January 19th, 2008 - by Richard Okelberry -

No more do Labor Unions have the image of protecting the common blue collar worker from terrible abuses by the "Man." Many years have passed since labor organizations seemed concerned with the simplest of human rights and work place safety. Now it seems as though there is only one major motivation for Union leaders: to squeeze as much cash out of employers as humanly possible. This is definitely the motivation behind the recent Writers Guild strike that has brought TV programming into the world of rerun.

I know that when we see workers walking around in the cold holding signs and chanting in solidarity we are all supposed, for some untold reason, to be filed with overwhelming sympathy. Well, guess what, I don't and I doubt very many others do either. Oh sure we hear about how this famous actor or that famous actress has refused to cross a picket line, but that is only because they are union socialists themselves and also fear the future wrath of these writers who would eventual write their parts into oblivion.

We all need to remember that this strike is being put on by a group of writers that suffer no dangers in the work place, no unreasonable health risks and makes an average of over $200,000 per year. What is driving this strike is nothing more than pure and simple greed! They want a bigger piece of the pie and will extort it out of producers if necessary. Incidentally, if this was most anything other than a labor dispute, it would be classified as extortion. Lets say I wrote the Writers guild and said that I was going to regularly write terrible articles about their organization, until they gave me some money of course. That would be extortion, plain and simple. I am threatening to damage them financially by making despairing remarks until I get paid. EXTORTION!

For those of you that think the "Producers" are being unfair to the writers, imagine this scenario. Let's say you have some cash lying around and instead of investing it, you decide to put it to work. So you by some property, draw up some plans for several new homes and hire some contractors. Unfortunately for you, half way through the build, the labors get together and decide they want more money. Not only do they want more money they want to each own a part of each of the homes. Tony over there wants the kitchen sink, Fred wants the dishwasher, etc… Each are also demanding that whenever that sink

or dishwasher is used by the new owners, they want to get paid again for the work they have already been paid for. Remember that the producers are they guys willing to take the financial risk of bringing a television product to market. The writers seem to want to enjoy the benefits without the risk. Perhaps when a new contract is finally settled on, it should include a clause that states if a new show fails to make money, the writers need to pay for the loss out of their own pockets.

I personally don't know why the producers don't simply fire every writer by canceling every show. Bring in new non-union talent and start over. There are literally thousands of smart young writers that have never gotten the chance they need to shine. I promise that a flood of fresh new ideas would hit the screen and even Saturday Night Live might be funny again. Also, I would like to see them make the new writers and actors work all year so that we don't all have to suffer through such long rerun seasons. Until then, I am happy with reality program, no-matter how unreal it is. For those of you missing your programming, cheer up. If we are lucky the strike will end up canceling the Oscars. Though, I doubt it. In Hollywood, there isn't a picket line large enough to hold back the ego of an actor or actress when an Oscar is involved.

While the Writers Guild continues to call producers "greedy," remember this: There are a lot of people involved in this industry from caterers to stylists to set construction that make nowhere near the average $200,000 that a writer makes. Each of these individuals are not only also out of work, but will receive nothing for their sacrifice. KaaaaaBam!

- Richard Okelberry, Managing Editor