Top 10 Reasons Why The Worldwide Pants Deal is a Good Idea

United Hollywood gives us this from Howard A. Rodman, a member of the WGA Board and founder of the Guild’s independent film writers committee:

Top 10 Reasons Why The Worldwide Pants Deal is a Good Idea

10. The AMPTP says that we’re too crazy, too ideological, too amateurish to make a deal, and this lets us say, oh yeah?

9. The Networks That Are Not CBS will be hard put to justify to their advertisers and stockholders why they’re letting the competition have a real late-night show while they go forth with writerless efforts. (As The Canadian Press put it yesterday, “Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart all plan returns to late-night television over the next two weeks, but aside from their familiar faces, viewers may not recognize much.”)

8. And despite what some will say, that’s genuine pressure. Yes, the conglomerates have deep pockets. But they do have to answer to the folks who pay the bills.

7. Because it’s not just a plain vanilla interim deal: this is a deal we can use as a model, with cherries on top.

6. Cherries, in this case, meaning that the Letterman deal is the full MBA, complete with the New Media proposals we couldn’t get the other side to move on at the Big Table. This shows our proposals are affordable. And, perhaps best of all, Worldwide Pants is taking on the liability of our contract provisions, including not only the payment terms, but also the backstop of the fair market valuation test under the MBA.

5. Although this will be very hard on Leno, Conan, Kimmel and other late-night Guild writers, the wedge that it drives between the networks is deeper and sharper than the wedge it drives between writers. While the companies understand ROI, only we understand solidarity.

4. Go re-read number 10.

3. Like the waiver for the SAG awards, it lets people know that, when we are able to, we honor those who honor us.

2. Because in 1988, Letterman called management “money-grubbing scum.” Out loud. In public.

1. Worldwide Pants has a better logo than the AMPTP.

On a more serious note, though: we should all remember what writers gave up in 1960 so that all writers who came after them — meaning us — could have residuals. In order to make that deal, they gave up the rights to residuals for everything they had written prior to 1960. The sacrifice they made for the future is inspiring, and humbling in the best possible sense.

Ok, I really love what Howard had to say there at the end, and with the possible exception of number four, those are nine really good reasons why the WWP deal is good for Labor. But they are in the wrong order and Howard just skimmed the surface of number seven, which is the best one.

The reality of this situation is that this strike will likely continue for some time to come, but eventually it will have to be settled. Eventually the writers will be back to work with some kind of a deal. Everyone knows this. What this WWP deal does is to set the bar for all deals to come. If the Guilds stick together they will almost certainly get at least as good a deal from the AMPTP as the one that the writers just got from Worldwide Pants. The DGA goes in a week from Monday to begin negotiations with the AMPTP on their next contract. Do you think that they will settle for less than what the WGA just got from WWP? What about SAG? What about IATSE? This is will wind up fracturing the AMPTP as long as the Guilds maintain solidarity.

We are fighting for the future and we are all on the same page. Viva La Huelga!