Writers’ Strike – Blessing or Curse?

I don’t claim to comprehend all of the issues around the Hollywood writers’ strike, but I do understand that it revolves around the writers wanting greater compensation based on an increase in the number of channels that their work is now appearing in, while the producers wish to retain the extra income from these alternate channels.

I have mixed feelings about the strike itself, but little sympathy for either side, since I perceive mostly greed on both sides of the question.

If I may digress for a moment, as a comparison, I’m a research technician and in that role I perform various different laboratory tasks.  My products, if you will, are the results of my experiments.  I don’t demand greater pay if my work gets recognized by more people, I just thank the person or people responsible for increasing my exposure. Most likely either my boss or my company are the responsible parties, and yes, they sometimes can realize an increased profit by sharing these results with a greater number of people, but it isn’t actually easy to do this type of promotion so kudos to them!

Back to the writers, I understand that the writers’ products are unique, but can’t you say that about most jobs?  Could the writers, for instance, sell advertising to clients or do other types of promotion? Could they negotiate placement of DVDs into major retail chains at specified price points?  Could they put together a multi-part marketing push involving merchandising of toys, fast food co-branding, product placement media buys, et cetera?  Could they manage the payroll for all of these operations?  Does the creative role trump all others?

What about all the support staff? I’m sure that if they left work for a month or two, much production would grind to a stop.  Instead, many of these people are now facing the prospect of layoffs.  Why must these people be pawns in such a chess game of greed, with their livelihood hinging on whether or not an overstuffed union or a bunch of overstuffed shirts win a staring contest?  What all of these self-important people decide to do can mean the difference between employment and unemployment for some innocent bystanders.  What if you had to wonder whether you are going to have insurance or have none tomorrow, pay the bills or wonder how to pay them?

Lest you think I’m giving the producers/owners a free pass, please be assured, I’m not.  There are several questions that need to be addressed.  First, is there a logical method for allocating the income from alternate channels?  If so, what is it? If there is extra income and there is a real reason for withholding it from some of the people who helped create the “content”, then the studios should be explaining that reason to their stakeholders.

Finally, I want to propose something very radical: Life’s given us lemons, so let’s make lemonade.  Forget the writers.  Forget about them altogether.  What is the worst that could happen if we don’t get the writers back?  Will we only have one CSI program instead of half a dozen?  How will we cope?  Will there be less sitcom silliness?  Oh, no, not that.

Will this be the end of our world?  Is this a crisis?  No it is not, and I assert that there is much good writing available for consumption without taking it through the filter of television and movies.  Places to look include the newspaper, the good old-fashioned book, and even the blogosphere.  I’m guessing that many, probably most, and maybe even all bloggers would be absolutely delighted to know that their material is being consumed by a growing audience (you won’t see me picketing any time soon!).

If you can’t find any quality writing, why not start a blog of your own and produce some quality writing yourself? Who knows, maybe the studio will call up and you can be a SCAB!

What do you think?