Shoulda listened to Mary.
Emphasis added. And there are no contractual obligations about numbers of safety personnel and/or quality inspectors? I disbelieve you. Even if it’s just implied in “bid must contain the resume and qualifications of the project manager, lead engineer, and safety chief”. That’s a dictation of how many people are to be employed at a minimum.
I work in IT and MANY, if not most, contracts specify a minimum of 1 PM (with specific experience/certifications), X developers (with specific experience/certifications), Y QA people (with specific experience/certifications), etc, etc, etc. It helps weed out the dumbass companies who say they can do it in 3 months with 3 people and always fail - which costs time and money (really the same thing, in IT and in construction). Keep in mind these are minimums. We aren’t telling them how many people to use, we’re just telling them that they must have this many at least or we won’t consider their bid.
There are contractual requirements about such roles and responsibilities, but they do not refer to a minimum number of people to be employed to do that.
For some such roles the mimimum could be considered as one (as in, it must be a responsibility taken on by someone) but even then there are many times where a single person has taken on multiple such roles. (i.e. process validation/Data Integrity or EHS/QA)
Whoever does the work is under contractual obligation (and in some cases, legal obligation) to complete the work to a standard, a time and a budget. They are free to deploy their employee resources how they choose within that framework. There is no minimum specified by us, nor by a union.
Now if you are saying that “at least one person must take on a specific task or responsibility” counts as specifying a minimal staffing level then yes, I concede that that would be a reasonable demand but then I think that counts as glaringly obvious.
i.e. if zero people do the work that needs to get done then obviously it won’t get done. So the staffing levels must at least rise above zero.
As for IT projects specifically. In terms of cost overruns, scope screep and delays they have been universally the worst failures for us but I’m not aware that minimum staffing levels have ever been a cause or a solution. (we have post-project reviews as a matter of course)
I do fully understand though why you would put some form of sniff-test in place to weed out the “man with a van” bidders.
Though they are not always a failure.
Mover contacts (at least in my experience) specify the number of movers. If the customer wants the job done quickly, they can pay for extra hands.
I think that’s the point of the WGA item. If you want two episodes cranked out quickly, then hire enough writers to do it.
Looks like the WGA will be ending its strike this weekend. Wonder what they got in the new deal.
AMPTP claims to have made its “final offer”.
Presumably, if the WGA says no, the studios will have no choice but to give up making pictures and go into drycleaning or something.
NBC News is reporting sources saying an agreement has been reached, but they are still haggling over exact wording. No confirmation, but hope it’s true. It would still have to be ratified by the members.
There is a deal for the writers.
…just reviewing the details of the negotiations here:
Based on what the writers I follow are saying, and my own, initial read of the details, it looks like a HUGE win for the writers.
Better than expected for sure. The final bottom line numbers are about 50% of what the writers wanted, but about 300% greater than what the studios offered in their last round. They (WGA) did, in my VERY non-writer (i.e., ignorant) position give up quite a bit on the writer’s room section, but it’s certainly possible that enabled other things that they got that mattered more to the rank-and-file or overall health of the industry.
Overall, I would definitely grade this as a win for the union and good for them!
On to SAG-AFTRA!
…I mean: it was a negotiation. Start high, then end up with what you wanted in the first place. This is a very very good win for the writers. They’ve ended up with a lot of things that most of the writers didn’t think they would win. “Showrunner” being defined as a writer for the first time. Minimum staffing. Success-based residuals. Guaranteed compensation. 2-step screenwriter deals. Writers kept with a production from start-to-finish. Script fees for staff writers. Major restrictions on AI. The studios basically rolled over on everything.
I’m glad they got that. The idea that this one arbitrary thing is beyond negotiation continues to make no sense to me.
Anything can be up for negotiation but I think it is a mistake for the studios to give up too much ground on that. (but I don’t know what specific levels were demanded v what was agreed so will reserve judgement)
The one thing that does bother me is that the actors now might also end up striking a deal which means they’ll be back on the media spouting inane PR bollocks. It’s been a blissful period of silence on that front.
…here is a good video from Vera Wylde that straight-forwardly outlines how comprehensive the win was here for the WGA, and why that is probably good news for SAG-AFTRA.
Definitely delighted to see that this is over. From what little I know of the issues, that the writers got most of what they wanted sounds like a basic matter of fairness. And all movie hounds like me who want to see a thriving film industry should appreciate that a creative industry can only thrive in the long term if all its creative contributors are fairly compensated.
I’m impressed by how quickly shows are returning. FTR, Real Time with Bill Maher is back tonight, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver returns on Sunday, both after five long months. Looks like Bill is gearing up for some controversy: the interview guest tonight is Ron DeSantis, and panelists are the author, philosopher, and neuroscientist Sam Harris who’s an outspoken atheist (among other things he’s been outspoken about) and conservative journalist Mary Katharine Ham (some might say “ultra-conservative”).
It’s almost like life is back to normal!
As expected, Netflix plans to raise their subscription prices.
Drew Barrymore fucked around and found out: The three union writers on her show will not be returning for Season 4.
Now do Maher!