“What happens here is important because what’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor by means of when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run.” – Fran Drescher, President, SAG/AFTRA.
I said this the other day, but this SAG/AFTRA & WGA strike is a real reflection of what has happened to organized labor in the US over the past 40 years. Now, Wall Street runs EVERY single corporation and, if the people who make those companies successful, i.e. the workers, pipe up and say, "Please sir, I want some more", then they are demonized as being ungrateful and lazy. Having been on a union negotiating committee in a past life, what is happening in LA has a familiar ring to it. Thanks for the update, TC!
Sadly, this is a continuation of what's been happening in the larger economy, with profits going to CEOs and shareholders. I hope the strikers can hold out long enough to have impact, but fear they can't because of the cost of living in the LA area. Now is a good time for folks to save on electricity and gas by avoiding the movie theaters and television and returning to the world of books and online places like this.
(A secondary positive effect might be a reduction in the insane showboating going on at C-span.)
Remember the train accident & the resulting issues that THEIR union caved on? As said above, "Big Business" appears to believe they can push the people on the bottom rungs to just keep on working & being grateful for the pittance they receive! How much clearer could it be?
The business monopolies - the lack of competition - for instance, the defense contractors are one example- there are so very many examples. Good for the WGA & SAG/AFTRA!
Shes right - its happening across ALL fields of labor!
The evil spirit of Ronald Reagan is still driving the greedy bastards. We need the spirit of TR to come back and kick billionaires arses til hell freezes over. That “greed is good” bull Schitt has taken over our country and the world.
Thanks - I haven't checked in with my friend (look on the back of "I Will Run Wild," where he compares the work to Herman Wouk and Samuel Eliot Morison - quite a combination). This puts it perfectly.
As soon as I heard that Iger was making a basic income of $27 million a year, I KNEW that anything the producers said in this strike would be total bullshit (and I was not disappointed).....
So, totally aside from the money (a big aside, I know) it seems to me that allowing one's avatar to be manipulated independent of their right of review and approval would allow for performances the actor would consider of such poor quality as to damage one's reputation and legacy, or that promote ideas or actions they find immoral.
Once they had the avatar, the actor's work would be over at that studio, since why would they need to pay him anything? And "word would get around," making him largely unemployable elsewhere. One day's pay is a couple thousand dollars - a cheap price for losing your livelihood. And yes, they could use it anyway they wished.
Edit isn't working properly. I mean to say that the expectation anyone should permit their image to be used to an unlimited extent in exchange for an hour's pay is obviously ridiculous: ... totally aside from the money (a big aside, I know)...
I saw and listened to Fran Drescher several times - excellent, direct, honest analysis of what is being done to the "peons" who have in fact created the scripts & performances, and all of the back-of-the-camera workers. Each of the demands by the striking unions strike me as more than reasonable but the bosses don't care that they wouldn't be where they are without now demanding a fair share of teh pie, instead planning to drop them overboard at the first opportunities and then resort to fakery in future 'productions'.
The proposal for forever-ownership by studios of digital images of actors, or their voices, is egregious! I heard this afternoon that one actor (have already forgotten his name despite being able to view him in my mind's eye!) has copyrighted or patented his image so that it cannot be used for any purpose without payment to him for that use. Too bad the Patent & Copyright Office take so long to approve applications - seems the optimum time .to have taken the same step.
As for 'starve them out until they're homeless', it sounds hyperbolic but I wouldn't be surprised if that isn't being considered by the studios behind closed doors. The non-compete contracts for writers clearly can have that result for too many writers, most of whom I would guess have needed to have side-gigs of some sort to survive.
very relevant article in the new online-only edition of The New Yorker. I rely on streaming for about 90% of my viewing. but in most cases, that seems to amount to supporting grotesque injustice.
and, having grown up about seven blocks from Fran Drescher (I'm a little older, but that only increases my admiration, since I know how much pressure the neighborhood puts on people to conform to Orthodox Judaism), I'm pleased to see she's become such a firebrand. Kew Gardens Hills 4ever! in a million years, I would never have predicted I'd ever say that...
PS--I had to remove a little bit of this post when I was told that there are people paid by studios to read things like, say, Substack just to find instances of the kind of thing I was citing and that the information was specific enough to get its source in big trouble. this only proves how creepy the "industry bosses" can be.
"Hollywood accounting" has always been bullshit. Back in the 1980s, James Garner took Universal to court for stealing "The Rockford Files" with their bullshit accounting. Something like 80% of what they submitted to prove their side was determined to be fraudulent, and the judgement for him was somewhere around $10 million if I recall correctly.
I can go you one better. my frequently-mentioned best friend) told me last year that a friend of his with a big part in the "Grease" movie (obviously a monster hit) asked the studio a question about some residuals she wasn't getting (this was during the pandemic) and was told that the movie "hasn't made back its investment."
the album I had three songs on, which came out in 1976, supposedly only sold 40,000 copies. yet, over the years, I've run into at least half a dozen people who said they LOVED the album. my songwriting partner (the guy in the avatar) did a few songwriting sessions for veterans a few years back and one of the tunes on that album, "Rosalie" (about a Vietnam vet) is apparently well-known to thousands of veterans, for whom it's a kind of anthem. so I KNOW that 40,000 copies is bullshit, pure and simple.
I said this the other day, but this SAG/AFTRA & WGA strike is a real reflection of what has happened to organized labor in the US over the past 40 years. Now, Wall Street runs EVERY single corporation and, if the people who make those companies successful, i.e. the workers, pipe up and say, "Please sir, I want some more", then they are demonized as being ungrateful and lazy. Having been on a union negotiating committee in a past life, what is happening in LA has a familiar ring to it. Thanks for the update, TC!
Sadly, this is a continuation of what's been happening in the larger economy, with profits going to CEOs and shareholders. I hope the strikers can hold out long enough to have impact, but fear they can't because of the cost of living in the LA area. Now is a good time for folks to save on electricity and gas by avoiding the movie theaters and television and returning to the world of books and online places like this.
(A secondary positive effect might be a reduction in the insane showboating going on at C-span.)
Remember the train accident & the resulting issues that THEIR union caved on? As said above, "Big Business" appears to believe they can push the people on the bottom rungs to just keep on working & being grateful for the pittance they receive! How much clearer could it be?
The business monopolies - the lack of competition - for instance, the defense contractors are one example- there are so very many examples. Good for the WGA & SAG/AFTRA!
Shes right - its happening across ALL fields of labor!
Solidarity Tom.👍
Well, that AI plan IS groundbreaking, comparable to breaking ground to get to a nuclear waste site.
You need to re-edit the bottom of the story. Good stuff. Who knew Fran Drescher would become a labor leader?
The evil spirit of Ronald Reagan is still driving the greedy bastards. We need the spirit of TR to come back and kick billionaires arses til hell freezes over. That “greed is good” bull Schitt has taken over our country and the world.
True dat.
Tom, Thanks for keeping those of us on the outside of the action feeling closer to what is happening on the other coast. Good luck and stick with it.
I thought you might like this. https://www.facebook.com/100000762374540/posts/pfbid0kBvG9J454U8rcVncWKSxkALJbDG8HL1xmbT3UqxQvDuFEAMNj39DWn4WSUhCULPFl/
Thanks - I haven't checked in with my friend (look on the back of "I Will Run Wild," where he compares the work to Herman Wouk and Samuel Eliot Morison - quite a combination). This puts it perfectly.
As soon as I heard that Iger was making a basic income of $27 million a year, I KNEW that anything the producers said in this strike would be total bullshit (and I was not disappointed).....
So, totally aside from the money (a big aside, I know) it seems to me that allowing one's avatar to be manipulated independent of their right of review and approval would allow for performances the actor would consider of such poor quality as to damage one's reputation and legacy, or that promote ideas or actions they find immoral.
Once they had the avatar, the actor's work would be over at that studio, since why would they need to pay him anything? And "word would get around," making him largely unemployable elsewhere. One day's pay is a couple thousand dollars - a cheap price for losing your livelihood. And yes, they could use it anyway they wished.
Edit isn't working properly. I mean to say that the expectation anyone should permit their image to be used to an unlimited extent in exchange for an hour's pay is obviously ridiculous: ... totally aside from the money (a big aside, I know)...
I saw and listened to Fran Drescher several times - excellent, direct, honest analysis of what is being done to the "peons" who have in fact created the scripts & performances, and all of the back-of-the-camera workers. Each of the demands by the striking unions strike me as more than reasonable but the bosses don't care that they wouldn't be where they are without now demanding a fair share of teh pie, instead planning to drop them overboard at the first opportunities and then resort to fakery in future 'productions'.
The proposal for forever-ownership by studios of digital images of actors, or their voices, is egregious! I heard this afternoon that one actor (have already forgotten his name despite being able to view him in my mind's eye!) has copyrighted or patented his image so that it cannot be used for any purpose without payment to him for that use. Too bad the Patent & Copyright Office take so long to approve applications - seems the optimum time .to have taken the same step.
As for 'starve them out until they're homeless', it sounds hyperbolic but I wouldn't be surprised if that isn't being considered by the studios behind closed doors. The non-compete contracts for writers clearly can have that result for too many writers, most of whom I would guess have needed to have side-gigs of some sort to survive.
very relevant article in the new online-only edition of The New Yorker. I rely on streaming for about 90% of my viewing. but in most cases, that seems to amount to supporting grotesque injustice.
and, having grown up about seven blocks from Fran Drescher (I'm a little older, but that only increases my admiration, since I know how much pressure the neighborhood puts on people to conform to Orthodox Judaism), I'm pleased to see she's become such a firebrand. Kew Gardens Hills 4ever! in a million years, I would never have predicted I'd ever say that...
PS--I had to remove a little bit of this post when I was told that there are people paid by studios to read things like, say, Substack just to find instances of the kind of thing I was citing and that the information was specific enough to get its source in big trouble. this only proves how creepy the "industry bosses" can be.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/notes-on-hollywood/orange-is-the-new-black-signalled-the-rot-inside-the-streaming-economy
"Hollywood accounting" has always been bullshit. Back in the 1980s, James Garner took Universal to court for stealing "The Rockford Files" with their bullshit accounting. Something like 80% of what they submitted to prove their side was determined to be fraudulent, and the judgement for him was somewhere around $10 million if I recall correctly.
I can go you one better. my frequently-mentioned best friend) told me last year that a friend of his with a big part in the "Grease" movie (obviously a monster hit) asked the studio a question about some residuals she wasn't getting (this was during the pandemic) and was told that the movie "hasn't made back its investment."
the album I had three songs on, which came out in 1976, supposedly only sold 40,000 copies. yet, over the years, I've run into at least half a dozen people who said they LOVED the album. my songwriting partner (the guy in the avatar) did a few songwriting sessions for veterans a few years back and one of the tunes on that album, "Rosalie" (about a Vietnam vet) is apparently well-known to thousands of veterans, for whom it's a kind of anthem. so I KNOW that 40,000 copies is bullshit, pure and simple.
yet another reason to HATE Clive Davis.
Where’s that Sally Field picture standing on the table?