Without getting too political, I'll agree that people should be paid fairly for their work. TV and film writers are some of the few I've heard of that get paid a royalty/residual for a work for hire. More power to 'em, but a lot of the bitterness in this strike stems from the feeling that the WGA made a bad deal the last time around and they've wanted to stick it to 'the man' ever since. I'm not a fan of the studio structure so I'm no friend to that side either, other than the fact that producers are the ones who ultimately put up the money (wherever it comes from) and provide the jobs. I'll always have respect for the man or woman who risks their own money to provide a job for me.
Luckily, the DGA (Director's Guild) made what seems to be a very fair deal with the producers that includes pay for new and future media delivery (and their contract doesn't even expire until June). That puts a bit more pressure on the writers to step up to the plate and negotiate in good faith (of course, the producers need to do the same). The reason they're talking again is in great part due to the fact that the writers have finally dropped their demand that reality and animation writers be forced into the union with any new contract (the WGA has been trying to organize both those genres for a while, with no success so far).
I have great hopes for this new round of negotiations, but this TV season is toast and the pilot season is in jeopardy as well. That means a lot of people won't be going back to work for a while, even if the strike were settled this week. By a lot, I mean thousands. New basses aside, I just want to keep my house and feed my kids...
