Thread by @wgangelinab

Lately I’ve been frustrated at the lack of understanding on the part of Hollywood’s Professional Opinion Havers to adequately suss our strategy and tactics. I keep stopping myself from doing this thread because, as I will explain, it doesn’t really matter to our eventual success-

But we’re in a movement moment. Our labor struggle is highly visible and while our goal is a fair deal for writers, a positive side effect is modeling for others how a deeply democratic and activist union fights and (eventually) wins. So it’s helpful to that cause if -

The Pro Opiners bring a basic understanding of why we do what we do as they’re click clacking out their substacks.

First, you’ve gotta start from the understanding that the source of worker power in negotiations is a willingness & ability to collectively withhold labor. Often times negotiations start from a place of a natural overlap of what they’re willing to pay and what we’ll accept.

But other times, like this one, there’s no overlap. And eventually, it becomes clear you’re at an impasse. To make it stupid simple, an impasse looks like this:

How do you end an impasse? It’s a tug o war. Which ever side is more powerful eventually drags the other side’s circle into overlap:

This is all pretty obvious but I find it useful to lay it out in the simplest possible terms to really drive home how important the second piece of understanding is to analyzing a labor struggle:

In solidarity, workers are the most powerful. If we stick together, we win. Every time. You may disagree and that’s fine. You’re wrong. But what matters if you’re writing about this stuff is you understand that we believe it to be a fact, an immutable truth.

This means everything we do, every tactic, is in part, if not in total, about building and protecting our internal solidarity. The PR war, the tweets, the picketing, the rallies, inspiring allies to boo a filthy rich CEO at a commencement - it’s about US. How it makes US FEEL.

Yes, a knock on effect of a lot of this is inflicting financial pain and pressure on the studios - shutting down production, trashing their brand. Yes, that aids our tug o war team as we’re dragging them towards us. But it is NOT our primary source of power. It’s not how we win.

We win by sticking together. And sticking together requires constant emotional reinforcement. That’s the power of public support - it lifts our spirits. That’s the power of Zaslav getting humiliated by Gen Z Bostonians - it puts a fire in our bellies.

So anytime you see a thing that makes you go “lol the studios don’t care, writers are so silly if they think this matters.” Stop and think - how does this make writers feel? If the answer is - good, galvanized, seen, heard, supported, connected - THAT is why it matters.

The workers united will never be defeated. That’s the strategy. Staying united, as long as it takes. Assess our tactics accordingly.

PS, for my fellow writers: people keep asking if I have a sense of when we’ll get back to negotiating. Know we are all negotiating RIGHT NOW. Every time you hit the picket line, you’re negotiating. Every time you have a convo with a fellow union member that builds solidarity…

You’re negotiating. All of us, together, demonstrating our power daily - that’s negotiating. We are dragging them inch by inch towards us. Just cause you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Trust in our power. Keep showing up. Keep taking care of each other. #wgastrong