Friday, November 09, 2007

Writers' Guild Strike

Have you heard about the Writers' Guild strike? Maddi, 14, has something to say about this hot topic in the news. She explains the situation so well that I thought I would just pass it along in her words:

As most girls probably know, the Writers' Guild has gone on strike for better pay. The Guild is a labor union for the people who write the scripts for almost every TV show on the air. These writers are paid very little. There are a lot of misconceptions about unions and strikes. Certain corporate leaders will tell you that unions are Communist and anti-American, or that workers who join them or go on strike (going on strike means refusing to work until your demands are met) are lazy and greedy. As the daughter of two union supporters, I can tell you this is not true. Unions are sometimes rooted in socialism, but they are not communist. Unions are just groups of workers who band together to keep bosses from treating any member unfairly. And workers usually go on strike because they aren't paid enough or are made to work in unsafe conditions. With all this in mind, I make this plea to all New Moon readers: Try to either cut back on the time you spend watching TV, or better yet stop watching TV completely while the strike is going on. Kids and teens watch a lot of TV in general, and if we were to all cut back the TV corporations would lose a lot of money, and would negotiate more quickly with the Guild. You can still watch shows online and movies are fine, too. But as fellow writers, I ask you to show your solidarity and TURN IT OFF!

Thanks for sharing, Maddi!

Readers, what do you think? Have you been following the strike? Do you have something to say?

Your trusty guide, Bissy (Elizabeth!)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

u shouldn't strike against all channels, just the ones treating their employees poorly!

Anonymous said...

Oh no!!

Anonymous said...

Yay! Finally artists are standing up for themselves! Celebrates get payed way too much money for what they do, and the behind-the-scenes people hardly get recognized.

Anonymous said...

i don't think you need to completely boycott television! by the way, there is also a stagehand strike in New York. i feel like it hasnt been in te news as much, but its also a problem. my dad is a pit musician and if the strike doesnt end in the next week, his show is just going to close!

Anonymous said...

Actually, compared to writers of, say, books for girls aged 8-14 (the age group I write for) TV writers are paid a lot -- more for one or two episodes than most children's book writers make for a novel that may have taken them a year or more to wrte!

My publisher will get angry if I put my name, so I have to post this anonymously....I know this because *I* write books, my best friend writes TV shows.

Anonymous said...

I've heard a lot about the Strike, but not enough to get a full picture of what was going on. Thank you! I agree that we don't need to stop watching all channels, but less TV is usually a good thing and in this case we have a cause!

Anonymous said...

I heard about this on the radio, but all I heard was the "greedy and lazy" part, but it makes me feel better to hear the other side too.