WGA

Child Scabs Wanted!

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Strike fever is sweeping the nation the same time as child labor laws are being rescinded in Republican states. The actors’ union joined the writers in rejecting the studios’ bullshit deals, making the directors’ guild look like chumps for accepting one.

There’s still a week for UPS and the Teamsters to negotiate a fair deal and avoid a strike. But corporations haven’t been making smart long-term decisions, instead choosing to destroy their assets to goose short-term quarterly profits, so I’m not holding my breath.

My Dad’s a retired UPS driver, and the 1997 strike happened just as I was heading off to college. I’m sure that was a fun financial roller coaster for my parents, but the strike ended up securing his pension so he doesn’t have to greet shoppers at Walmart today.

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Zaslav TV

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David Zaslav has been rapidly turning what was once HBO into a low-rent content farm that makes Tubi’s offerings look like Masterpiece Theatre. Other studios and streaming platforms are pulling the same stunts to avoid paying residuals and axing entire shows for the tax write-offs. But Zaslav’s work at Warner Bros. Discovery really stands out for his unctuousness while doing it.

The Writers Guild is still on strike, and their modest demands to be paid slightly more would barely make a dent in the executive salaries of assholes like Zaslav.

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Scab Scripts

This entry was posted in comics and tagged artificial intelligence Joe Biden media movies Scabby the Rat strikes television unions WGA on by
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The Writers’ Guild of America declared a strike early Tuesday after the executive side of the entertainment business refused to negotiate their modest demands. A lot has changed since the last writers’ strike in 2007, especially how media is consumed and compensated.

Netflix’s red envelopes were the big new thing back then, and now they’re a relic young people think coexisted with BETAMAX. Yet pay, residuals, and benefits are still stuck in that ancient time before we had to manage a dozen or so streaming logins.

All of these studios are making profits, just not enough to satisfy Wall Street’s maw. So they’re screwing writers and nickel-and-diming their subscribers by canceling shows and memory-holing their back catalogs to save a few cents on residuals, all to squeeze out more dividends and stock buybacks.

Joe “Union Guy” Biden broke a rail strike so the economy wouldn’t take a hit. If this writers’ strike goes on long enough to harm the studios’ bottom lines, I’m sure he’ll find a way to intervene.

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