Once, I lived with a woman who loved pop
culture. I too love to read Perez Hilton’s site because often it is a hot mess,
and that just makes everyone feel a little better. However, M was a pretty big
fan of entertainment TV, which is the only reason I find Joan Rivers relevant
at all. Rivers is famous for a variety of things from The Tonight Show to Fashion
Police. I’ve never watched the latter because I don’t care. However, Kelly
Osbourne, Giuliana Rancic, George Kotsiopoulos, and Melissa Rivers are all affiliated
with the show, and the show is in the news.
According to Sarah
Jaffe’s piece at In These Times,
the writers for the E! Network show claim their bosses ignore California
wage-and-hour laws have underpaid them by $1.5 million. The writers say their
strike will continue until Fashion Police
signs a Writers Guild of America contract, which would provide them with union
protections and industry-standard wages and benefits. So working for TV sucks, I
guess many people think that working on TV is awesome, but these are people
I’ve never understood. In reality, writers, particularly, work long hours and
are often pressured not to share information about their working conditions with the added pressure of having to be funny and talented all the time.
Like many TV writers and producers, Fashion Police writers can work 16-hour
days, however according to the complaint they filed with California’s Division
of Labor Standards Enforcement they aren’t paid overtime and often these hours
go uncompensated. The writers are employed by both E! and Rivers’ production
company (Rugby Productions). The Writers Guild of America (WGA) West President
Chris Keyser released a statement, “Throughout our history, prominent members
of the guild have stood up for their fellow writers to ensure they are treated
fairly and compensated properly…Unfortunately, this has not been the case with
Ms. Rivers.”
The WGA is backing the strikers and notified all
its members that under its Working Rule 8, everyone is prohibited from writing
for the show while the strike is underway. The new programming (reality TV and
“nonfiction” TV) has meant a shift in the working conditions for the writers
and producers. These shows appeal to execs because they are cheap and often non-union.
Scripted dramas are usually scripted and well compensated. Writers and
producers on these “nonfiction” programs call them “white-collar sweatshops.” However,
getting on a high rated show is a step in moving up the ladder even if the
conditions are shitty.
Because of this, some non-WGA writers might be
tempted to replace the strikers, but striker Eliza Skinner posted on her
blog:
“If you work the jobs when we’re on strike the company has no reason to fix the situation. If you are good enough to work the job now, you’ll be good enough in a month. By that time, the pay rate for the exact same job could be 6 times as much. If you don’t wait, it might never get there. In a competitive industry it can be hard to convince workers to stand together, and in relatively high-end positions that can seem like unattainable dream jobs, it can be difficult to convince workers to make demands of their employers. Reporting for AlterNet in 2011, I spoke to a freelance nonfiction TV producer who called her job “a labor of love” and explained that such love of the job can convince writers and producers to pus in extra hours—but those extra hours quickly become the norm.”
Of course in an economic climate where workers
are told they should be grateful to have any employment, jobs in the
entertainment industry can appear to be a luxury, but these shows are very
profitable. The strike is an escalation in the tactics the guild is pushing to
organize workers in this sector, as workers aim to improve their conditions.
Jaffe asserts their organizing successes can be a lesson for those who aim to
organized high-status, high-stress, high turnover white-collar jobs. Fingers
crossed, that the strikers win their dispute, and improve their working
conditions. . Eliza Skinner writes, “We’re fighting not just for our jobs, but
for future writers too. That is you, future writer.”
