Lessons From 1988

This was submitted by WGA member Robert Eisele, who was present for both the strike in 1985 and the longer strike of 1988.

"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it."
-- George Santayana, 1905

In 1988, writers endured a strike of nearly six months. In 2008, we are now approaching the halfway point of the length of that strike.

Although most Guild members in ’88 stood strong and united, the memory of our three week strike in ‘85 haunted us -- because in the '85 strike, largely because of a divisive group of anti-unionists in our midst called “the Union Blues,” we gave up, capitulating to what has become the hated VHS/DVD residual.

Those of us who walked the picket line in ’88 don’t remember disunity or weakness. We held our ranks. We didn’t win that strike, but we didn’t lose it either. We upped the foreign residual and stopped rollbacks during an era of union-busting and Reaganomics.

The Contract Adjustment Committee (C.A.C.) was a result of that strike. 88’s lengthy work stoppage traumatized the industry, and both sides wanted to find a better way. The Contract Adjustment Committee was convened with the intention of regular meetings and negotiations between management and the Guild, so strikes could be avoided.

Unfortunately, the C.A.C. was used by the studios to lull us into a torpor that slowly whittled away at our resolve and our MBA. The AMPTP, enticing us with the canard of “partnership,” found a way to screw us without giving us a kiss. That era ended only recently. And a new unity and strength was forged.

I think it’s a mistake to look back at the ’88 strike as a loss, however, or a capitulation. Good and courageous writers sacrificed a great deal in that strike. The demon in our history is the ’85 strike, where writers who may have meant well took actions that weakened all of us -- and harmed writers for decades to come. And the Contract Adjustment Committee that resulted from the ’88 strike, a child of hope and weariness, unfortunately didn’t work, and even diminished our stature.

So what lessons can we learn from this history to guide us in ’08? The obvious lesson is to stand strong and united. But the most important lesson can only be learned in the answer to this question: What do we want the legacy of this strike to be?

Our negotiating committee is working behind the veil of a media black-out for our greater interests. We are walking picket lines in the rain. The trade papers haunt us with apocryphal reports of a fi-core retreat. There is hope and anxiety because the future is still uncertain. This is the moment when we need to remember the words of our old pal, Shakespeare: “Adversity is ugly but wears a precious stone.”

What could make this adversity worth it? How about a contract that brings economic justice to our membership? Or a legacy of strength, not to intimidate our employers, but to insure and institutionalize a mutual respect?

We don’t need management to love our leadership, just to negotiate with us in good faith. Then, perhaps together, we can find a better way to deal with one another, perhaps even a real partnership, so that in three years we aren’t faced with economic war.

That would be a "precious stone" worth having.

Norman Mailer once said: “...it was more important to be a man than a very good writer, and that probably I could not become a very good writer unless I learned first how to keep my nerve."

We all have to keep our nerve, if we want the legacy of this strike to be something we can all look back on and say: "it was worth it."