Tyler Perry: Busted By Union

OK. So the news hit on Wednesday, but I was waiting on a key piece of information before I'd be ready to talk about it here.

Nikki Finke has the best coverage, for the most part, but had missed one key point: what happened to the fired writers?

It took a weekend of Google alerts, but I found out that they received a financial settlement from Tyler Perry's company for an undisclosed amount. I imagine that it will include residuals for the episodes they already completed work on, but can't say for certain.

So, Mr. Tyler "I'm not Disney/I haven't seen one thin dime" Perry fought the WGA...and the WGA won. On a Thanksgiving weekend that was hard to find things to be thankful for on a personal level, this managed to make it on to that unfortunately short list.

You're Entering The Tyler Perry All Spin Zone

Tyler Perry gave an exclusive interview to Sistas Talking Tyler Perry. I have to say that his answers don't pass the smell test:

Yolanda Ro: One question, that the readers are asking, is why wouldn't someone in your financial position, at the very least, provide the writers with health care insurance?

Tyler Perry: I don't want people to think I'm walking around with $300 million and won't give people health insurance. There are all these articles about me making $200 million from "House of Payne" but that's not true. I haven't gotten one dime off the show--not one thin dime. Nobody writes you a check for $200 million. TBS doesn't have a contract to write me a check for $200 million. It could take up to 5 years for "House of Payne" to make that amount of money. But the initial investment had to be made by me. Every dime that has been put into "House of Payne", to pay the actors and writers, have come from me doing plays and movies; from black folk who have been with me all the time. The writers knew that I even went into my own personal checking account and gave all 300 employees $1000 bonuses for Christmas.

That's just ludicrous. There's no way House of Payne is airing on TBS for free...which means he's not telling the truth. With the number of episodes it has aired, money has certainly come in from the show itself to pay the ongoing expenses. As far as the upfront costs to have started putting the show together before he had a deal with TBS, that's a case of him getting credit for what he's supposed to do. If you want to have your own production company, you're putting the money up. If you want to have your own studio, you're putting the money up. You get to reap the lion share of the profits, but you don't get to cry "poor me" along the way. Especially since he never seemed to cry poor on any of the movies he's produced from his plays.

Tyler Perry: This is what I was trying to get WGA to understand with the deal; I'm not Disney, and I'm not CNN. This is me, by myself. I'm one man with 300 employees. The deal they wanted me to sign was a deal I couldn't afford. And the moment I refused to sign, the very next day, there were all these articles printed about me being a "union-buster". The next day they were calling me racist and picketing outside the party. They waited right until the party to picket, thinking they had me over a barrel, and that I would cave in, but I don't give into extortion. If it had not been for the NAACP stepping in, things would have gotten really ugly. Originally WGA tried to get the NAACP on their side but it didn't work out that way.

By the way, he acknowledges later that he has deals with all of the other unions. Not crying too poor for that, eh? He just feels his writers aren't worth as much because he's previously done all of his writing, in my opinion. Since these are his creations that they're playing with, he feels as though they're not doing enough work to justify the compensation they should be getting.

By the way: extortion? Please. You use all legal advantages you have in negotiation. Where else should they have picketed? Where else would be effective?

Yolanda Ro: Did you ever promise the writers benefits, residuals, or union contracts once the show took off? Tyler Perry: No. They were never promised anything. What was said to them is "here's the deal--The show is a non-union show". Each writer made six figures for less than nine months of work. Every time they wrote a script they received between $7,000-$10,000; In addition they were also receiving a paid salary by the week. Furthermore, WGA did not call me, I called them. It was 'me' making that move. I called them 5 months ago to begin negotiating a deal. These writers clearly knew that. I have deals with every union except WGA and I was trying to get into WGA because I wanted better writers--and because I was working too hard. I had to outline the show, tell them what I wanted, give them ideas, and then rewrite the script. It was taking 16-18 hours for them to write the show. The actors were frustrated, the crew was frustrated, everybody was frustrated because we would go in to shoot the show, but the script was bad. So I made it through that first year but I told them " I can't do this anymore". After I began negotiations with WGA, I didn't threaten to fire them. I just told them they were going to have to get on their job and step up their game.

I find it hard to believe that the WGA would be trying to press their case with the state labor board if Perry was truly trying to get things rolling with the union. Hard to make a case that someone fired workers for attempting to organize if they were welcoming the union.

Yolanda Ro: Can you address the accusations that you are racist, and also the rumors that you replaced the four black writers with white writers? Tyler Perry: That's not true. I let go of four writers in LA but I kept three writers in Atlanta--two are white and one is black. I hired four new black writers; One of them was Myra J from the Tom Joyner Show. When she came to work for me the union originally told her, since she hadn't done anything in four years, she could work for me. But once she came to work they began sending these harassing letters saying she had better not work for me. I sit here and look at these people knowing that they've never been able to do anything...knowing that I gave them their first opportunity, and for these four black writers to call me racist...it's ridiculous.

Ugh. No, no one called him racist in that way. What they suggested was that he was taking advantage of their being black because he knew that it is often harder for black writers to find work.

And their first opportunity? Some of those fired (if not all) were WGA members. In order to become a member, you have to have sold a script at the very least. You can't enter until you're doing work and as soon as you're doing work, you need to enter. Of course, his basically saying they should be grateful that he ever gave them a job is right in line with the accusations of the writers.

The Undying Tyler Perry Story

From the Philadelphia Tribune:

Reportedly, Perry’s attorney, Matt Johnson, said that the four were fired because of poor work performance. Griffin, Moore, Brown-Jackson and Ferrell had worked on more than 100 episodes of Perry’s series, now syndicated on FOX. The three remaining writers were asked to stay on, and two did.

“Up to that point, we wrote 100 episodes of ‘House of Payne,’ said Ferrell, who was fired on his 3 year-old son’s birthday. “The show won three Image Awards last year — one, for the best comedy on television, and we just had a ‘table read’ in Atlanta with Tyler Perry and the actors. We got a standing ovation on the scripts we wrote, and his exact words were, ‘These are golden!’ This was just a week ago. So that was just totally ridiculous and absurd that it was because of our work.

“And logically, it doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t hire people and let them write 100 episodes for you … TBS was so pleased with the show that they gave him another 26 episodes. So he brings us back to write the rest of the 126 episodes. We wrote 16 of them, and then all of a sudden he’s not pleased with our work? That just doesn’t make sense.”

...

“The day after he fired us, they called the Writer’s Guild and wanted to go union,” Ferrell disclosed. “He fired us Monday, and wanted to go union Tuesday morning. So basically, he’s just throwing it in our face(s) saying, ‘OK. You guys brought this to me — trying to make me go union. So I’m going to go union so I can avoid all the flack, but I’m going to fire you, so you won’t receive any of the benefits from it.’”

Yeah, Perry and his lawyer seem to be doing a piss-poor job of making this go away.

Tyler Perry: Still Violating Labor Laws

Just so no one thinks I've forgotten or dropped this:

Tyler Perry situation used as an argument for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Defamer calls Oprah Winfrey, Sidney Poitier and Will Smith scabs for attending Perry's party.

Gay Wired made Tyler Perry their Hypocrite of the Week.

Tyler Perry: Black Eye For Obama?

Barack Obama was set to appear at the gala event marking the opening of Tyler Perry's new studios in Atlanta. Perry's illegal firing of four writers to avoid becoming a union shop turned Obama into a no-show.

Tyler Perry is a huge Obama supporter. So much so, in fact, that he plans to write and direct a movie about the presidential candidate that focuses on how Barack and Michelle's relationship helped him rise to his current level of success. When did he come up with the idea? While at dinner with Barack, Michelle and Oprah, of course.

Read the whole story at Deadline Hollywood.

Tyler Perry: Union Busting Fallout

People are certainly trying to spread the word about Tyler Perry being a greedy hypocrite and union buster.

On IMDB, the issue is being discussed, with someone eventually bringing up the race issue to say that black people in Hollywood are their own worst enemy.

Over at Atlanta Film Fest 365, they've been on the issue for over a week. They've linked to coverage on NY Times, LA Times & The Hollywood Reporter.


And it is all over the net:

LALate.com
SandraRose.com

Of course, Nikki Finke is still on it.

Hope to see bigger coverage.