek Incarnations will join us on the picket line.

The California Democratic Party is officially on record as supporting the WGA's strike action. Stating in their resolution:

WHEREAS, the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has refused to recognize the legitimate claims of the approximately 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) to fair remuneration through residuals on the distribution of its members’ creative endeavors on any current distribution platforms and those yet to be developed, including the monitoring and enforcement thereof; and

(News Release from the Writers Guild of America)

Hundreds of Screen Actors Guild Members Join Picket Lines Outside Universal Studios

on Day Nine of WGA Strike