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- bio - Schneider@WGAEmpowered.com
The
WGAEmpowered slate that swept into office last year has made remarkable
progress. They have earmarked a lion’s share of our budget to
growing our union, committed themselves to strengthening the health and
pension funds, emphasized new technologies and their effect on our
revenue streams, focussed on better communication with our members, and
most importantly, forged peace with our sister union out west, while
reaching out to the other creative unions so that we might more
effectively work in tandem against the media behemoths who sit across
the table from us.
I
am the co-chair of the Committee for an Informed Membership (CIM), a
member of the Credits Review Committee, and a trustee on the Health and
Pension Fund. In addition I was a member of the group that
initially negotiated with the West to settle our differences.
During two days in New York and one in Chicago we hammered out the
parameters of the basic settlement finally agreed upon in San Francisco
and ratified just recently by the members of both our guilds.
The
CIM is in the process of an ambitious overhaul of our website which we
hope to have up and running in the fall. The new website will do
a much better job of keeping the membership informed about the issues
most important to them and will hopefully create a cyber watercooler
and a cyber-community of concerned and active members.
Sitting
on the Health and Pension trust has been an eye-opening
experience. We sit opposite a group of Producer trustees who use
their position to put the squeeze on us. That is why I think one
of our main tasks moving forward is to soldify the health and pension
funds so that our MBA negotiations will not be held hostage in the
years to come. In addition I have suggested that we begin to meet
informally with the labor trustees from the other unions. The
producer trustees sit on the Trusts of all the unions. That is
their only job and, regrettably, they do it well. By meeting with
the other labor trustees we can get a clearer picture of how the
producer’s manipulate the various funds in order to help them in their
negotiations with us and the others.
Our
work has only begun. This year we are running another slate—a
diverse group of writers, both freelance and staff who are dedicated to
seeing this job through. I am proud to be running with John
Auerbach, Walter Bernstein, David Steven Cohen, Gina Gionfriddo, and
Michael Winship, along with staff incumbents Andy Meppen and Marianne
Pryor. Please give us your vote so that we can engage our
membership, energize our union, and play a smart game of David and
Goliath with the media conglomerates.
Bob Schneider