Getting all of your news from Cinema Blend these days? Of course you are! And you might be in good company soon, since TV news writers are considering joining their script-writing brethren and going on strike. The New York Times reports that the CBS news and television writers are expected to authorize a strike on Thursday, which could send them to join the picket lines with their fellow WGA East members, not to mention the Broadway stagehands elsewhere in the city.
Details on the CBS employees’ contract negotiations are scarce, though they’ve apparently been working under an expired contract since April 2005 (what the hell has taken them this long?!) The Times reported that the union refused a contract that would pay radio writers less than TV writers, and also hire non-union workers for jobs currently performed by union members.
It’s hard to pass any judgment on the meaning of this strike without knowing the details of the contract, but those details will probably come out the moment Katie Couric is left speechless. But wow, what a time for unions! I haven’t managed to stumble across any of the picket lines yet, but with three separate unions on strike, it might be impossible not too before too long. Obviously just the CBS news writers won’t cause a seismic shift in how people are getting their news, especially given that the CBS Evening News is in dead last place anyway. But there’s clearly a snowball effect happening here, and people are talking about unions way more than usual. Hopefully that will provide all of them with the leverage to get their voices heard and be able to get back to work, entertaining us and bringing us our news.
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Getting all of your news from Cinema Blend these days? Of course you are! And you might be in good company soon, since TV news writers are considering joining their script-writing brethren and going on strike. The New York Times reports that the CBS news and television writers are expected to authorize a strike on Thursday, which could send them to join the picket lines with their fellow WGA East members, not to mention the Broadway stagehands elsewhere in the city.
