CBS News Writers Authorize Union to Call A Strike

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: NYT/Reuters

By REUTERS
Published: November 19, 2007

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS News writers, producers and editors voted to authorize their labor union to call a strike after working without a contract for two years. About 81 percent of the nearly 300 CBS members of the Writers Guild of America voted to authorize the strike, the union said in a statement. The union represents 500 CBS employees in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C.

The Writers Guild is also involved in the most serious Hollywood labor confrontation in 20 years. TV and movie industry writers went on strike on November 5 after a deadlock with major studios over union demands for a bigger share of revenue from the Internet.

The union rejected CBS's last contract offer, which established a two-tier wage package, with one tier for TV and network radio workers and a second for local radio members. The contract for television and radio CBS News employees expired in April 2, 2005. The union said its employees have not had a pay raise since April 2004....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-cbsnews-union.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Go.

It is time for the unions to link arms and do what they were once so good at doing.

Personally, I would not be opposed to a one-week general strike being called.

[dantyrant]

2. Agreed...

That would wake people up from their seven year nap.

[L0oniX]

3. DIE CBS DIE

Cee Bull Shit

[aquart]

4. Oh. My. God.

Wait. Why is this in Arts and Entertainment?

[Audio_Al]

5. Gather ye writers of the blogosphere and independent news organizations.

My wife worked for CBS in the 1970s. She participated in one talent strike (American Federation of TV and Radio Artists). It did not last very long.

The unions have all been weakened over the years since then. We hope they find their way through these difficult times.

Get ready for obtaining your news through other sources. We'll get through this together.

Respectfully,

Audio Al

[Township75]

6. But if they go on strike, who will make up the news?

?

[allisonthegreat]

7. Might as well huh? n/t

[Trillo]

8. This is getting interesting.

Maybe the writers can get part of Moonves' contract.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/leslie-moonves

Sounds like he put on the pressure, Get me a hit, fast!

[countmyvote4real]

10. VERY interesting. News writers see mutual connection to fiction writers.

And a reminder to all writers: You can't make this shit up. Chaos theory and reality will beat you to the punch every time.

Does this mean that MSM "news" might be cancelled because there are no union writers available to rewrite it? Hello, hello.

[sofa king]

9. They'd probably have better luck just reporting the truth for a change.

How much writing do they actually have to do when the White House tells them what to say, anyway?

[rhino47]

11. K&R

It is about time unions start uniting.

[sentelle]

12. writers? journalists?

Maybe that is the problem. I thought that they hired Journalists to write the news, not writers. Maybe that's the difference between the News we used to get and the infotainment we get today?

Dammit, I want real news by real journos. I don't want fiction as news.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. Pulling the plug on the White House teletype?

[MilesColtrane]

14. Maybe now they'll just have Katie smile and stare silently at the camera...

...for 30 minutes every night.

Hell, the ratings will probably go UP.

[loser_user]

16. More Couric bashing ack

I don't like her but why does she get always get a bad rap? Nobody seems to mind that Brian Williams is real mouthpiece of the corporations, or that Charlie Gibson STOLE the jobs of two anchors, one injured in Iraq the other one pregnant.

But Couric appears on screen, and everyone all together now "LET'S BASH THE *****!"

[damntexdem]

15. Well, were it Faux News, ...

it would have to be fiction writers who called a strike.