The walkout worked!!!

MTV circulated this internal memo today:

As you know, we’ve been holding information sessions over the past several days to discuss our freelance and temporary employee benefits. We’ve had many insightful conversations and heard a number of your specific concerns.

As a result of the input you’ve given to us directly through the sessions and your managers, we want to announce the following changes:

· We are expanding our freelance and temporary medical and dental benefits options to include the United Healthcare plan under which many of you are currently covered. This means anyone who is eligible for benefits in 2008 can opt for medical and dental coverage with United Healthcare at the current rate of contribution, or you can elect instead to enroll in the newly offered Aetna plan.

The Aetna plan has certain advantages that may make it the preferred option for many of our freelance and temporary employees. Based on your input, however, we want to make sure that those of you who prefer the United Healthcare plan have that option.

· As a result of this change, the freelance and temporary employee payroll conversion to Cast and Crew has been delayed until February 1, 2008. Therefore, the December 14th deadline to submit your Cast and Crew paperwork has been postponed. We will inform you of the new deadline early in the New Year.

· We’ve implemented a process for evaluating freelance and temporary employee positions for possible conversion to staff positions. This process is currently underway and decisions will be communicated by January 31st, 2008.

Way to go, MTV/Viacom!!!

Remember how I told you about this???

STRIKES ARE CONTAGIOUS! The WGA strike seems to be giving everyone else the guts to stage their own.

Scores of workers from MTV Networks walked off the job yesterday afternoon, filling the sidewalk outside the headquarters of its corporate parent, Viacom, to protest recent changes in benefits.

The walkout highlighted the concerns of a category of workers who are sometimes called permalancers: permanent freelancers who work like full-time employees but do not receive the same benefits.

Waving signs that read “Shame on Viacom,” the workers, most of them in their 20s, demanded that MTV Networks reverse a plan to reduce health and dental benefits for freelancers beginning Jan. 1.

Pay the employees what they’re owed, Viacom!!!

I guess strikes are contagious.

When MTV presented its freelancers with a new plan that includes no 401K, reduced health benefits and no paid vacation (they’re freelancers, isn’t that what they’re supposed to get?), they decided to stage a walk-out on Monday, and they’re trying to get the whole company involved.

Above find the memo that’s been circulating around the company.

The MTV Video Music Awards are fast approaching, and the nominees have been released.

The best group category proves once again how tragically out-of-touch with the under-24 culture I am becoming. I guess I recognize most of these names, but, with the exception of Fall Out Boy, I can’t name a single one of their songs. I just want to curl up in my room and listen to August and Everything After. Is that so wrong? Is it? Anyway, the nominees are:

Fall Out Boy
Gym Class Heroes
Linkin Park
Maroon 5
The White Stripes

The best new artist category confuses me, because most of these people aren’t new artists. I mean, Carrie Underwood won American Idol in 1994, right? Amy Winehouse had an album go platinum in the U.K. in 2003. How exactly are we defining “new” in this context? And can someone please tell me what song Gym Class Heroes and Peter Bjorn & John gets played on the radio? I even Googled them and I couldn’t figure it out.

Lily Allen
Gym Class Heroes
Peter Bjorn & John
Carrie Underwood
Amy Winehouse

The best female artist nominees don’t matter, because Rihanna’s going to win and Beyonce’s going to be sooo pissed about it.

Beyonce
Fergie
Nelly Furtado
Rihanna
Amy Winehouse

And I don’t know any of the songs by anyone in the best male artist category, either, except for JT. Oh, Akon does “Smack That,” which, if I recall correctly, was already awarded Song of the Year by Ms. magazine, so I don’t know that it really needs this accolade as well. Let someone else have a chance. The noms:

Akon
Robin Thicke
T.I.
Justin Timberlake
Kanye West

The VMAs will air on September 9th on MTV.

In the wake of Paris now doing hard time the MTV awards have been washed away in a sea of somehow being even less relevant. But I feel in my heart you want some stills. Here, have some stills!

MTV is casting for True Life: I’m Celibate. If you’ve spent this long respecting your body, isn’t it time you disrespect everything else about yourself by allowing MTV’s cameras to exploit your virginity? I think yes.

Do you voluntarily abstain from sex? Have you made the decision to be celibate for personal or religious reasons? Are you a virgin? Are you about to become celibate because being sexually active just isn’t working for you anymore? Or maybe you’re already celibate and struggling to stay that course? Or are about to ease your way back into sexually active life after a period of celibacy?

If so, MTV’s documentary series True Life wants to hear from you. Are you struggling to refrain from having sex, while it’s all that your friends and the media can talk about? Are you facing pressure from your boyfriend or girlfriend to give in? Do people give you a hard time about your decision, or do they discriminate against you for choosing not to have sex?

If you’d like to tell the world why you’re saying no to sex, we want to hear your story! If you appear to be between the ages of 18 and 28 and have a story for us about your decision to remain celibate, email us with the details of your story at celibate@mtvnmix.com.

Please be sure to include your name, phone number, location, and photo if possible.

This is some sad ass news.

But the article is super fun so let’s probe (with our prober).

MTV’s Total Request Live is no longer totally live…. Two weeks ago, MTV began taping Total Request Live two days a week in an effort to save money.

Total Request Taped? No, the show’s title won’t be adjusted for the less-than-live days, spokeswoman Marnie Black said Tuesday.

TRL needs to save money. Presumably for soup.

I also need to salute the writer of this article, David Bauder for his hip use of slang. Check it out:

(TRL is where) Artists go to “drop” new music, movie stars to tout new films and celebrities just to stay celebrities

See how he did that? He made it approachable for the cool hipsters reading his “shizz.” He even quoted that monster “drop” so that you knew he was down with the slang.

This comes after the announced layoffs last month and it all adds up to one thing: Sucking killed the MTV star.