You know... I hate the idea of rubbing a soft success in the WGA's face,
I think that the Strike Committee did what they sincerely felt they HAD to do. I think that most of them continue to believe that the deal they got wouldn't have happened without a strike.
I disagree.
The minor improvements on the DGA contract and the additional WGA-centric elements that WGA got were, I believe, available to the union through negotiating without a strike.
I don't agree with anyone who says that strike was "self-destructive." It certainly wasn't taken on lightly or without serious intent. However, I would agree that the strike cost a lot of WGA members real money and didn't come close to making up the difference with improvements to the ultimate deal. The timing was completely wrong-headed, in my opinion.
But the greatest cost of the WGA Strike is being paid by SAG, which has no chance to convert its issues - more serious than any other union - into a contract that isn't, unlike the WGA contract, significantly destructive to the union's future.
Was it WGA's responsibility to look out for SAG? No. Did going out on strike when WGA did and, ultimately, settling when they did, doom SAG in its pursuit of a deal that more seriously addressed the death of re-runs? Yes.
The great unanswerable question of The WGA Strike of ‘08/’09 is what would have happened had they not gone out on strike. Would there have been a lockout? Would AMPTP have allowed things to roll along until summer when two unions could have gone out at the same time, truly shutting down the industry for as long as it took for a fair deal to be struck?
What I believe is that the politics of a lockout are quite different than a strike. And as much power as AMPTP has to do the wrong thing – and they certainly have that, from the union perspective, as a primary goal – even the ultra-powerful can be hamstrung by the perception that they are 90+% on the wrong side of an argument. And I think that’s where a lockout would have left the AMPTP.
In history, I believe that this strike will not be remembered as a great event… nor will it be remembered as some tragedy (except by those individuals who lost millions by being force majeured out of deals). An eight month span between one union’s contract coming up and the next created a situation that was unlikely to have a happy ending for the second union in play.
WGA did okay… for itself… there wasn’t a better deal possible, in my opinion, without a multi-union strike. SAG, unfortunately, looks like it will come to a tragic end, with the pressure for a new deal sure to ramp up. The best they can hope for right now is to sign nothing… until WGA comes up again… and then, strike together.
But that will never happen.
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The letter WGA sent out to membership to explain why the strike was a triumph is after the jump.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/02/remember_the_wg_1.html