The Writers Guild of America doesnt want to strike, but it will if it has to.
I want to be very clear, he says in the video posted the WGA website Tuesday.
A strike is not a guaranteed outcome for this years negotiation.
Raphael Bob-WaksbergWGA.com
And we do not want one.
What we want is to be paid fairly for creating a product that earns massive profits for the companies.
And we want protections that allow us to build a stable career and a stable life.
The better question to ask is: What does it cost us when we dont?
What youre able to win is directly tied to how much leverage you have.
Strikes got us our residuals.
Strikes got us our pension and health funds.
See the full videohere.
In 2007, he said, the studios were putting our work online.
They were streaming full episodes of television, with ads.
They were selling episodes and movies on iTunes.
They were profiting off our work on the Internet.
The position of our union at the time was, You should pay us for that.
And the position of the studios was, No.
Now give a shot to imagine where wed be if we had just accepted that No.
Imagine if every one of these were made without WGA coverage.
Half of all employment for current series writers is in streaming.
Entire writing careers, the vast majority of my career, and I bet a good chunk of yours.
Imagine if none of it was automatically protected under a guild contract.
Imagine all of that work done without WGA-guaranteed minimums, residuals or contributions to our pension and health fund.
Residuals from made-for-streaming projects, as a category, is the single fastest growing kind the guild collects.
But before the strike, the studios were offering zero.
Writers stopped working for a little over three months and secured a future for writers like me.
In that action, we showed our strength.
And ten years later, we did it again.
This was not a hypothetical worst-case scenario.
This was their best and final offer as the contract deadline approached.
So how did we stop them?
Through sound, moral reasoning and appeals to their better angels?
We stopped them by reminding them of our power.
