Fremantle Media: Speak of the Devil

Wow, Ozzy Osbourne's album titles just lend themselves perfectly to titling this post about Fremantle, the company about to produce Ozzy and family's new variety show. I went with "Speak of the Devil," but "No Rest for the Wicked" was a close runner-up.

Take a look at this latest press release from the Writers' Guild, about how Fremantle is trying to chip away at hard-won fair wages for writers across the entertainment industry -- and let me know if I made the right call on the title.

To Our Fellow Members,

Last week, you may have become aware of our ongoing dispute with Tyler Perry's production companies, which fired four writers because of their efforts to organize Perry's series, House of Payne. Pickets were up at his new studio's grand opening Saturday night in Atlanta.

Now, we write to inform you of another labor dispute.

Fox has ordered a primetime comedy-variety show featuring Ozzy Osbourne and his family, and has engaged FremantleMedia North America, the company behind American Idol, to produce it. Because they wanted to hire WGA members to write the show, Fremantle contacted the WGAW to see if we would agree to a sub-standard contract. Attempting to pay as little as possible to the writers on the show, Fremantle asked to treat it as "half-scripted" and pay greatly reduced writing fees to those writers who wrote skits, interview material, intros, and "outros." Although all of the writing on the show is of a type traditionally covered by our MBA (in such shows as The Carol Burnett Show and Laugh-In), Fremantle wanted to treat certain portions of the show as "reality content," not cover the writers who create it, and lower the compensation of the WGA-covered writers, arguing that they would only be responsible for writing part of the show.

We refused to agree to such a deal because it would drastically undermine hard-won minimums and standards. While we have covered some shows produced by Fremantle, they insist that other shows, including American Idol, The Price is Right, and Million Dollar Password, do not have writers and should not be covered by a WGA contract.

Now it is clear that Fremantle's intention is to bring their low cost, non-union business model into traditional genres – first game shows, then comedy-variety. Soon, no WGA-covered writing will be safe from their aggressive undermining of our contract. We cannot allow this encroachment to continue.

Accordingly, WGA East and West members may not write for the Osbourne variety show (working title: The Osbournes: Loud and Dangerous). Any members who perform writing services on that show do so at their own peril as they will be violating WGA Working Rule 8 and could be fined up to 100% of their compensation for that work. Both Guilds notified agents and other representatives of this development through an Action Alert issued yesterday.

The alert also reminded agents that they cannot send clients who are members of either Guild to write for Tyler Perry's production companies. The WGAW has filed unfair labor practice charges based on the unlawful discharge of the House of Payne writers and continuing bad faith bargaining. Members who accept these jobs will also be in violation of Working Rule 8.

We believe that denying Fremantle and Tyler Perry members of the Writers Guilds East and West may convince them that they will be unable to produce professional quality entertainment content and that they will see the wisdom and creative advantages of signing a WGA contract.

There is already far too much writing done in our business by men and women without WGA benefits. We cannot let writers of sitcoms and comedy-variety programming join their ranks, as we also work to reduce the amount of animation, reality, nonfiction, and other so-called "non-scripted" writing not covered by a WGA contract.

Thanks for your attention and your continued support.


Best,


Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

The American Idol Truth Tour

In the eloquent style of American Idol judge Randy Jackson, this afternoon over 150 writers and union supporters marched in front of the show's production company FremantleMedia North America to let them know that substandard wages and working conditions just ain't right, "dog."

Although Randy might say our chants were a bit "pitchy," we were there to deliver an important message: as the producer of TV's top-rated show, which makes them over $1 billion annually, Fremantle should do the right thing when it comes to its talented writing and production staffs.

In addition to Idol, Fremantle produces many other network primetime programs, including Million Dollar Password for CBS, Farmer Wants a Wife for the CW and America’s Got Talent for NBC. In 2007, Fremantle produced more than 1,000 hours of television in the United States. And while Fremantle profits so handsomely from Idol and other shows it produces, the writers and other workers who make these shows successful do not. Workers on Fremantle shows have reported serious workplace issues such as the withholding of overtime pay, and failure to provide meal or rest breaks. Many Fremantle workers do not receive benefits that are standard in the entertainment industry including minimum compensation, health insurance or retirement benefits.

It's all part of the sweat-shop atmosphere fostered by many producers of reality TV -- as they routinely work their employees round-the clock, they make one message clear: complain, and you'll simply be fired. One rally speaker today, former Idol production assistant Justin Buckles, calculated that, as he routinely worked 17- or even 20-hour days, his $550 per week flat fee salary worked out to about $4.50 per hour -- well below California's legal minimum wage.

Another speaker, Ro DiSalvo, said it was particularly fitting to return to New York, where her Italian immigrant grandmother had worked as a seamstress in a sweat shop; as a writer on Fremantle's game show Temptation, she experienced the 21st Century equivalent. DiSalvo was refused even meal breaks, as she and her coworkers rushed to film 170 shows in 8 weeks. "Remember what it was like in college to pull an all-nighter," she explained. "Now imagine doing that every day for months."

All four of Temptation's writers eventually walked off the job -- and were quickly replaced. But in April of this year, eight former employees of Fremantle, the majority from American Idol, filed more than $250,000 in wage and hour claims with the California Department of Labor Standards Enforcement alleging failure to pay overtime.

With the "American Idol Truth Tour," the Writers' Guild is taking a much more fun approach in appealing to Fremantle to end workplace practices which are, let's face it, more wrong than William Hung's version of "She Bangs." In a thankfully now typical show of solidarity between the two branches of the Guild, East president Michael Winship and West president Patric Verrone appeared together at today's rally, after Verrone traveled the entire route of Idol's audition tour for the upcoming season, bringing the Guild's message to all of the show's tryout sites this season, in San Francisco, Phoenix, San Juan, Jacksonville and East Rutherford, NJ.

Today's stop in front of Fremantle's offices in New York City represented the end of the line -- for now. The funk band which had played throughout the rally on this sweaty afternoon wrapped its last number, and it was time to temporarily deflate the giant rat which has become de rigeur for any well-appointed picket line these days. Symbolically staring up at the 9th floor of the Ziff Davis building on 28th Street, we protesters vowed to continue the fight.

But for now, "Writers Guild... OUT!"


For more information, or to get involved, please visit http://www.truthaboutfremantle.com/.