Thread by @jonrog1

As we head out to picket for Day 100, there are a lot of positive messages of solidarity out there, true, but for my little corner I want to remind you of two sentences:

"Rejected our proposal. Refused to counter."

There are a lot of punters out there proposing "their solve for the strike", and to a one they're like those tech bro buddies of Musk who lectured us on how Ukraine wasn't going to last a week.

When you see "the WGA is holding firm" on some term or another, that's not us rejecting some middle ground the companies are offering, and being the problem.

We''re holding firm on the radical idea that we want *more than nothing*.

Go back and look at where we left things.

Are we holding firm on minimum staffing for writer's rooms? Hell yeah, because we want MORE THAN NOTHING. Because that's what the companies offered - "Rejected our proposals. Refused to counter."

wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/w…

Are we holding firm on a guaranteed second step and weekly pay for screenwriters? Hell yeah, because what the companies offered NOTHING, and we reasonably want MORE THAN NOTHING. "Rejected our proposal. Refused to counter."

Are we holding firm on viewership based streaming residuals? Hell yes, because the companies offered us NOTHING, and we think what's fair is, insanely, "unreasonably" as we have been called, what's fair is MORE THEN NOTHING.

Rejected our proposal. Refused to counter.

Are we holding firm on minimums for FAST and AVOD, two of the fastest growing and most profitable distributions stream? Hell yes, because what we, incredibly, wildly, believe that's what's fair is MORE THAN NOTHING.

Rejected our proposal. Refused to counter.

Maybe I'm a little salty after 100 days on the line listening to the young writers talk about balancing side jobs with their "lavish Hollywood" screenweiting gigs.

Perhaps I'm a little tetchy after 100 days on the line hearing stories form showrunners, who should be at the peak of their careers, talking about breaking down in exhaustion because they aren't given the minumum staff needed to make a show.

Mayhaps a wee cranky trading stories with other movie screenwriters, trying to top each other with stories of how much free work producers and studios have squeezed out of us over the last decade.

I've certainly been shocked and horrified finding out about the conditions comedy and variety writers are dealing with, as they are openly being driven to day rates (it's in the counter! That's what their COUNTER was!)

Fix this in your minds. We are not the problem. We are not radical.

Will we get all those things? No, that's not how contracts negotiations work. Prepare to be disappointed and pissed off as we give up some things to get others.

But never, never forget that we are in Day 100 of this strike not because we turned our nose up at a reasonable offer, like a disappointed aristocrat.

It's because on points where we were ready to compromise, eager to negotiate -- THEY REFUSED TO COUNTER.

And anyone who frames it as a disagreement between two good faith negotiating partners should not only be ridiculed, but their opinion on anything else can confidently be discarded as value-less.

Now I'll see you there at gorgeous, sunny Gate 4 at the WB for Day 100 of trying to save TV and films and Comedy/Variety from fucking privateers who have no idea what they're destroying.

Remember: we won't get everything. But we're certainly as hell not unreasonable for wanting MORE THAN NOTHING.

Trust each other. Ignore anything in the industry owned press or leaked by access journalists and pundits.

An agent friend of mine said "They'll give you [X] when hell freezes over."

Well, then. Buy a parka.

/fin