I’ll bet I’m not the only writer out there who would gladly be a scab. First, let me say I support old union ideals but I think modern unions have become disconnected from the reality of everyday working life. I mean it's not like the striking writers are picketing to get safer working conditions or health insurance. As I understand it—and please correct me if I’m wrong because I have yet to see a formal list of writer’s demands—the writers are striking because they want a bigger piece of the action in terms of royalties from the web and other kinds of media distribution. But wait. Don’t they get a salary? Probably a pretty nice salary--with benefits even. Doesn’t that make them just work for hire like many of us writers who freelance writing corporate video scripts, ad copy, and other commercial writing? Believe me, lots of us toiling out here in the very unglamorous commercial field would be thrilled to work in a more creative environment writing for television shows.
Think what might happen if scab writers took over and came up with fresh new ideas to replace the stale gack that’s on TV now. And here’s the really dirty little secret. For real writers, writing is more an addiction than an avocation. We have to do it. And hell, many of us would do it for free just to be able to do it. In fact, we already do it. It’s called blogging. So watch your greed there Writer’s Guild folks because there are lots of us out here that can write just as well or better than you do. We’re scratching out a living freelancing just to be able to do what we love: write. We have no steady income. We have no benefits. And we get no royalties for the TV commercials we write for local car dealers; for the clever ads convincing people to buy things they don’t need; for magazine articles. We’re out here. We’re waiting. We’d love to have the job you have right now.
So, please keep walking around with your picket signs because maybe if you do it long enough and Hollywood gets desperate enough, some of us might get a chance to take over the job that you find so unfair. Note to Hollywood: There are thousands of outstanding screenplays out there sitting in drawers, moldering on hard drives, screenplays written by unknown writers who aren’t in the union clique. Open the transom and see what you get.