Assignment:
Union Loyalty, Employee Loyalty, or Money?
The Writers Guild of America, the union for show business writers, struck the television and movie industries in 2007 to 2008 pushing for a bigger share of revenues, particularly revenues from movies and television shows distributed over the new media, such as the Internet. The late-night talk shows then featuring David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and others respected the union for weeks by confining their telecasts to reruns. After six weeks, Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, was able to reach its own agreement with the striking union, thus allowing Letterman to return to the air with his full staff, including writers. The other talk shows decided to return to the air without their writers, although their network and studio owners had not reached agreements with the Writers' Guild.
Many stars, however, declined to appear as talk show guests since they would have been forced to cross the striking writers' picket lines (explained below) to appear on the shows. Leno and others argued that they needed to return to the air even without a strike settlement because they wanted to avoid laying off their many staff members who would have been without work if the shows stayed off the air. Indeed, some of those shows and hosts had paid their staffs while not working during the rerun period, but that financial burden reportedly could not be sustained. O'Brien, a strong union supporter, said he had to decide whether to "go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people, many of whom have worked for me for 14 years, to lose their jobs." The 100-day strike was settled in February 2008.
Questions
1. Was it wrong of Leno, Kimmel, and the others to return to the air rather than continuing to honor the writers' strike? Explain.
2. Assume you are a Jimmy Kimmel fan, and you received tickets to the show during the strike. Would you support the writers by refusing to attend the Kimmel show? Explain.