On Friday night, I went in to WGA headquarters to help load up vans for the coming week.
Part of my motivation was banking hours; loading vans is a four-hour shift, and actually counts as two normal shifts. But my larger goal was to learn more about the infrastructure behind the strike.
Ever since picketing began last month, I’ve been curious where everything comes from, and how all the systems operate.1 After all, the WGA doesn’t normally function as a field organization. It’s mostly people at desks, registering scripts, checking residuals, and dealing with the bureaucracy of running a guild. But suddenly, there are thousands of picket signs, and phone banks, and white vans full of supplies.
Clearly, someone had to set up these logistics. I assumed it was some outside contractor, but no. It’s basically just writers and re-deployed staff. Case in point: Jerome, a blog-reader I met during the first week. On day 13, he oversaw the sign-making session in which I got to demonstrate my facility in duct-taping. He was also in charge of Friday night’s van-loading.
Basically, there’s one van per studio being picketed. There’s a list of what each location needs: X number of signs, X number of insulated orange water coolers, X boxes of snacks, etc. It’s very straightforward. Most nights, you’re really just re-filling supplies, since the same basic stuff should have been returned to the van after picketing.
Last Friday was the big rally at Freemantle, after which stuff got thrown into vans pretty haphazardly. So everything had to be emptied out, then restocked from scratch. No biggie. Honestly, it was nice to have a job that had clearly defined objectives. Unlike picketing, you could see what you’d accomplished. You knew when you were done.
We were midway through the job when word came down that negotiations had broken off. Disappointing? Certainly. But it was strange to be getting this news while readying the vans. No one wants this strike to drag on for months. But I can tell you firsthand: on a systems/process level, it’s surprisingly well-run, with really good morale. No one was ducking out early.
This morning I went back to picket with my usual crew at Paramount. It was the fastest shift so far. I didn’t check the time until 8:20 a.m., at which point I was nearly done. A lot of the conversation centered on preschools, since half of us have kids in that zone.
Tomorrow, I’ll be taking the day off (the second of my two banked days from Friday). Thursday, I’ll be picketing (and speaking) at the Indie Gate at Paramount from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. After that, there are only two more days of picketing until the winter holidays.
- I’m a process nerd at heart. At dinner parties, I’ve been known to interrogate strangers working in interesting fields, as if trying to construct the database for an expert system to replace them. ↩