Thoughts On The Writers Strike

The following is my views only, and is in no way related to those of my employer or company, or any websites I run:

Am I the only one who thinks the writers strike is ridiculous? My stance on unions is now pretty well known, but I still don’t see any merit here.

IF they felt they weren’t being paid enough, ok that’s fine.

IF they felt that their hours were too long, or too much was being demanded of them, ok fine.

IF they had a problem with working conditions, ok fine.

But those aren’t the issues. The issues is wanting to get paid residual income for DVDs, online sales, downloaded shows, etc.

To that, I say: Bullshit. You were paid a fee to write a show. That’s it. That’s your contract. Every show you write is expected to be good, so you shouldn’t be paid based on how well the show is.

If you feel you’re not getting enough money, don’t ask for residuals, ask for a raise. If you purely must have residuals, then you shouldn’t get a contract at all. You should be paid solely on how well your stuff sells. You shouldn’t have both.

To me, I compare the television writers to software engineers like myself. We write code for a living. Look at the typical Microsoft employee. He doesn’t get paid based on how well Vista sells. And it’s a good thing too, as they still have employees left over who worked on Microsoft Bob.

We’re paid to write code, and that’s it. Once we write it, it’s no longer ours. The television industry should still be the same way. Get over yourselves and get back to work.

February 3rd, 2008