A Job Action On The Horizon?

From the pessimistic Dave Robb at Deadline:

Negotiations for a new WGA film and TV contract get underway Monday, and if the two sides fail to reach an agreement in a couple of weeks, expect a rush to get film scripts completed in anticipation of a strike come May 1, when the union’s current contract expires.

That’s what happened 10 years ago before the WGA launched a strike over new media that lasted 100 days. ...

How time flies.

I remember that Writers Guild strike from a decade back. Vividly. The Writers Guld battled not just the majors in the live-action realm, but the prime time animation shows Family Guy, The Simpsons and American Dad. Those series, all of which employed lots of TAG members, were also shuttered.

It was a tense three-plus months. Not only were board artists, designers, animation directors and checkers on the network nighttime shows forced out of work, but the WGA briefly demanded that no WGA writer work on Animation Guild shows the WGA didn't represent. When I found out, I screamed and yelled; the IATSE and Animation Guild threatened lawsuits.

Happily, the WGA recognized the error of its ways (or maybe its untenable legal position, since one labor organization can't prohibit members from working under another labor organization's jurisdiction) and rewrote its strike rules. And that issue went away.

However, the strike was a long one, and nobody knows what might happen this time. If the Writers Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers can work things out, that would be a good thing. If there is a strike, Animation Guild members working on WGA prime time shows should prepare for that possibility now.