Short and Verrone Clash
With the IA striking theaters in New York and the WGA striking the studios, IA president Tom Short wrote to WGAw president Patric Verrone Tuesday, saying, “I have warned you and predicted the devastation that would come from your action. Those predictions have now come true. … It’s time to put egos aside and recognize how crucial it is to get everyone back to work before there is irreversible damage from which this industry can never recover.” (NY Times. Variety.)
Verrone responded, saying, “for every four cents writers receive in theaterical residuals, directors receive four cents, actors receive 12 cents and the members of your union receive 20 cents in contributions to their health fund. … To put it simply, our fight should be your fight.”
Meanwhile, Variety reported on a pair of polls showing wide public support for the writers: a Pepperdine poll showed support at 69% vs 4% for the producers and a SurveyUSA poll came up with 63% vs 8%.
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Splice Now 
November 15, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Interesting. Verrone has a great point. I was talking last night to a friend of mine who is a long time SAG member and I mentioned that when DVD sales start to shrink as more people move to digital downloads, the residual monies that come to the IA for the health plan will start to drop. And that, combined with the rising cost of health care, is going to make it really hard to keep the great health plan going.
This is also interesting because one of the things that I hear among my students when they talk about why they should or shouldn’t join the union is that the health plan is good. If that starts to go away then it will be harder to get them to jump in (I’m not saying that that’s good, just that that’s the reality of the 21st century twenty-five year old). And THAT’S not good at all.