‘We have to fight’ – News Block

too fabulous spoke with the veteran TV sitcom writer, producer and showrunner on the picket line at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City on Friday. Sánchez-Witzel, who was at the negotiating table with the Alianza de Productores de Cine y Televisión (AMPTP) for six weeks before the strike began in May, offered insight into the bargaining process, stressing that unions are simply asking for “fair treatment” and to be taken “seriously.”

He also referenced the now infamous comment from an anonymous studio executive, who told him Deadline the AMPTP plans to prolong the strike until the unionists begin to “lose their apartments and lose their houses.” While Sánchez-Witzel noted that he hopes there is “no truth” in the quote, he called the notion “despicable” and “a terrible thing to say.”

Meanwhile, the WGA member, whose credits include My name is Earl up here and the new Netflix series, Survival of the thickest — also explained to TooFab whether or not he thinks the strike will lead to more push towards independent studies.

Read on for TooFab’s Q&A with Sanchez-Witzel, and watch the full interview in the video above.

What is inspiring you to attack here today? What brings you here?

I am a member of the Bargaining Committee and I am a member of the WGA. And we’re at the end of Week 12 here, the WGA. SAG-AFTRA, I’m sure you’ve seen, who’s been with us since day 1, but now they’re on their own strike, they’re here at the end of their first week. And we all seek a fair deal. I mean, that’s what everyone’s here for. Our friends at SAG-AFTRA, friends at WGA, you know, black shirts, blue shirts. We’re all here just to get a fair deal. And so we’re in a lot of studios all over the city, as I’m sure you’ve seen us, and yes, it’s as simple as that. It feels a little crazy to be in Week 12 to say that all it takes to end this is a fair deal. Our entire agenda was less than 2% of the profits that these companies make just from what we do for them. So just from movies and TV, it’s very reasonable. I spent six weeks in the negotiation room with the AMPTP. It is very solvable, but here we are having to fight.

What’s it like to be on the negotiating team when big studio executives say they want to wait until writers starve and leave their homes before complying with any kind of demand? What is it like trying to be on the other side of that and fighting against it?

I think that message, we’re not sure exactly who it came from. Certainly if we were getting tired, it made us less tired all of a sudden. It’s a terrible thing to say, and if there’s any truth to it, I think it’s not only despicable, it’s illegal. I’d like to think that there’s no truth to that and that in good faith we had to try to make sure that this didn’t happen and that we didn’t have to lock down the city, I’d like to think that the AMPTP, the studios and the CEOs, that the only way we’re going to get back to work is if they come back to the table and take us seriously.

I was in the room when we said that we are happy to negotiate while we are on strike. So that would have been May 2. “Let’s keep meeting.” May 3, “Let’s keep meeting.” This is in the AMPTP that we are not at the negotiating table. I’d rather be there than loop my friends around Sony, but here we are.

The way the studios are handling this is getting a lot of attention from the public. Do you think this is going to create sort of a bigger boost to independent films and the general public that supports independent studios?

I don’t know. I mean, it’s too early to say, I think from a creative point of view, from an artistic point of view as a writer, when we write a movie or write a TV show, we’re thinking about the story and we’re thinking about the characters and how and where it’s distributed is not what drives an idea. So I think that certainly the studios could be affected by the fact that there could be companies that are willing to sign independent agreements with the unions and, again, pay us the fair deal that we’re all looking for, that actors and writers are now looking for. But it’s hard to say what will be affected.

I think what I know is that this isn’t over without more American movies and TV shows being made. Wherever it’s going to be, whatever platform it’s going to be served on, all these companies need us. Whether they want to act like they do or not. And that’s not to say there isn’t amazing international fare, I enjoy seeing that too. But this is what Los Angeles offers, this is what Hollywood offers. We are the creators of film and television, it is one of our great exports in the United States, and it is not going away. So they have to come back to the table and give us a fair deal no matter what, it doesn’t matter if there’s acceptance in indie, I think we could all benefit, but they still have to come back and give us a fair deal. That’s the only way this ends.

On May 1, the WGA publicly announced that both the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East had voted unanimously to strike.

The organization noted that they had been negotiating for six weeks with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony “under the umbrella of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).”

“While we negotiated with the intention of making a fair deal, and while your strike vote gave us the upper hand for some gains, studio responses to our proposals have been wholly inadequate given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the WGA sent in a message to its members, according to Deadline.

“Now we must exert as much influence as possible to obtain a fair contract by retaining our work.”

This marked the WGA’s first work stoppage since the 2007-08 strike, which lasted 100 days and had a major impact on that television season.

A little over two months later, SAG-AFTRA too, They went on strike, effectively shutting down Hollywood when they joined the WGA in protesting what they say is unfair pay and treatment. (For a breakdown of the issues, lawsuits and economics of the SAG-AFTRA strike, click here.)

This is the first time in 60 years the two unions have protested at the same time, with SAG and WGA fighting AMPTP.