Support the Fair Market Value Bill!

Last week, State Senator Sheila Kuehl introduced a bill in the California Senate that protects all entertainment union workers. Below, WGAw Secretary-Treasurer Elias Davis explains the bill and asks the members of all entertainment-industry unions to support it by sending an email to its sponsors in the California State Assembly.

Over the past few years a number of TV show creators have brought suit against major studios in cases where the studios have sold TV series to companies owned by the studios themselves. The reason for the suits is simple - because of self-dealing, these shows have been sold for far less money than they could have brought in had they been offered for sale on the open market.

We WGA members who wrote for the series M*A*S*H (let's call it MASH) are all too familiar with this practice. Many years ago the program, one of the most successful in the history of television, was sold by Fox TV to FX, a cable channel owned by Fox. Since writers receive cable residuals based on the re-use sales price, the MASH writers clearly paid a steep price for Fox's self dealing when the studio sold the show to FX.

Now something might actually be done to prevent such sales in the future. California Senate Bill 1765, introduced by SAG member Senator Sheila Kuehl, would prohibit these self-dealing sales.

Please support Senate Bill 1765, the Fair Market Value Bill. And here's one way you can do that - click here to automatically send emails to the authors of the bill thanking them for their support and for standing up for writers and other workers in the entertainment industry.

Thanks for helping the Teamsters and the WGA support this important legislation.

Elias Davis
WGAw Secretary-Treasurer