Does this Mean Bloggers are Scabs?
Posted on November 5, 2007 - Filed Under Consumerism, Current Events, Writing/Editing |
In light of the Writer’s Guild strike, I thought I would check in to some facts pertaining to the failed negotiations, and wow, they are pretty technical. Everything I read sounded overly complicated, perhaps intentionally(?), so I couldn’t really get a grasp on what the writer’s want, other than just more money. Because who in the hell does not want more of that, monks excluded.
The Hot Blog really did a good job at summing up the particulars, but I had a few thoughts of my own, hence this whole blog thing I am attempting.
As an editor and writer in the publishing industry, I am used to my little salary that I fight (negotiate) tooth and nail for and then my per page charge when I work as a freelance editor and proofreader. So the passing comment made in a skit this past weekend on Saturday Night Live about writers receiving $200K, I remember thinking what I would be able to do with that salary. So maybe not all writers are raking in the dough, but I guess the point is what the head honchos are making compared to the writers, who without the writers, there would be nothing to make money off of, right? So, I get that, but am trying to apply it to my own situation. I work for a small company (200) that makes about $1.8 million per week, yet I am definitely below the six-figure line. Am I being taken advantage of, is this just the industry, or are the Writer’s Guild onto something here? I realize that unions are the reason people are able to negotiate such walkouts, but with most unions being relegated to groups like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (the union my family belongs to), where do us desk jockeys and worker bees fit in when being in a union isn’t even an option? Do workers inherently have a right to more money when a company begins to make more money, as with the sale of DVDs in the Writer’s Guild case?
Just some food for thought for a week of television reruns.
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