The writers’ strike led to an impasse, with management walking out of the negotiations. The DGA stepped in and made a deal, a better one than they would have made without our efforts. That deal has unofficially been offered to the writers. End of story.
But, sadly, for many, it’s just the beginning. I’m getting deluged by emails, urging me to hold firm. The DGA set a decent template, they say, but it’s just the beginning. Now we need to make a deal that works for us.
I can’t tell you how deluded I think this is. At some point in any negotiation, you take the best possible deal. In this case, we have a convenient way of knowing what that deal is. The DGA got it. If it wasn’t the best possible deal before, it is now. And we helped set the preconditions that made it happen. That is a real accomplishment.
But the false bravado of those who are acting like now’s when we roll up our sleeves and really start to negotiate makes me cringe. It’s the battle cry of the impotent.
Jack Silbert, curator