Has the strike's end-game truly begun?
All signs point towards it.
Word today was that a little more than thirteen-hundred of us showed up at the picket-lines city-wide yesterday.
Not too shabby!
When I showed up at the Avon Gate this morning, the pickings were mighty slim -- there was no one there, just a handful of lonely picket signs leaning against the wall. I picked one up and picketed by my lonesome for a little while -- then spotted my partner walking over with a pair of "New Adventures of Old Christine" brethren.
That made four of us and we were soon joined by one or two more, including one of the regulars from "Smallville."
There was a lot of talk about the coming membership meeting on Saturday and the probable but still unknown details of the forthcoming deal.
Towards the very end of the morning shift we were visited by Larry WIlmore, a member of the Negotiating Committee who came to brief us on the state of negotiations and the forthcoming contract proposal.
He said that if the final draft of the language on paper accurately reflects what was agreed to in person between the CEOs and our side, then the leadership and negotiating committee would unhesitatingly endorse it.
He couldn't share details -- because of the "press blackout" -- but in a careful way he made it clear that the contract would include improvements on what the DGA got in their deal. I pressed him a little on my own most hated detail in the DGA deal -- the "free window" for internet streaming. He said I would be happy with what I would see, which I took to mean that at the very least the window will be shorter than the 17 day period in the DGA contract.
He asked us all to show up for the big meeting Saturday night, so the leadership can accurately gauge the feeling of the membership regarding the proposed contract, for and/or against.
The plan is to send it out via e-mail for us to peruse the moment it's done, probably not before Friday night or some time during the day on Saturday.
As anyone who's been reading this blog probably knows, I didn't want to go out on strike and I didn't vote to go out on strike -- although I didn't vote against it either. So the question of whether or not I will want to accept the new contract is really not too tough to answer.
If it's good enough for the people who took us out on strike to endorse, then it will be good enough for me.
BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING HE HAD TO SAY WAS THAT THE MORE OF US WHO SHOW UP TO KEEP THE PICKETING PRESSURE ON THIS WEEK, THE MORE LIKELY THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE OF THE DRAFTED CONTRACT WILL ACCURATELY REFLECT WHAT WAS ALREADY AGREED TO.
The AMPTP has a history of adjusting wording and inserting clauses which can then be read as severely adjusting the true meaning of deal-points.
If we all sit home for the rest of the week and the Security Guards outside all the studios only need a couple of fingers to count us up, then we are inviting the other side to do their best at trying to screw us one more time.
SO DON'T DO IT -- DON'T STAY HOME!
I know for many of us there will be the siren song calling us to put in some solid 16-hour days behind the keyboard, so we can catch up with our brothers and sisters who have been home for the past three months, working on their pilots -- the ones that managed to survive the "Force Majeure" shutdowns. The faster we can finish those up, the faster we can turn them in after returning to work and get started on casting and the rest of pre-production.
I know -- my partner and I have two pilots still that are both still alive. But we will be out at the picket line, putting in our three-hour shift, tomorrow -- and the day after that -- and the day after that.
Why, especially if the final wording of the contract -- whether having a bunch of us out on the line every day garners us a slightly better deal or not -- doesn't really matter to me personally?
Because it is the right thing to do.
Now, I'm not crazy. I will be trying to get my head back into those pilots and I will be reading and re-reading them and maybe doing more than that -- but only AFTER I get home from the picket line.
And remember: there is still the possibility the language of the contract the AMPTP presents us will contain too many "mischaracterizations" for our own leaders to even send it to us -- in which case it will simply be back to the picket lines come Monday.
Only one thing is truly certain:
My man John McCaine is now the undisputed FRONTRUNNER for the Republican Presidential nomination!
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