Sometimes the rules and regulations we have to follow are inconvenient. Annoying, even. One of my recent posts was about the interim deal the WGA made with Letterman (and now UA), and how it ought to be ratified by the membership.

No doubt it would pass in the 90 percent zone (all the more reason to do the vote, I’d think), but sure…it involves printing ballots, mailing them, counting them…

…caring about the constitution…

…giving a shit what the membership actually thinks…

Annoying stuff like that.

One of my problems with our leadership is that they have a tendency to be a bit cavalier toward our constitution and our MBA. For instance, they pushed through a constitutional amendment to rearrange our relationship with the WGA East. Part of that deal was a requirement that the two guilds either decide upon common membership standards, or have an arbitrator do it for them. They did neither.

Even though we did vote on that one.

Similarly, I was there when Patric Verrone told a room full of hundreds of reality TV employees that if our organizational effort was successful, the WGA would waive their initiation fee entirely. Only problem with that is that our constitution says that the Board of Directors can only reduce the initiation fee to an amount no less than $500.

But hey, who cares, right? It’s just a bunch of silly rules.

Then there’s the strike rules, which, unlike the constitution, we are all meant to take VERY VERY SERIOUSLY.

There was that curious strike rule that forbade WGA members from writing theatrical animation…but that one quickly went by the roadside as the Guild realized it couldn’t really stop writers from working in areas another union already covers.

And now there’s the strange case of Jay Leno.

According to the New York Times, Patric Verrone apparently told Jay that he could write and perform his own monologue material.

“Jay said, ‘Let me get this clear: I’m allowed to write my monologue,’” said the writer, who asked not to be identified because he was a strike supporter and did not want publicly to challenge the guild’s version of events. “Verrone said, ‘Well, since you are taking one for the team, we won’t hassle you about that.’”

Couple of things about that. First, there’s a difference between speaking “unidentified” and “not publicly.” This writer’s charge couldn’t be more public. On the other hand, I understand his concern about being associated with public criticism of Verrone, Young or the WGA leadership. I can’t say it’s been a walk in the park for me, but whatever. I’m happy to be the jerk that uses his name.

Anyway, Verrone apparently gives the okay to Leno to write and perform the monologue, and then does a 180 and decides Jay can’t write and perform his monologue.

The problem is that our strike rule here seems to contradict our MBA (which is still in effect).

The relevant passage says that the following isn’t literary material (i.e. the stuff our contract covers).

material written by the person who delivers it on the air unless such person has written material for delivery by another person as well as by himself/herself on that particular program; provided that, unless elsewhere herein excluded, the following shall not be excluded: Such material written for any dramatic programs, and such material written for comedy-variety programs broadcast in prime time on a basis of once-a-week or less unless the material was completely written for another purpose prior to such person’s engagement.

Okay, let’s try and parse that.

This paragraph talks about excluding material (written monologue jokes) if it’s written and performed on air by the same person (Leno) unless Leno writes material for someone else to deliver on that particular program.

I’ve seen Leno’s show. It’s pretty much a one-man act. I’m going to presume that Leno only writes for himself…and doesn’t sit around scribbling quips for Kevin Eubanks.

What’s not excluded? Self-performed material in dramas (not The Tonight Show), comedy-variety programs broadcast in prime time (not The Tonight Show) on the basis of once-a-week or less (not The Tonight Show) or material written for another purpose (not The Tonight Show).

Frankly, the way the above provision is worded, it seems like it was created solely to exclude late night monologues from “written literary material covered by the WGA.”

So what’s going on here?

Let’s put aside Verrone’s alleged 180 and all that it implies. Let’s even put aside the madness of strike rules that reach beyond the governance of our contract and fundamental jurisdiction.

How does this help anything? How does fighting against Jay Leno and his decision to write his own jokes help get us a contract? How does letting it happen hurt us getting a contract?

It doesn’t do anything. Unless the lack of a Jay Leno monologue somehow convinces the DGA to not bargain early and, in fact, link arms with us and fight to the death for the deal terms we’re asking, picking a strange and likely losing battle with Leno makes no sense at all right now.

I think we should just leave the guy alone. He could have been on air since our strike began, but he stayed out. Didn’t have to. Did. And if he owned his own show, there’s no doubt he would have signed the same interim deal Dave signed. He doesn’t, he did the best he could, he’s not asking his writers to go fi-core and come back to the show, he’s just trying to exercise his right to write self-performed material as excluded by the WGA…and our leadership apparently feels the strong need to try and stop him.

Well, good luck with that.

Meanwhile, over in the East…things are getting truly bizarre.

In a stunning display of awful timing, miserable management and overall incompetence, not-soon-enough-to-be-retired WGAE Executive Director Mona Mangan has somehow managed to enrage her own employees so much…they’re now threatening to go on strike.

Yes, a labor union’s employees are going to strike against “management,” aka the labor union.

What the hell?

I remember sitting in a room with Mona a few years ago when the WGAw and WGAE were trying to negotiate a settlement to our constitutional dispute (note: that was back when people gave a damn about what was actually in that document), and Mona brought up the fact that the WGAw’s staff employees weren’t unionized, while the WGAE’s staff employees were. Apparently, she felt this was just another way that the WGAE was more of a “union” union than we were.

Heh. I guess she should have ran that one past her actual staff.

Apparently, Mona negotiated a contract with her staff’s union. They ratified the deal, but then Mona apparently decided to change some of the terms of the agreement after it was ratified, which is sort of like the seller trying to hike the price of an eBay item after the auction closes. Normally, I’d think there would be no way in hell this could be true, but it’s Mona. This is the woman who “closed” a deal with PBS, but took nearly three years to actually put it to a vote. This is the woman who has had her CBS newswriters working without a contract for years now.

Oh, but it gets worse.

Because she is apparently reneging, and because her staff’s union is rightly refusing to sign a new, lesser deal than the one she already agreed to, Mona decided to delay paying her staff their Christmas bonuses.

The word that comes to mind is “Jesus!”

Some great hero of labor she turns out to be, huh? It’s all pickets and the working man until she’s management…and then it turns out her people have to strike against her. What a joke…and what a terrible embarrassment to boot. For as much criticism as I aim at my union’s leadership, they are light years beyond Mona in terms of credibility, competence and general decency.

By the way…why the hell aren’t the CBS newswriters on strike???

They should have gone on strike the minute we did. They will never have more leverage than right now, while the rest of us are striking. All for one and one for all, as it were. They were handed a terrible offer years ago. Mona didn’t take it, but she couldn’t get them a better one either, so her plan was apparently to do…nothing.

No new contract. No raises for the newswriters. Nothing.

So when we struck, did she finally take them out?

No.

They’re still working without a contract while we refuse to work. And yeah, those news reports generate ratings for CBS while we’re trying to weaken them.

Thanks Mona. You’re a real peach. Retire early, wouldja?

Lastly, tomorrow is potentially the beginning of the end.

Of course, “the end” can mean different things.

The DGA will commence negotiating officially with the AMPTP tomorrow. I wish them (well, “us” too…I’m also in that union) all the luck in the world. I truly believe that they are negotiating for all of us.

May they achieve the deal that we could not.

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