At this moment, informal talks are underway between representatives of the AMPTP and the leadership of the WGA.  A news blackout is in effect and there will be precious little, if any, word leaking out from the talks and we’re all going to have to get by with rumor, speculation and the precious bits of information that come from Nikki Finke.

This is a moment of trust. 

Trust in the people we elected to represent our interests, to fight for our rights and to safeguard our interests for the future. 

The Guild leadership and the members of the Negotiating Committee have put themselves out in front, taken the ill-informed knocks from the media, the calculated slander from the studios, and the cajoling, bickering, and Monday-morning quarterbacking of some elements within the membership itself and yet they’ve never wavered from their goals of trying to achieve the best deal for all of us and for the writers who will follow in our footsteps.  The sheer number of arrows these people take on a daily basis on the internet alone rival the incoming fire at the Little Bighorn and it’s something of a miracle that not a single one of them has simply let loose in a tirade of vitriol and bile at their tormentors in some public forum.  I’ve heard them accused of everything from seeking personal political gain to seeking to foment communist revolution over the course of the strike, but time and again they just keep coming back to the basic issues of fairness and justice in what they’re seeking for all of us.

They deserve our trust.  And they damned well have earned it.

We can all sit around and bitch about how “we” would’ve handled the negotiations or about how “we” know what to do now, but the bottom line is that “we” aren’t in the hotseat and “we” haven’t spent the time and effort pouring over the endless details of  the MBA for the last two years or immersed ourselves in the complexities of the emerging new media.  The men and women on the negotiating committee and the board have put in the time, held themselves up to abuse and done the work that needed to be done.

Right now, we need to trust that they know what they’re doing and that they have the best interests of the membership in mind as they approach the new round of talks.  Does that mean we have to rubber-stamp anything they want?  Of course not.  They’ll eventually be submitting something for us to vote up or vote down and we’ll have ample opportunity to debate the proposal on its merits.  But now we need to give them the leeway to maneuver if they’re to be any real chance to get a good deal at the bargaining table.

The last thing we need is for writers to be bitching anonymously to the media (like Patrick Goldstein claimed in an incredibly slanted column this week) or, worse yet, for high-profile members (like a certain former president of the Guild) to be sending out public “letters” saying how the DGA deal is so great and putting public pressure on the negotiators to just take it already at the very moment they need to keep all their cards to themselves.  It’s both foolish and self-destructive and they should all know better.

The leadership of the WGA did not trick us into a strike or stir up passions that did not exist.  That 90% strike authorization vote made it abundantly clear that the leadership accurately reflected the very real sentiments of the members and there’s no call for any of us to suddenly start acting otherwise.

Hang tough.  Trust your Guild leadership.  And remember who the real opponent is out there.