The above photo was taken from one of the office buildings in Century City. The writers striking outside the Fox studios appears to be hundreds, possibly even thousands strong. Reuters has confirmed that 4,000 striking writers attended the rally. Want to know more about why the writers are striking? How this will effect you and the television shows & movies you watch? Check out this video which explains everything. Check out more photos after the jump.
Here are some funny signs from Asparagirl.
Mark Blackwell also has some great photos from the event on Flickr, check out a couple of his photos below.
Photo credits: Defamer, Perez, Flickr, BoxOfficePsychics,
November 9th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
I see Deputy Junior and Officer Dangle are getting involved as well.
November 9th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
I saw a wicked picture on Box Office Psychics that you linked to but didn’t include that had a woman with a sign saying ‘Hey Peter Chernin, what are you Earnin’ - totally think that encapsulates what this whole thing is about.
November 10th, 2007 at 1:19 am
I love seeing people standing up to corporations. Puts a smile on my face.
November 10th, 2007 at 8:00 am
I can’t wait for the sheeple (average Americans) to wake up and realize that there is no “right” to a wage in this country, and that you have to negotiate your salary with your employer, based upon your worth to them, and what they get from you.
If they don’t make enough writing crap for crappy shows, let them get a job at Burger King. Someone else will be happy to take their job. The good news is that they can’t write worse crap than the Guild is producing. When was the last time anyone saw a movie that didn’t end predictably? When was the last time a movie didn’t portray every “rich” person as greedy, or every government worker as repressive?
Maybe this will be good for America in the long term. Maybe without the daily tripe being beamed into people’s houses every night, maybe a few extra people will read a book. Maybe a family will talk to each other and interact for a change. Who knows?
November 10th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Fox had writers?
November 10th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Perhaps, Mr. Spooge, it will mean an increase in “reality TV” popularity. Isn’t that just what America needs? More “reality”? I think I’m going to be sick.
November 10th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Mr. Sponge, these writers has every right to refuse to work if they feel they aren’t being paid what their work is worth. Clearly what they do is worth something to the employers, because the employers are making a ton of money of their writings. And it’s hardly fair to say the Guild as a whole isn’t producing quality writing based on the fact that you think movie plots and characters are uninspired. There are a lot of writers in the Guild working on more than just movie scripts, and even those that do, their work is often changed by producers to be more cookie-cutter.
November 10th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Fans can end this strike by unifying. When we protest as individuals in comment forms and forums we become static. Join http://www.thefanunion.com for some ideas on unifying fan disagreement into a message that hollywood cannot ignore.
November 10th, 2007 at 9:57 am
well this is one strike that really will not affect me as I do not watch tv except for the news and sports ,However if they are not being paid right they have the option to strike and they did . wonder if they are glad they live in America so they can strike?
November 10th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
The funny thing, is all those writers are JUST for the FOX news shows.
November 10th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
I can’t wait for the Mr. Spooge to wake up and realize that a strike (refusal to work) is a means towards negotiating one’s salary with one’s employer, based upon your worth to them, and what they get from you.
November 10th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
so, nobody else can write? is everybody in the WGA? If the Office is put on reruns i’ll be pissed.
November 10th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
There is one fundamental piece of information missing from this whole picture… what is the average salary for a writer in the writers guild. The real question here is are the Union members being greedy or do the writers really need the extra money to cover periods of unemployment? Remember that skilled workers deserve $30,000-$80,000+.
There is also the issue of creative rights. If your under the employment of a company working on a project(say a TV sitcom script) and you create something valuable, then the company was the focalizer of that creativity and you are acting as an employee; thus your creativity should count as much as the creativity fo any other employee at any other company; your wage and hopefully a raise. Like wise only vice-versa, if you independently come up with a creative idea then you deserve rights to the revenue.
I suppose this issue really depends on if they need the extra money to account for periods of unemployment. I’ve read in a few places that the strike was a stupid one but its really not my place to judge(judge not least you be judged).
And in response to Mr. Spooge’s ill-thought comment. The writers of the WGA are not responsible for the crap you see and hear in todays media, its corporate executives trying to maximize profits. And they don’t use many scripts(obviously to cut down on the cost of writers and actors). From what it sounds like, they are standing up to the type of executive putting the reality TV crap on air. Those of the the type of soulless bastards that would steal a persons retirement pay and children’s college education money to make themselves richer. Don’t forget that aswell the US currency has fallen over %33 recently. I wish I was in a union.
November 10th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Apex, I think the real issue is that everyone else involved in the creative process gets residuals for their work. Writers deserve to get 8 cents per a DVD. And if you watch the videos linked in the story, you can easily see why they are worried about not getting any pay for Internet streams/purchases. The future of tv is likely on demand in some sort of internet capacity.
November 11th, 2007 at 10:45 am
lolpicard: You call holding a gun to someone’s head a negotiation? I call it extortion. Fire them all, and hire a few back at whatever wage they’re worth.
Apex Blue: skilled workers “deserve” $30,000-$80,000? Where in the Constitution is THAT written? Have you been to India or China? Can you find them on a map?
Most people don’t make $80,000/yr - especially in other countries.
When I work for someone, I don’t get a “residual” when they sell their product to a customer. Can you imagine everyone who wrote a line of code for Microsoft Word asking for $1 every time Microsoft sold a copy of Office?
The real world works as such: you work, they pay. You want to make more, you quit and go somewhere else.
IF there were no unions, they could pay more to the good writers, and less to the bad writers. They would have incentive to come up with something other than “Desperate Housewives” and “Men In Trees”.
I’d try to explain how Free Enterprise works to the rest, but you either already understand it, or were educated in Government schools and watch CNN.
November 11th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Mr. Spooge: They could fire them all. Welcome to negotiations. :D
November 11th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
CBS shouldn’t negotiate with any of the writers. they need new talent. also, if shows on NBC this past week were told to write into their shows the “go green” theme, why have writers at all? they’re being told what to write now. propaganda.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
All the other unions should support the WGA and shut down L.A. This is not just about writers. It’s about ALL working people in America. The time is right for the rebirth of the union movement and the end of corporate domination.