Congratulations to John Wells, New Prez of the WGAw

Despite smears and nasty attacks, John Wells is the new President of the WGA.

"I'm remarkably humbled by the membership returning me to the Presidency of the Guild. I look forward to working with the Board again and to working with David Young and his talented staff to meet the many challenges that lie ahead,”

This is good news for people who work in animation, because there is now somewhat less risk of a strike in 2011. Which means that the Motion Picture Industry pension and health funds stand less risk of taking another hit, and animation employees who would otherwise be laid off might not become collateral damage after all.

Why is this? Not because John Wells is a management "tool", or because he's less than a stalwart member of his guild, but because he's not a zealot.

And most of the Writers United group are zealots. They believe in the justness of their cause and the road on which people should be traveling to achieve that justice. From recent evidence, if you are somebody who believes in a somewhat different route to salvation, then you are misguided, impure, and ultimately "the enemy."

(This remind you at all of our current national discussion about the way the country should go?)

So I'm glad Mr. Wells got the nod from WGAw membership. He might still find it necessary to call for a strike two years hence, for the conglomerates are not pussycats, and there is a preponderance of Writers United adherents on the WGAw board of directors. And there will be plenty of internal pressure to march in that direction.

But there is now at least a chance that there will be no job action in 2011. If John Wells's opponent Mr. Davis had been elected, there would have been none.