By all accounts, the WGA meetings went very well yesterday.
The Guild Leadership changed their minds about lifting the Strike today, however, swayed by some prominent Writers (and United Hollywood admins) who felt that the Membership would feel better if they got to vote before the Strike was lifted.
As I said on UH yesterday, when this idea was floated out there, I agree with this in principle, but only if it seems the vote might be close. If the vote was going to be a slam dunk, I argued, then all the Guild would be doing is delaying people's misery by an extra two days, just so the Writers could have a nice little feel-good moment.
The Deal is going to pass overwhelmingly.
But the Writers still want their feel-good moment. So the rest of the town will suffer for an extra couple of days. But at least the pain will be blunted by the fact that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually sunshine, and not a train...
It should also be worth noting that not lifting the Strike until after a vote is technically a violation of the conditions of the Deal. Now, I don't expect a 48-hour vote (as opposed to a 10-day vote) to derail anything -- the Studios aren't THAT crazy -- but it's worth noting nonetheless.
Finally, before anyone goes out and makes some big celebratory purchases, it's important to understand that SAG's contract expiration still looms large on the horizon.
Most people feel secure that SAG will successfully pattern their deal off of the WGA deal, but their stance in this whole affair has grown increasingly militant. The industry is definitely going to want to take their pulse before greenlighting projects that extend past June 30.
Pessimism aside, the fact that the Writers have finally got their contract is great news for all of Hollywood and great news for the Writers. When all is said and done, the strike will have been 100 days, and they will have a contract that gives them the most important thing: jurisdiction over new media.
And it's going to pass the vote.
Whenever hope sprang up in the negotiations, my constant refrain was "cross your fingers, but don't hold your breath." Now it's time to hold your breath... we're almost done.
I would especially urge any non-writers who are critical of the deal (or the path to it) to stay silent for a couple of days. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Don't put anything out there that could potentially derail the Deal (and thereby continue the Strike) until after it is signed.
There will be plenty of time for a Strike post-mortem AFTER the Strike is over.
That should be right around Wednesday!
