Strike Scoop from Hank Steinberg

Here's an email which the writer Hank Steinberg sent to his fellow writers so they could understand the writers' side of the latest negotiations which hit a snag. The AMPTP's PR side has been touted widely, but the corporate-owned news media is less forthcoming with the writers side. So, knowing that blogs on different sites may reach different people, I'm going to distribute this on all my sites.

To my fellow writers,

I'm sure tonight's email from the Writer's Guild was a tad disheartening, particularly after expectations were raised this week that we would be close to making a deal and that the studios were prepared to make substantial concessions.

I spoke to a member of the Negotiating Committee tonight to get more enlightened myself as to what the hell happened: what was the disconnect between the rumors and expectations and the dismal results of this week?

The answer, apparently, is that this is precisely the studios' strategy: raise expectations through disinformation in the media and elsewhere, get us feeling comfortable, get us psychologically used to the idea that the strike will end, and then dash those hopes. This is essentially what they did on November 4th and they are trying to do it again. That is why they leaked the news to Nicky Fink on Monday that the deal was essentially done. If we go soft and get comfortable, the thinking goes, we'll end up accepting a shitty deal. Apparently, this strategy has worked for them in the past but we can't let it work now.

As long as we understand what they are doing and why they are doing it, we should not be disheartened. The studios' real mandate is to close this deal by mid to late December to get the TV season back on track in January and to save their pilot season. They have no urgency right at this moment to resolve this. Their coming back to the table now was part of a P.R. mislead and was actually meant to raise our hopes, then thwart them as a means of psychological warfare. To wear us down. They will, in fact, probably not negotiate for real until closer to their mid-December deadline and in the meantime will try to work on our collective resolve.

So although the idea of picketing for a couple of more weeks doesn't sound particularly glamorous to any of us, we're still in good shape to make a fair deal and we shouldn't allow their tactics to dampen our spirits or forget what it is we're striking over in the first place. They need to make a deal, they will make a deal, they just want to gauge us as much as they can. I thought it enormously helpful to understand where they are coming from and hope it will help you too.

The leadership understands that an informed constituency is a motivated constituency and members of the leadership and negotiating committee will be out on the picket lines on Monday to elucidate some of this and to answer questions, but no reason to churn and stew all weekend till then.

So rest up this weekend and don't despair.

And by all means, feel free to forward this email to any of our brethren.

We're all in this together!

Hank


For further information on Hank Steinberg, visit IMDB.com: http://www.pro.imdb.com/name/nm0825757/