Over the years, I've gotten my share of gripes regarding company transgressions, along with questions about why TAG isn't doing more to stop them.
Occasionally the complaints descend into diatribes on the order of "You're weak!" ... "You suck!" when the the problem -- whatever it happens to be -- isn't solved. (It's at that point I start thinking, Why was I born? Why am I living?)
But then I read a piece in the local newspaper, and realize it's not such a big, empty universe after all, and I am not alone ...
Freelance writers send in jokes, hoping to hear them on TV. The pay? $75 to $100. It may violate the WGA's contract, but enforcement is tough ...
... [The WGA] says the practice violates its contract, [but] the guild has never made the issue a high priority, even as it has worked to organize unaffiliated reality show writers. That's in part because it receives few complaints from freelancers happy to get on the air, regardless of the low pay and the difficulty of policing what is a clandestine activity.
... [Lowell Peterson, exec director of the WGA, East] said he believed none of the New York-based shows employ freelance writers. When informed that The Times had spoken to writers who freelance for several, including "Late Show" and "SNL," he was taken aback. "Wow, that's disturbing," he said, vowing to "follow up on the matter."
"Any time someone has made an allegation, we've tried to investigate it," added Patric Verrone, president of the WGA, West, an ex-writer for Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show." "The problem we run up against is that the show denies it happens, and the writer who did it won't come forward to provide us with concrete evidence." ...
Patric? I know exactly the problem you are going through. Let's do lunch some time, okay? And we can wring our hands together.
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14 comments:
Oh cry me a river.
Elect Patric Verrone! - The Minuteman for Joke-writing Border Enforcement. Can't have any of those 'illegal' joke-tellers corrupting our domestic market.
It is a non-issue until you can demonstrate that the freelancers are costing staff writers their jobs. What is more important, enforcing rules or saving jobs? If the volume of usable incoming jokes never rises to the level of making staff redundant, who cares?
The moment the WGA begins to try to enforce this is the moment when you know for sure that the WGA is completely and finally irrelevant.
Sorry, Steve.
I guess all the Anonymous guys don't agree.
I love you, Floyd Norman.
This is different from what you've been describing concerning animators not coming forward. With this late night situation we're talking mostly about non-union joke writers looking to start their careers and low level stand-up comics selling jokes on the side. It isn't a case of union guys taking abuse and not coming forward.
By the way, what this story illustrates to me is a current failing in unions, who don't see it as their responsibility to help define the proper break-in path of newbies (and make sure that there are viable paths). The union members say the responsibility of the union is only to their current dues-paying members, and in my opinion that is short-sighted and wrong. And will continue to lead to non-union newbies undermining the union because they need to do whatever they can to try to break in. Until the unions take on a responsibility for people trying to break into the biz, I don't see how they can complain.
As big a union supporter as I am, I think this aspect of only being responsible to the current dues-paying members and not to the profession as a whole is a disgrace.
Hello, I would like to get paid for my talent.
Do you have experience?
No. How do I get experience?
Get hired.
How do I get hired?
Do you have experience?
When you do get hired from your persistence,talent, and that little bit of luck, first thank the single individual that stuck his or her neck out for you, then thank yourself. It's all based on a simple handshake and that's the beginning and end of it. Yesterdays freelancer is tomorrows director. That is the way it is, was, and will always be.
The union members say the responsibility of the union is only to their current dues-paying members, and in my opinion that is short-sighted and wrong.The Animation Guild has long operated the American Animation Institute, where for decades low-cost classes (including entry-level classes) have helped both veterans stay current and newbies gain the skills to break in.
100% of the training it took for me to break into the industry was supplied by the AAI in evening classes, where I learned the craft next to helpful union members.
"By the way, what this story illustrates to me is a current failing in unions, who don't see it as their responsibility to help define the proper break-in path of newbies (and make sure that there are viable paths). The union members say the responsibility of the union is only to their current dues-paying members, and in my opinion that is short-sighted and wrong. And will continue to lead to non-union newbies undermining the union because they need to do whatever they can to try to break in. "
You DO understand what a "union" is, right? That is exists solely for its MEMBERS?
Even so, our union has got to be without question the most liberal in terms of gaining employment(and thereby union membership) of ALL craft unions in Hollywood. By FAR.
As has been pointed out, few if any offer low-cost classes/training to non-membership-in lean times as well as fat ones.
No others take union dues in their coffers and have an annual holiday bash to which they invite literally anyone who's interested, members or not. Only 839.
What else would you have them do for you? If anyone thinks that the existence of or any actions by 839 are keeping ANYONE from getting a job at a union signatory studio, well, guess what?
That studio is simply telling you that because for whatever reason they aren't interested in hiring you.
It likely will have nothing to do with your talent, or it might have everything to do with it.
But yes, you must be offered a job before you can join if you're not already a member. Getting the job is up to you, because once you are a member the union for all intents and purposes isn't involved in enforcing seniority, keeping our membership artificially low, requiring various tests/banks of hours to become a real member, or keeping you at your job.
So take it up with THEM, the studios you want to hire you, don't whine to us, the union members. We were ALL non-members once.
So anyway, what else would you like we, the membership do for you to find you your first job? Apart from our classes and the networking opportunity/Xmas open party?
Sorry I didn't make it clear that I wasn't pointing my comments specifically to TAG. The LA Times article was about writers. It sounds like there are some good programs for animators.
My point is this. The reason unions are needed in my opinion is to use the collective power in bargaining to make sure working and pay conditions are the best they can be given that the companies are behemoths.
But when we're talking about unions that are the de facto unions for a given trade then part of the union responsibility in my opinion should extend beyond the actual members to the profession itself (which includes newbies trying to break in). You can talk semantic definitions of unions all you want, but once you do exclusionary things to non-members then you are part of the problem in my opinion.
It seems like we are in agreement that "may the best person win" for any given job. But too often unions actually do things which are exclusionary to non-members. SAG for example actually charges $500 for every newbie actor a producer wants to hire. (They may waive it, but that's in the contract.)
Look, I'm well beyond the newbie stage at this point, but I still remember it and I happen to have briefly freelanced in late night joke writing and it was a great starter credit for me. So when the WGA thinks the solution is to just cut those freelancers off without recognizing that there was an important benefit to the freelancers, then that's where I disagree with them.
Yes, make sure that people aren't being taken advantage of with it (and that it isn't being used in the place of staff writers), but it should also be in the union's responsibility to make sure that some kind of starter paths exist for people. That's important too.
And yes it is a union issue and not just a company issue. The company bought my jokes. Sure, they took advantage of me for $75 a pop, but the jokes were worthy of their show, and to do this briefly was well worth it for my now being able to say that I sold jokes to a famous late night show.
I can't believe anyone still puts any faith or merit in 'unions.' You might as well sacrifice virgins at stonehenge in order to ensure a bountiful crop season.
Virgins are overrated, as anyone who lives outside their mother's basement knows.
I'll bet dollars to donuts that the last poster is a died-in-the-wool corporate man, grateful for whatever the boss feels like throwing his way.
GAAAAAAAAAH! Make it stop!!!!!!!
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