What the Rest of Us Can Learn from the WGA Strike

photo credit: John Edwards 2008

You’ve probably heard that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has come to a close, and it seems the writers have won. The strike was the result of conflict between the writers and producers failing to reach an agreement to the terms of their contract. Specifically, the writers were asking for an increase in residuals from DVD sales, and also requested that they be granted residuals on new media (internet) as well. That seems fair enough, and the writers received overwhelming support from directors, actors, politicians, and the public.

For the most part, this strike affected television writers, although some film screenwriters probably found themselves out of work for a few months. But what about the rest of us? At first, it may not seem like the WGA strike affects freelance writers, novelists, and bloggers. Yet there’s a lot we can learn from the outcome of the WGA strike.

Self Worth and Willingness to Settle for More

What allowed the writers to go on strike was the knowledge that they deserved fair compensation for their work coupled with the realization that the AMPTP was trying to give them a bum deal. The writers understood that they could get more, they were worth more, and because they understood their worth, they were willing to hold out until they got it. If you write articles for $1, then you could probably learn a lot from the attitude that the WGA presents. The lesson here is to value yourself and your work accordingly.

Community Benefits

The reason the writers were able to organize effectively against the AMPTP was because they had an established community under the guild. This enabled them to collectively agree to strike. It’s a little more difficult for those of us who are providing writing and related services without the protection of a union. In fact, it’s almost impossible for us to band together and collectively rise up against low paying clients. But what we can do is know our value, research the market in which we work, and individually refuse to accept unfair or ridiculously low wages. This is not an easy thing to do, especially when you need to put food on the table. But writers do need to be discerning in deciding rates. If someone offers you $100 to edit an entire novel, ask yourself how many hours it will take, and then could you make more than $100 doing something else with those hours?

Loyalty to the Craft

Writers also must understand that taking low wages has a negative impact on the entire writing industry. If you’re a good writer, even a fair one, your articles are worth more than $1. Period. If you write fantastic articles for such a low rate, you’re not only selling yourself short, you’re driving down income potential for others. On the other hand, if you’re writing articles for $1 a pop, it’s likely that your work is less than fair. In this case, you’re only providing better writers an easy way to compete, and obvious proof that the client is going to get what they pay for. If you can’t get at least $10 for a short article, you might want to hit the want ads.

Quality Matters

Did anyone see Late Night with Conan O’Brien during the writer’s strike? He spent several episodes doing a whole lot of nothing. Why? Because he didn’t have a script! Why didn’t he have a script? Because the writers were on strike. Those episodes were horrendous not only because the quality of his show decreased dramatically, but also because Conan himself supported the writers, but his contract obligated him to continue producing his show. One of the reasons the strike was successful was that we all saw how huge the value of the writers’ work is. Shows that moved forward without writers (such as Conan) lost quality, other shows disappeared altogether. The lesson here: leave the writing to professionals.

Value

It’s estimated that during the strike, Los Angeles lost between $500 million and $2.1 billion. Just because the writers were on strike. That shows just how much value the writers have not only for the producers and studios, but for the economy in general. This goes back to knowing your self worth, but it also involves understanding that writing adds value. If you’re writing a web article, and it’s a good one, that article adds value to the web site it gets published on. If you’ve been hired to edit a manuscript, and that manuscript gets published, you’ve added value to the book. Many writers fail to realize that the services they provide increase the worth of a final product.

Writers Are Not Expendable

Actually, everyone is expendable. A writer can be replaced, and it’s not hard to find another writer. But will the new writer have the same level of skill and produce high quality work? How big will the learning curve be for that new writer to learn the nuances of the projects? Sure, you can replace anyone but it costs employers to do this. And, while one writer may be expendable, all writers are not. Our work is an integral part of culture and the economy. As workers, we do not hold positions that can simply be done away with. Our work matters, it increases the worth of product, and we have an enormous impact on culture — through film, television, literature, music, and more. Look around you. There is writing everywhere. On the back of the cereal box, on fliers stuffed in your mailbox, in the liner notes on your CDs. The image of the starving writer is tired and needs to be replaced with an image of a valuable professional who contributes as a productive and integral member of society.

Don’t you agree?

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