This post is from playwright and screenwriter Keith Bunin, author of the plays “The Busy World is Hushed” and “The Credeaux Canvas.”
For the past week I’ve been on strike for the first time in my life. I’m a writer, so I usually spend all of my time all alone in my apartment in Brooklyn, hunched over my computer. But these days I get up in the morning and take a subway into Manhattan so I can stand on a picket line in the chilly November weather.
I hate that I’m on strike for a lot of reasons. First of all, writing isn’t just a job for me—it’s a huge part of my identity. The truth is, I’d write every day whether or not I got paid for it. I feel deeply fortunate that I’ve been able to support myself doing something I love. In that light, it’s hard to summon the necessary righteous ingratitude. As a general principle, however, I do believe that the writer of any creative work should receive a fair percentage of the profits from it. I’m better at advocating for my fellow writers than I am for myself.
The actual picketing isn’t so bad, even if the whole reason we’re there depresses me—I’ve gotten back in touch with friends I haven’t seen in a while, plus chatted with writers from Saturday Night Live and Conan O’Brien and the soaps. Sometimes it feels kind of like a mixer. One day Richard Belzer brought us all sandwiches, and a guy from AFTRA brought us coffee and donuts. The sense of camaraderie and community is just about the only mitigating factor in a situation that’s making me more and more unhappy.
Here’s what I hate the most: I hate that it’s union of middle-class writers striking against an organization of extremely wealthy executives. I hate that the first people it’ll harm are the support staff, the writers’ P.A.s, agents’ assistants, and the like who are living paycheck to paycheck. The idea of that immediately makes me want to lock representatives from both sides in a room together and not let them leave until they’ve hammered out an agreement.
I learned everything I know about civil disobedience as a student at Oakwood Friends School in upstate New York. We were taught about the passive resistance of the early Quakers. We had a thriving Amnesty International chapter. We took field trips to march on the White House. I’ve been trying to figure out how to apply the lessons of my Quaker education this past week.
What I learned most from the Quakers is a sense of justice and fairness tempered by kindness and forbearance, and that we should all strive to transcend our rancor and bitterness so that we can solve our disputes fairly and humanely. I’m hoping that by standing outside in the cold for a little while, we can bring everyone to the table so that we can all go back to work.
– By Keith Bunin
posted November 15, 2007 at 10:32 am
I do the show Blank Surfaces and it is in its 5th season and shot for the most part in and around West Hollywood. It is an entertainment video journal and highlights people from in front of and behind the cameras. One of the things I notice most about the news regarding the strike is how it hurts the industry and what damage the last strike caused with shorter seasons and so on. I wish to find a writer if interested that could explain in understandable words what this all means to the writers and why they are on strike. I remember the actors strike many years ago when Ed Asner was leading the SAG and all the great press about why the actors were on strike and how they were getting cheated out of funds because of the video sales and rentals. I would gladly relay any positive messages from the writers on my show to offer support to their cause. I can also get a camera person and host and co host of our show to the picket line on the weekend after Thanksgiving if any one is interested contact me.
posted November 15, 2007 at 2:36 pm
At the age of almost 79 years, I have never crossed a picket line in my life and never will. Good luck to all of you writers, and hopes are for a speedy resolution. If this strike means that we all see nothing on our TV’s but Reality Shows, so be it. Stay strong!!! Most of us out here in TV Viewing Land are supportive of you writers.
posted November 16, 2007 at 1:37 am
As one who’s working on being a full time, published writer, I feel your pain. My life’s not settled enough for me to just sit back and do as much writing as I’d like full time, but, I keep telling myself, one day, one day. Anyway, my thoughts, prayers and best wishes are with y’all. Keep on trucking, keep on keeping on!! THEY (and we ALL know who THEY are, CAN’T do without y’all FOREVER!!!) Sooner or later, terms will be reached, and back to the puters you will go.
Cindy
posted November 16, 2007 at 6:10 am
I’m so sorry you writers are going through this. Good luck to all. Where would we be without your creative genius.
posted March 16, 2009 at 8:55 pm
I hear you. I feel kinda guilty when I work on sweatshop film and television projects where I make 6 times what my assistant makes. All I need to work is 3-4 months out of the year and I am styling, while those who slave for me have to live in crappy little studios and live on their credit cards just hoping that I hire them on my next project. Sometimes my assistants are so confused by the economic power I have over them that they have sex with me in the hopes that this so-called intimacy will insure their employment on the next job, or that I’ll finally read their spec script and help support their writing careers. Sometimes I’m lonely and I’m fat and unattractive and weak, so I take advantage of the easy sex. For that I also feel guilty. There was a time when the writers assistants were allowed into the union… what happened to that? Why did we douche-out on the writers assistants. They work so hard for us for PEANUTS. I can’t believe they do it. It’s a thankless job, well, it is in on my shows. Maybe we should consider if we really do care about the underlings and the below the line people about bringing at least the writers assistants back into the union, and the script coordinators too, cause I they also send my fed-exs and give me sex in the hope of that I’ll read their spec script too. I do love being a writer for television and films, otherwise, I would never get laid. You should see what I look like naked.