SC5 - Sidecast: Solidarity and Strike Rules
Scriptnotes Podcast
John August
4.8 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2023
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John and Drew discuss the newly-released WGA 2023 Strike Rules and how guilds across the industry are showing support for the WGA.
We then answer listener questions about what writers – union and non-union – can do during a strike. Are any meetings are ok to take? Can you sign with a manager? And what if your optioned material is sold?
Links:
- WGA Sends Out Strike Rules To Members As Potential Hollywood Labor Shutdown Looms Next Week by Dominic Patten and David Robb for Deadline
- Teamsters Statement on Writers Guild of America Negotiations
- DGA Statement of Support for WGA in Contract Negotiations
- IATSE President Issues Statement of Support for Writers as Strike Deadline Approaches
- SAG-AFTRA Statement in Support of WGA Negotiations
- Find more about the 2023 WGA negotiations here at WGAContract2023.org
- John on Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt
Email us at [email protected]
You can download the episode here.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome. My name is John August. My name is Drew Markport and this is a script |
| 0:05.6 | out sidecast, a short episode about one thing. That one thing is actually two things today |
| 0:10.0 | but they're related so it's okay. First off, this week all the other major Hollywood |
| 0:15.1 | guilds came out with statements in support of the WGA, which is not a thing that always |
| 0:19.1 | happens. Can you explain that? Because they're unions and they're all negotiating with |
| 0:22.7 | the AMPTP, right? Yeah, they are. So wouldn't it make sense for all the guilds to be in solidarity? |
| 0:27.3 | It would make sense, Drew. And yet for reasons it just doesn't always happen that way. It's |
| 0:32.0 | not a surprise that SAG Afro would be in support because the actors, they generally are pretty |
| 0:36.8 | chummy with the writer's guild. Are you in SAG? I am not in SAG. I'm in British equity, |
| 0:41.6 | but not SAG. You're in British equity, not SAG. But if you like Google the 2007 strike, |
| 0:45.4 | you're going to find actors out there on the picket lines with us. You'll see, there's |
| 0:48.6 | the cast of Grey's Anatomy. There's Julie Llyway, drivers, there's Michelle Nichols, |
| 0:51.7 | who were from Star Trek in front of the gates of Paramount. I remember picking the next |
| 0:55.2 | two America Ferrara back in the day. So it's just a thing that happens. The actors are always |
| 0:59.8 | kind of there. And the SAG Afro, if I could have director was there with us in the room at the |
| 1:04.2 | starting negotiation. So SAG tends to be team writers. Meanwhile, the DGA and the WJ have |
| 1:10.1 | traditionally not had the closest relationship. Why is that? Well, I think some of that is the |
| 1:15.7 | inherent tension maybe between writers and directors. But some of that in my opinion would be |
| 1:20.7 | the way the AMPTP tends to play these two guilds against each other. Regardless, it was |
| 1:25.1 | really nice to see the DGA this week with the statement of support for the WJ in our negotiations. |
| 1:30.4 | Action speak louder than words, of course, but words are a great start. As writers we know that |
| 1:34.5 | words are a great start. And this year we saw the teamsters who represent all the drivers and |
... |
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