In a press release making the rounds today, IA President Thomas Short blasted the WGA for the current collapse of “negotiations.” While he has a point about the complete tactical misfire, committed by the WGA, of waiting too late to start talks, it remains myserious — or perhaps not — that Short seems to experience nary a ruffled hair when it comes to any role General Electric or Sony or Viacom, say, might have in torpedoing the current talks.
But as previously noted by BTL, this may not be too surprising, since the talks have yielded a territorial pissing match between the IA and WGA. The key paragraph of the IA Press release is this:
Likening the WGA leadership to “a huge clown car that’s only missing the hats and horns,” Short has been infuriated that among the WGA contract points has been the illegal and unethical poaching of IA members in reality television now covered by IATSE Editors Local 700, and animation writers, members of Local 839, who have been covered by the IA for over 50 years. Said Short, “Even if the AMPTP wanted to give the WGA jurisdiction of animation writers they couldn’t. It’s not theirs to give. Those are IATSE members who have been part of our International for over half a century.”
That’s the crux, from Short’s perspective. The question is, to what degree — if the Gordian knot of “streaming revenue” can at last be spliced — the WGA will let these particular turf wars dictate the length of the strike.
