Don Cheadle joins WGA location shoot picketers -- DAY 71

Interestingly enough, other organizations you would support include the IA, DGA, and SAG. I've covered IA above. The DGA has only gone on strike once. It was almost 50 years ago, and it lasted five minutes. That leaves SAG. You are putting thousands out of work because you want to be able to show solidarity to one other orginzation. Pull that stipulation off the table and get to work on the real issues.

Oh a side note the filmmaker: To be a journalist, you are supposed to give fair and unbiased reports based on facts. (I know FOX News seems to think they are an exception, but that is the goal at least.)

Speaking of scabs, there is a lot of scabbing inside your own ranks. Unlike auto or steel workers, writers can still produce content in their own homes during strike times. Look at the flow of new material immediately after the 1988 strike. Why just yesterday, I was the Mullholland Drive Dog Park listening to one of your own members swapping script ideas on her cell phones. Let the hypocrisy flow freely among the membership of the WGA!

For health and pension benefits, we are required to work on IA shows. You tell me that having over 55 TV shows down hasn't put thousands out of work. As far as the indie world, the wages there are significantly lower than on IA shows with the exception of some commercial "over scale" deals. Yet, with no new content to air amidst re-runs, advertisers are not creating new content either. Therefore, you are drying the pool of work that is available. How naive.

"Please do your research, let go of your emotions, and get back to the table so we can all get back to work." Teamsters are allowed by their contract to respect other union's picket lines. Maybe Tom Short doesn't want to inconvenience the studios by having the unions operate in support of one another. As for getting back to the table and back to work, that's what we've been telling the AMPTP to do!

The IA is accustomed to the give and take of perennial negotiations. The "no strike" clause is generation old, and not a viable negotiating point, just as reality TV is in your bargaining. To think that Tom Short is responsible for this clause is inane. This "no strike" clause is the singular reason Local 300 Teamsters has never joined the IA. Please leave your realm of fiction and do some research before lighting your short fuse.

The IA traditionally has their contract negotiations tied up well before the bargaining deadline, much like the DGA did by settling 6 months ahead of schedule. There is much to be said for the DGA doing their research and coming prepared to their negotiations.

Whose financial windfall? Tom Short's" The studios'? The studios are losing hundreds of millions... much, much more than it would have cost them to agree to all the WGA proposals for the three years of this contract. Their goal is to break this union and then go after the next... in the name of greed.

The strike is not only hurting the studios, but a multitude of periphery businesses as well. Look at caterers, wardrobe dry cleaners, equipment rental houses, ect. Not to mention the declining US economy and housing market that the strike is doing anything but bolstering. Los Angeles County is projecting that it is losing millions a day in entertainment related expenses. Once again, you are very naive to believe your ramifications are isolated to the studios alone.

Forgot to mention one other tidbit of info. If you work in the industry, chances are you have been paid by Axium, one of the several payroll companies that pay on IA shows. Axium recently filed for bankruptcy as a result of the strike. Way to go WGA.