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He knows what he wants.
-Don’t you, Rocco?
-Sure! What’s that?
Tell him, Rocco.
Well, l want.
. . .he wants more. Don’t you, Rocco?
That’s it! More.
— Bogart and EG Robinson in Key Largo

By Daniel Mallock, BookFolk

The current Hollywood Writer’s strike is an unfortunate mistake. Nobody is irreplaceable. Folks on the picket lines say, “Well, they need us… don’t they?” with a kind of quirky hesitation and fear in their voices hinting just a whit at self-doubt. Of course, the entertainment industry needs writers to create new shows, work edits, bring ideas - be the fountains of creativity that they are. But there are others out there, hungry writers who want a break without deep concern about “DVD profit streams” as a deal breaker on the road to fame and fortune.

Certainly writers should be better paid, so should cops, and teachers and
firefighters, and soldiers and helicopter jockeys and on-and-on-and-on. It
seems to me that the moneyed folk in Hollywood were at the table negotiating
willing to give some concessions, but not the concessions that the writers
wanted and not on the schedule that they wanted. Instead of 8% the moneyed folk offered 2.5%, etc. But the Union (I mean “Guild”), in all their wisdom, decided to throw the gauntlet down and walk away from the discussion. Why is this a reasonable decision? I do not think that it was.

Writing is very much about personal relationships and trust whereby the writer
is trusted by the client to deliver quality on-time and on-budget. A strike,
especially with nasty words and ugly press, and yelling strikers walking the line, cannot help but break this relationship of trust. I believe that film producers, and television executives will now do their utmost - if the strike is not quickly resolved - to circumvent the Guild and find others who will provide content and new shows, the creativity (good and bad) that makes American television the money machine that it is.

If this strike goes on for a lengthy time television executives will have every
incentive to go in other directions - the day of the independents will have come
and the Writers Guild will have gone the way of PATCO, remember them?

Staying at the negotiating table, lowering the rhetoric, removing the anger - these are the ways to make deals with moneyed folks. Why would the Union, I mean Guild, actively pursue this path whereby the executives and deal-makers have every reason not to work with the Guild again? If they can avoid it in future, they will.

Making a living as a writer is a special gift. That’s how I feel about it. Why alienate the client? What is the value in ruining the relationships by which writers are hired, and checks are cut? It makes little sense to me. Patience is the virtue here, not angry picket lines. There are many forms of entertainments for the people to enjoy, all kinds of bread-and-circus kinds of things. Network television is on a massive decline. If this strike continues for a lengthy time, the great unwashed will get all washed up, and head on out to the symphony, the park, local theater, local clubs, museums, etc., even… cable. Yep, if this strike goes on for too long, the gigs will dry up, the executives will not call nor answer calls, the checks will stop coming and independents will have their day. Not that that is necessarily a total negative.

Go back to the table, quickly. Save the Guild, and show the executives and entertainment consumer that writers are still the brilliant humble folks that make the world of culture go ’round.

We all want “more”. But most of us accept the truth of life that - in order to get it - we usually just have to wait.