ACTIONS: WGA - Send Message to Peter Chernin & FDL - Tell Viacom/Comedy Central Execs to Make a Fair Deal

The WGA has created a TAKE ACTION page. Send a message to Peter Chernin (FOX's CEO) urging him to come back to the negotiating table.

"As a television fan, I urge you to return to the negotiating table with the Writers Guild of America to settle this strike. I want to see new episodes of my favorite programs and this is not possible without the writers."

And, FireDogLake.com has a new petition asking the executives of Viacom/Comedy Central to come back to the negotiating table.

"I want The Daily Show and the Colbert Report to return with the Emmy-winning writing staffs who have made these shows great.

Please go back and negotiate with the WGA to give the writers a fair share."

Click on and add your voice.

"Criminal Minds" Fan Actions Continue

It's a new year, but the Criminal Minds Fanatics site is as busy as ever.

Their petition to CBS chief Les Moonves has reached almost 600 signatures so far. The goal is to reach 1,000, have it printed and then sent to LA for hand delivery.

And congrats and thanks are in order for the third delivery of a check from "The Criminal Minds Assistance Fund" to aid the show's crew. A lot of the money has come from auctions. Two new items are scheduled to be auctioned every day next week.
Items are set to include CM collectibles as well as memorabilia from Studio 60 and The West Wing. Full info at http://criminalmindsfanatic.blogspot.com/.

Volunteer Opportunity - Christmas Dinner to the Homeless

(WGA Member Dana Greenblatt will be volunteering, and invites others to, as well. Here are the details.)

What: Union Station Foundation's Christmas Dinner-In-The-Park.
http://www.unionstationfoundation.org/christmas_in_the_park.html

Where: Central Park on the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Del Mar Boulevard in Pasadena
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&address=275+S.+Raymond+Avenue&city=Pasadena&state=CA&zipcode=91105

When: Tuesday, December 25
10:00-11:30AM Set-up
11:30AM-2:00PM Serve Food & Beverages
1:30PM-4:00PM Break-down and clean up (this is when they need the most volunteers)

How: When you arrive at Central Park, go directly to the Volunteer Registration table on the Raymond Avenue side of the park. The volunteers there will give you a nametag and assign you a task.

Parking: Street parking is available surrounding the park. The park is also on the Gold Line Metro.

More Info: 626-240-4550

The only drawback is that volunteers are assigned to positions as they check in, which means that not all WGA members will be volunteering together. Let's try to wear red WGAw t-shirts (the grey "On Strike" shirts seem inappropriate to the season, no?) or WGA baseball caps (for those of us who have them) so members can identify ourselves to one another.

UPDATE: FCC Continues to Push Media Consolidation - Act Now!

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems dead set on pushing through a wildly unpopular media consolidation policy that would allow media moguls to gobble up more local news, radio, and newspaper outlets. The American people aren't happy about it, and neither are many leading politicians.

How, you ask, is this directly related to the writer's strike against the giant media conglomerates? This policy would consolidate more power in the hands of few. There is already too much media consolidation, too much vertical integration, and too much abuse of power by the few who own these companies: Disney, Time Warner, Viacom, New Corp., GE, Sony...



To read posts and conversations from Sen. Kerry and Rep. Louise Slaughter regarding their disappointment with Martin's actions, check out:
http://freepress.net/actionnetwork/node/335

And to sign a petition urging your Senators and Representatives to ask Congress to stop media consolidation,
click here.

Emails Flood City Councilmembers -- Time to Do More!

Thank you for your overwhelming support in our email campaign earlier this week – councilmembers collectively received thousands of emails, and our work had a very real impact.

Now they know that people are engaged and paying attention, and we need to let them know our involvement is serious and ongoing. Although the special motion does not compel the AMPTP to come to the table, it becomes part of a “paper trail” that shows the AMPTP’s behavior, which will matter as we go up the political food chain (Congressional hearings, anyone?)

We're making a difference, and we need your help to keep it going.

Please send two emails – one to City Council President Eric Garcetti, and one (or more) to any of the listed Councilmembers below. Please send it today, before everyone is gone for the holidays.

CUT AND PASTE THIS EMAIL:

Dear Councilmember [choose from Eric Garcetti, Herb Wesson, Bill Rosendahl, Tom Labonge, Richard Alarcon, Janice Hahn, Wendy Greuel, Tony Cardenas, Greg Smith]:

I’m writing to express my gratitude to you for passing the special motion encouraging the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to return to the negotiating table with the Writers' Guild of America. I deeply appreciate your support and your recognition of the impact this strike and the AMPTP's refusal to negotiate is having on the City of Los Angeles and the State of California.

The AMPTP’s refusal to even attend the City Council meeting is very disturbing. It is unacceptable for the AMPTP to refuse to bargain when the strike is costing the economy $20 million a day, at a time when budget shortfalls and the mortgage crisis are already putting a strain on California’s economy.

To give the WGA everything it’s currently asking for would cost Sony $1.68 million a year; Paramount and CBS $4.66 million a year; Disney $6.25 million per year; Warner Brothers, $11.2 million per year; Fox $6.04 million per year; NBC/Universal $7.44 million per year; and MGM $320,000 per year.

The corporations are given tax breaks and huge incentives from California and Los Angeles, all of which are underwritten by taxpayers. The amounts they are being asked to pay yearly are small – Les Moonves guaranteed salary alone is twenty-one times what it would cost for his company, CBS, to settle the strike. For these corporations to put our economy in jeopardy just so they can avoid paying a fair wage is irresponsible and unfair.

All writers want is fair compensation for their work. I hope for your continued support to get the AMPTP to come back to the table, and negotiate a fair and just resolution to this strike.

Thank you,

[insert your name here]


EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR COUNCILMEMBERS:

LA City Council President Eric Garcetti -- councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org

Councilmember Herb Wesson --
councilmember.wesson@lacity.org

Councilmember Bill Rosendahl --
councilmember.rosendahl@lacity.org

Councilmember Tom Labonge --
councilmember.labonge@lacity.org

Councilmember Richard Alarcon --
mailto:--mcouncilmember.alarcon@lacity.org

Councilmember Janice Hahn --
councilmember.hahn@lacity.org

Councilmember Wendy Greuel --
councilmember.greuel@lacity.org

Councilmember Tony Cardenas --
councilmember.cardenas@lacity.org

Councilmember Greig Smith --
councilmember.smith@lacity.org

UPDATE: FCC Media Consolidation - Act Now!

From Free Press:

The Federal Communications Commission approved new rules that
will unleash a flood of media consolidation across America. The
new rules will further consolidate local media markets -- taking
away independent voices in cities already woefully short on
local news and investigative journalism.

Congress has the power to throw out these rules -- and if
100,000 people demand it, they'll have to listen. Click on the
link below to sign the open letter to Congress urging them to
stop the FCC and stand with the public interest.

http://action.freepress.net/campaign/sbmopenletter/

Please Remember to Email Councilmembers TODAY

A quick reminder that the Councilmembers are meeting in committee tomorrow -- send your emails today to tell them you support the WGA, and want the conglomerates to come back to the table and negotiate in good faith.

Go to the post for cut and paste emails and addresses to send them: http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/2007/12/call-to-action-email-los-angeles-city.html

And come with us to the meeting tomorrow morning --
7:30 am at Los Angeles City Hall Main Chambers (3rd Floor).
200 N. Spring Street Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Wear your strike t-shirts or red shirts -- come help us pack the room!

MoveOn.Org Petition - Bring Back "The Daily Show"

The political website moveon.org has started a petition to bring back "The Daily Show":

Why are The Daily Show, Colbert Report, and other TV shows in re-runs? TV studios are refusing to pay writers fairly--causing them to strike.

The studios will make over $120 million in ad revenue this year showing TV programs on the web. But they want to give writers a one-time payment of $250—that's right, $250—for unlimited use of their content online. This unbelievable greed is keeping Jon Stewart and his team off the air.

Can you sign this petition to the studio executives--and then ask all your friends who love "The Daily Show" to sign it too?

A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to the major studio executives.

New Mexico, Arizona, and Australia Show Solidarity

Pickets and rallies all over the states and the world are popping up in support of the writers' strike.

In New Mexico, on the College of Santa Fe campus, writers and supporters gathered.

Here's a link to the news video of the Phoenix picket of local Fox station sent to me by strike captain Teena Booth (who is on camera in the video).

Striking writers and supporters made this video of rallies and pickets in Australia.


We're all on the same page.

Workers Standing Up: FED EX

In our winner-take-all economy where the filthy-rich, get filthier and richer, and the workers get their paychecks and benefits squeezed and slashed - workers are standing up. And, more and more we're standing together.

The IBT (International Brotherhood of Teamsters) has reached out to the Fed Ex workers to help them unionize. Fed Ex labels their drivers "independent contractors" instead of "employees" so they can get around paying benefits, and make the drivers lease their own trucks (costing the workers $40,000). Click here for more information. And, here to sign a petition urging Fed Ex Ground to treat their drivers fairly.

UPDATE: The First Delivery of Pencils2MediaMoguls!

The first delivery of Pencils2MediaMoguls took place on Tuesday 12/11 in Burbank. Check out our photoset on Flickr. Full report from Jeffrey Berman:

We had a good crowd. The press was there. ABC, NBC, AP and several local radio stations including KFWB covered the event.

Ron Moore read a statement to the press, then we dumped the pencils into the delivery bins, which filled up very quickly. We then rolled them over to NBC followed by procession of folks chanting as we approached the gate. Ron told the guard we were here to deliver the pencils to Jeff Zucker and the guard turned us away. I used their company phone and called Zucker's office and asked his secretary if at the very least Mr. Zucker could come down and address us. She promptly hung up on me.

We then rolled the pencils over to Disney and asked for Bob Iger. The guard told us they weren't accepting deliveries at the main gate. So Ron asks which gate they would accept them, and the guard calmly responds, "We're not accepting deliveries at any gate."

At Universal they wouldn't even let me near the front gate. A policeman told me he had already spoken to the main office and they didn't want our delivery.

Pencils2mediaMoguls rolls out the first delivery

For the last few weeks, television fans have been buying pencils to send to the media moguls – the heads of the six companies that make up the AMPTP – to demonstrate their support for the writers of their favorite TV series. Over 500,000 pencils have been purchased. On Tuesday, December 11 at 11:30 the pencils will start being delivered. The staging ground for this event will be Johnny Carson Park, located at 400 Bob Hope Drive in Burbank, just across the street from NBC.

Writers slated to appear include: Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica), Joss Whedon (Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly), Alfred Gough (Smallville), Miles Millar (Smallville), and others to be announced.

Fans Reaching Out to Touch the AMPTP Where It Hurts

FireDogLake has launched a web site that makes it click-through-easy for a fan to email the studios behind their favorite shows.

Other sites joining FireDogLake in the campaign are Daily Kos (4,050,000 hits/week), Raw Story (2,833,500), Crooks and Liars (1,850,000), AlterNet (1,500,000), and Democratic Underground (1,500,000). Carried on all those sites, almost 12,000,000 visitors/week will have the opportunity to click and send a complaint to the studio of their favorite show.

A fan group called "Television Unplugged" has recently launched an advertiser boycott and guerilla commerical project. What's nice about this idea is that it encourages fans not only to stop doing something (buying products) but to DO something (make a video). We at United Hollywood don't all agree on boycotting practices, but we do agree that no boycott is effective if it's done silently. If you're not going to buy products, make some noise about it!

A group on LiveJournal called Consumers Support the WGA has been emailing companies every day of the strike to send the message that viewers and advertisers alike have a stake in seeing a fair settlement. Their goal is to tell advertisers "loud and clear they need to put pressure on the people they pay to sell their things - people refusing to pay others a fair wage. Or we as consumers may decide not to pay them by not buying their goods."

TV fans are angry about their favorite shows going into reruns or going off the air. Reading the fan sites, it's great to see how connected people are to their shows. They appreciate the importance of writers, and to show their displeasure, they have been emailing the networks and studios who produce their shows. They've heard that the AMPTP is prolonging the strike to hurt the writers and the whole entertainment community, and they aren't having it.

There have been rumors that major advertisers, hearing the concerns of viewers and livid over the conduct of the networks, have threatened to take all their commercials off the air if the strike isn't settled before Christmas. That's a serious threat, with serious consequences.

A Strike Captain's Opinion: AMPTP Strategy and the DGA

This is excerpted from the email that Warners strike captain Brian Hartt sent to other captains this week, with permission. Brian is an Emmy-nominated writer who coordinates all of the Warners picket teams, as well as being the showrunner on Mind of Mencia who helped get 4 West Coast and 2 East Coast shows on Comedy Central covered by the WGA contract . His tireless work and dedication are inspiring.

As I'm sure you all know, the AMPTP walked away from the table Friday.

You all should have, by now, gotten John Bowman's response to the "nice try" press release by the company's lap dog. Let me stress something that John mentioned - their press release came out minutes after they walked away.

Our negotiating committee has, from day one, talked about how they try to have actual conversations, but only get pre-written responses and sound bites back from the other side.

The point is: these aren't negotiations. They are plot points in a script the AMPTP wrote a long time ago.

A press release that needs to be approved by CEO's, lawyers and PR companies of six huge corporations does not magically appear before Nick Counter is in his car. Especially one with a pointed nod to reality, coinciding with our Fremantle rally yesterday.

One of the Union busting stages - as outlined in Tim Lea's great E Mail from a few days ago (which was a little long, but he got notes on that) - is to discredit our Chief Negotiator. So, they talked about how inexperienced David Young is in "Entertainment Negotiations" to make the rank and file lose faith in him and question his ability... bring to a boil, let simmer, add bullshit to taste and serve!

Divide and conquer.

Believe me, if they really thought David Young was so incompetent, they'd be singing his praises to the rooftops. Why are they going to all this trouble to try and get rid of him? To get writers to turn on him? It ain't because they're worried about us.

They have no logical or moral high ground, so they have to do THIS. And no matter how many ex-agents - who made their priveledged living off the sweat, creativity and hard work of writers - go on the Network's/Networks to spin the truth, they will still only have THIS.

So, we have to keep putting pressure on them and wait THIS out. And here's something many of us can do to help.

I know we have Guild to Guild contact about the "DGA situation" but, tomorrow I'll be calling a few directors I've worked with, to get them to personally call the DGA and tell them to hold off negotiations until we settle.

Could the AMPTP be trying to set us up publicly as being difficult, then go to the DGA and do a deal that does not address our main issues (that doesn't give up jurisdiction on the net) only to put pressure on us to make a bad deal? Could that be the reason they seem obsessed with making sure any agreement says we have to cross SAG's picket lines if they strike, or get fired?

Noooooooo.... but, call some DGA members. Just in case.

thank you,
brian

Call to Action: Show There's No Money in Union Busting

This is the first of what we hope will be a number of "calls to action."

As of last week, the AMPTP retained the powerhouse "crisis management" firm of Fabiani and Lehane (known in political circles as "the Masters of Disaster." )They also have "a reputation for hardball tactics in damage control and inflicting damage on opponents."

This firm has built a reputation and a substantial income largely from Democratic, progressive political causes. A short list of their past employers includes Al Gore, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore/Miramax (for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko), and my personal favorite, the Screen Actors Guild. Founding partner Chris Lehane is currently a consultant for the Californians for Fair Election Reform, a major Democratic group, among other things.

My DC lobbyist friends tell me that for emergency “crisis management,” firms like Fabiani & Lehane charge as much as $100,000 dollars a month. But the AMPTP is also paying Steve Schmidt, a veteran Republican-leaning PR guru. He could easily cost another $100,000 a month.

My concern is this: no one hires crisis management firms at such huge expense if they’re planning on making a fair deal. A fair deal doesn't require hundreds of thousands of dollars of spin to sell. A fair deal is its own good PR.

The WGA hasn’t hired a huge PR firm. We don’t want to “spin” anyone. United Hollywood is an all-volunteer blog, and our PR strategy is simple: we tell the truth.

The truth is, we’re fighting for the future for all working people in Hollywood.

The truth is, new media coverage and internet residuals are vital to the income of writers, directors and actors.

The truth is, the below-the-line unions rely on residuals to fund over half of their pension and health plans, and their rate is tied directly to ours. If we lose, their P&H will likely be decimated.

The truth is, if we don’t get coverage for new media productions, the below the line unions won’t get it either. If we lose, they lose.

This strike is a disaster for the working men and women of California, and many other regions that rely on the entertainment industry for jobs. We didn’t want this strike. And the AMPTP could stop it tomorrow because our proposals are affordable and reasonable.

But instead of making a fair deal with us, they hire Fabiani & Lehane. The proposal gets a snazzy new name, the CEO's take out new ads and tell everyone how great their proposal is. Except that then, they don't give it to us. Remember the second half of the proposal they said we'd have on Tuesday? We still haven’t gotten it. Hard to negotiate without the offer. And it's becoming clear they don't intend to give it to us -- one theory being that they're stalling, looking for an opportunity to walk out of the talks and blame the WGA leadership for it.

It's time for the CEO's to stop playing PR games and get a deal done.

When Fabiani & Lehane worked for SAG in 2002, Lehane said at the time:

“... we believe strongly in the need to preserve the strength of the union and this agreement does that. We both come from liberal, progressive backgrounds, and this union represents working people."

For the record, so does the WGA, which is why SAG is our ally. And yet, right now Chris Lehane is helping the conglomerates try to divide this union internally and orchestrate ways to get us to question our leadership.

In other words, Chris Lehane is union busting.

And since Lehane and his firm have made their fortune – and continue to make it – off of Democratic Party connections and progressive causes, I think the hypocrisy here is pretty appalling.

Below is the contact info for the three frontrunners for the Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton, who says she supports the writers in this strike, has worked extensively with Fabiani & Lehane. Barack Obama and John Edwards also support the strike, and they work with many of the organizations that Fabiani & Lehane rely on for their business.

Call these 3 candidates, and politely ask them to promise to hold Fabiani & Lehane accountable for what they are doing.

Tell Clinton, Edwards and Obama this:

"As long as Fabiani & Lehane are in the business of union-busting, we want your personal assurance that they will not be in the business of working with Democratic organizations, businesses, politicians or candidates.

A strike is not a business opportunity to make a profit by harming the interests of working men and women."

Hillary Clinton (213) 908-0190 socalhrc@hillaryclinton.com

John Edwards (919) 636-3131 info@johnedwards.com

Barack Obama (866) 675-2008

The AMPTP likes to say that this is all about business. Well, the business of hypocrisy shouldn’t pay.

CEO's: end the strike. Make a fair deal.

Pencils2MediaMoguls

Here's what's being done by fans for the WGA strike: "Now is the time to save ALL our shows. MAIL PENCILS pencils to the AMPTP and to any studios whose shows you enjoy...
Maybe we can help the studios see just how much support the WGA has. And maybe, just maybe, we can give them a graceful way out (not because they're buckling under the writers' demands, but because they care so much about their audience. Us. And isn't that supposed to be their job?"

-- Nikki Finke, 11/12/07

PLEASE NOTE: As of 12/31/07, the campaign is closed.
Total Pencils Sold: 650,026!
THANK YOU, FANS!

Okay, what is Pencils2MediaMoguls?
We’re asking people to use our site to buy pencils to send to the six media moguls who run the six corporate conglomerates.

Why pencils?
A lot of different fan sites were suggesting that people send pencils to networks and studios. United Hollywood and Strike Points met with some of the television showrunners, and together we decided to follow the fans’ lead.

Pencils have become the symbol of our cause: We are putting them down until we get a fair deal.

Symbolism, whatever. Let’s face it -- isn’t this kind of a waste of pencils?
We were worried about that too, so we found a vendor who makes environmentally sensitive product: California Republic Stationers. Their pencils are made from sustainably harvested wood, which means they don’t deforest.

We’ll also send the media moguls suggestions about where they can donate the pencils to non-profits that teach kids how to write. After all, the CEOs aren’t writers. It’s not like they can use them.

What happens to the money from the pencils?
Anything we have left over from our costs will go into the Union Solidarity Fund, which was created to help non-WGA members affected by the strike.

So who are these “media moguls”?
They are the six men who run the multi-media conglomerates, the companies that control almost everything you see on tv or in the movies. These individual CEOs have the power and influence to make a fair deal and end the strike, if they choose.

Leslie Moonves, President, CEO
CBS Corporation
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
www.cbscorporation.com

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO
General Electric (NBC/Universal)
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
www.nbcuni.com

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, CEO
News Corporation (Fox)
1211 Avenue of the Americas
8th floor
New York, NY 10036
www.newscorp.com

Jeffrey L. Bewkes, President, COO
Time Warner Inc. (Warner Brothers)
1 Time Warner Center
New York, NY 10019
www.timewarner.com

Robert Iger, President, CEO
Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521
corporate.disney.go.com

Sumner Redstone, Chairman
Viacom
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
www.viacom.com

Why can’t I just buy some pencils and mail them myself?
You can! We just wanted to take our fans' great idea and make it easier. We’re taking a leaf from the Jericho campaign in which fans contracted with one vendor who could pool all their purchases together. That way, instead of individual bags of nuts, fans sent truckloads of nuts to CBS.

We’ve contracted with a single vendor to buy all the pencils for the same reason. We can deliver all of them in bulk, a truckload at a time, so the impact will be (we hope) greater.

You can mail pencils yourself if you want to, but joining together seems to have a better chance of getting noticed. It’s worked in the past.

If you do decide to mail pencils yourself, just make sure they’re not sharpened. And please be polite. (We know how hard that is. Trust us.)

How come it’s a buck a box?
That price covers purchase and delivery of 12 pencils. (They’ll probably be packed by pallets instead of in individual boxes.)

And did we mention the “sustainably forested” thing?

All right, responsible pencils, I get it. But in the end, what are you trying to accomplish here?

We want the media moguls to start negotiating in good faith. We want the strike to end with a fair deal for both sides.

If we get a fair deal, it helps the actors, the directors, and the below-the-line crew members. Their deals are directly tied to ours.

Click to send a message to the moguls: It’s time to make a fair deal. We’re all on the same page.