The writers strike: between the lines

Re “Hollywood writers strike as talks fail,” Nov. 5

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has been so arrogantly intransigent throughout the last four months of negotiations that the impasse was all but inevitable. As most of the writers I know are only too aware, the alliance chose to open the current round of contract talks by presenting Writers Guild of America negotiators with a set of draconian proposals that included, among other rollbacks, the virtual abolishment of the residual payment structure that allows writers to survive frequent bouts of unemployment.

Although the alliance did finally back away from its demand to dump residual payments, it has refused to even consider the guild’s own list of negotiating points. In the face of such counterproductive stonewalling, can you blame me if I choose to tell my side of the story from a picket line?

Vince Waldron

Eagle Rock

The writer is a member of the Writers Guild of America.

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It’s sad that movie studio shareholders don’t call for the resignation of alliance President Nick Counter, given his obstinate, hard-line tactics that prompted the strike. Clearly, studios and their stockholders lose the most from resisting an equitable distribution of profits. Counter’s name-calling of his adversaries recalls the old-fashioned studio practice of nickel-and-diming on issues that really matter while profligately wasting resources at the expense of stockholders and, of course, the viewing public. If Counter doesn’t step aside and substitute a clearheaded negotiating team to resolve the writers’ issues, stockholders should demand his prompt termination.

Thom Taylor

Los Angeles

The writer is the author of two books about writing in Hollywood.

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As a decades-long member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, one of the many creative film guilds whose contracts do not guarantee residuals, I have a real problem with the premise that work-for-hire employees of the Writers Guild think they automatically deserve residuals because of their job description. Residuals should be reserved for those who have proved their talent and should not be built into the union contract as a basic provision. This demand is especially galling to me because when the writers go on strike over residuals, all the other members of the film workforce who earn hourly wages suffer, both through lost work and budget squeezes resulting from increased compensation paid to actors and writers. The residuals they take for granted are not available to us when they put us out of work and jeopardize our livelihoods.

Gary Gegan

Culver City

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I see that writers for TV shows and films are on strike. With a barrage of mindless TV shows and graphically violent movies this season, I thought they already were. This could be the best thing that’s happened to the entertainment industry in years.

Herb Stark

Massapequa, N.Y.