Pay the Writer!

For almost 20 years, I’ve been a member of the National Writers Union, UAW 1981. When I wear a union jacket or t-shirt, I’m often asked why would writers need a union. People are under the mistaken impression writers make a boatload of money and therefore have no need for a union. They don’t see writers as working people. Sometimes writers themselves don’t see they are working people. It never ceases to amaze me when people are referred to as working class because they are mechanics or plumbers or sanitation workers. If you receive a check from a company, corporation or small business, you are a worker and thus working class.

Writers need unions for the same reason other working people need unions – to fight for their rights as workers. Have no doubt, writers are workers.

There was quite a bit of hoopla several years ago when Ariana Huffington sold the Huffington Post (HuffPo) to AOL for quite a bit of money. It was hers to sell but the controversy was not about her selling as much as it was about the fact that she didn’t share the wealth with the many writers who made the Huffington Post what it is. My union was very vocal asking writers to demand that Ms. Huffington share her wealth or stop writing for HuffPo. Neither of these demands came true and HuffPo is just as profitable today as it was when it was sold to AOL. Even now, writers are still debating over the policies of HuffPo.

The Huffington Post has always stated writers who contributed would not be paid for those contributions. However, writers would be free to utilize the site for all manner of marketing. Many writers see that a HuffPo article is well worth foregoing getting paid. Many state that if you want to get paid, maybe you shouldn’t be a writer since writers are generally poorly paid. Something is really wrong with that sentiment. Would you tell your doctor that if he wanted to make money, he should have undertaken a different profession and walk out the door without payment? Of course you wouldn’t. Which is why it’s so puzzling to me that people including writers think it’s okay for us to work for free.

Being a writer is as worthwhile as being a doctor or mechanic or lawyer or electrician. Yet there is no other profession where people are constantly asking that you work for free. I believe that is because many believe writing is easy. Take it from me, it isn’t.

Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith, a Pulitzer prize winning sports columnist for the New York Times was reported as saying in an interview with Walter Winchell regarding writing that “You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins and bleed.” How easy is that?

Writing is hard work. You sit at your typewriter or your computer screen and you put words to the page. That is not easy. Sometimes the thoughts flow. Sometimes the words flow. Sometimes you stare at that blinking cursor and you dare words to come. They don’t. That’s if you’re doing your own novel or essay or poem.

Other times you’re writing on assignment for a publication. You have to do hours of research. You have to interview one or two or five people. You have to check your sources and your facts. After all that, then you have to write. No one considers the number of hours and the amount of time it takes to do research on a subject or on a person that has to be interviewed. Sometimes a person has to be interviewed several times before enough information is gathered for an article. Sometimes people are difficult and don’t really want to be interviewed. It takes research, skill and patience to get the information. It’s a time consuming and costly process.

Then comes the task of actually writing the article and submitting it for publication. Sometimes a writer may go through the editing process two or three times until the editor is happy with the final result.

Even if you write essays and blogs like I do which are my own thoughts and opinions, often it’s difficult for me. There are many things going on in the world that one could comment on and write about but it’s difficult to find that one topic a writer may want examine.

A great deal of time a writer’s time is spent getting assignments especially if you’re a freelancer. More time is spent trying to get work than actually. Next comes getting paid. Writers are often stiffed and have to spend more money trying to get paid for work they’ve already completed. That’s why I’m a member of NWU. The union goes after publishers who stiff writers. Sometimes it only takes a letter and a couple of weeks. Other times, it takes lots of letters and phone calls. And it can take a lot of time. Unlike credit card companies or utility companies or hospitals, writers are small business people who don’t have millions of dollars and can wait on their money. Sometimes not paying the writer means he or she will be behind in rent that month or unable to but a week’s worth of food.

There are those writers like John Grisham, Stephen King, Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, James Patterson who write either fiction or non-fiction and make serious bucks. There are a number of mid-range writers who make a profitable living writing. They may write technical manuals or instructions, do public relations or advertising. There are writers who create self-help books or write white papers or text books. There are journalists who write for daily newspapers or contribute to HuffPo or write for neighborhood papers. There are poets and essayists and bloggers. Directions on MapQuest, books on Kindle or instructions on putting together that piece of furniture you bought from IKEA, someone wrote it.

So let’s hear it for the writers. And if by any chance you owe a writer a check, pay up.

Politics as Eh

Election season is in full swing. The Iowa caucus has come and gone with Hilary Clinton winning the Democratic vote and Ted Cruz winning the Republican vote. New Hampshire is next. After New Hampshire, the next two Republican caucuses are South Carolina and Nevada. The next Democratic caucuses reverse the order with Nevada followed by South Carolina. The remaining states hold caucuses April through June.

There was a time when election season was interesting and electrifying. Everywhere you went, people were discussing the candidates. Now election season barely raises a blip on the attention meter. People are more interested in the next Ironman/Captain America/Avenger movie or what the Kardashian are doing or the next Air Jordan. Even older folks have forsaken political discourse in favor of conversations about retirement, 401K’s and body ailments.

Professor of Government at American University Jennifer Lawless’ new book, Running from Office: Why Young Americans are Turned Off to Politics, argues that the current political system discourages young people from running for office. Whether or not you agree, it certainly seems to be a plausible explanation as to why we are asked to choose between the lesser of two evils when it comes to candidates instead of having real choices for elected officials. Now only the rich or those who have access to serious money run for president. Candidates spend lots of time courting rich donors while giving the average voter short shrift. Voters are given sound bites on issues while candidates spend evenings in hotel dining rooms eating $500 a plate chicken while turning over our country to corporate CEO’s who think nothing of the rest of us.

The ill-fated Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Committee opened the floodgates and changed politics in the United States. Instead of making political funding more transparent, the Supreme Court insulted the public by maintaining that companies are protected by the First Amendment and could spend as much unlimited amounts of money on political activities. The court took the political process away from the voters and placed it squarely in the hands of corporate America.

This may or may not be the reason why there seems to be such apathy this election season. It could also be the candidates that are running for public office. For the first time in years, I find myself in the unenviable position of not liking any presidential candidate. More surprisingly, I’m unaware of candidates running for local offices which is a first for me. I can’t seem to work up interest let alone fervor about any candidate for any office and I’m not alone. Most people in Chicago have an inkling when the election will be held but it seems no one has a clue when our primary is going to be held. What’s worse is that no one seems to care. It would seem that as far as politics goes, our get up and go has got up and went.