I was reading up on the state of the Writer's Guild of America strike a couple of days ago and came across this article about The forgotten writers strike of '06 by Daniel J. Blau. In this article, Blau recounts the efforts of the WGA to grow their ranks by unionizing writers for so-called 'reality shows.' To summarize a long article (which is good reading, by the way,) the WGA wanted to grow their ranks and decided to start with the writers for America's Next Top Model. The writers for that show bit, went on strike, and some time later were fired from the show. At that point the WGA stopped supporting them, leaving the unemployed to pick up the pieces.
This is not a horribly unusual situation. The history of organized labor has highs and lows, just like anything. It's not that I think the WGA members are being unreasonable in their requests. I'd like to get a royalty check everytime the software I write was 'performed,' but that's generally not the way the software industry works. Of course, some software developers work for companies that issue stock options, which can be worth quite a bit to the developer if the company is successful (just as royalties can be worth a lot to a writer if the production house is successful,) so I guess it's comparable.
A few years ago (13 or 14 or so) I was working for a small software company that had some dissatisfied employees who thought the solution to their problems would be to unionize. They asked me if I'd sign up to request representation. I said I would not without knowing more about what they (the Communications Workers of America, aka the CWA) really had to offer. I succumbed to pressure and did sign one of their little cards, but not before vigorously crossing out their 'requesting representation' clause and writing my own 'requesting information' clause.
I was invited to a Q&A at the union hall one Friday night. Early the next week, the CWA was kind enough to forward a list of employees who were 'requesting representation' to my boss and the National Labor Relations Board (aka the NLRB). I was mightily peeved that they had done that, as were a few of my peers. They were willing to listen to what the CWA had to say, but did not feel they'd committed to unionization any more than I had. Fortunately, the employee list included copies of our signature cards, including my edits. At this point we were committed to a union vote scheduled by the NLRB, which the four of us in the peeved camp (the swing votes) defeated on the principle of the local CWA representatives being lying scumbags. Or something to that effect.
My point to this? I think unions can be forces for good. I also think there are a lot of bottom feeders serving as union officers. The larger the union, and the higher up the office, the more self serving the officer (very generally speaking, of course.) The CWA didn't really care about the employees of Clark Development Company; they just wanted to add more dues paying members to their ranks. The WGA didn't really care about the writers of reality shows; they were simply trying to strengthen their position by removing the option of reality programming should they strike in the future. This is good for their existing members, and potentially good for their future members, but until the non-members become members, they are nothing more than pawns in a huge chess game.
In the current WGA strike, it seems the interests of union members are the most important consideration of the union negotiators (as they should be.) I just wish that the union always did the right thing rather than the expedient thing (which winds up hurting someone.) Of course, the same can be said for everyone ... right?
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