Trying to get a union rep on CNBC

CNBC‘s Jane Wells writes Wednesday about the difficulty in trying to get the head of Writers Guild of America West, Patric Verrone, to come onto the business network to talk about the current strike.

Wells wrote, “I was told by the WGA that Verrone wanted to do the interview, but I soon discovered that wanting, and committing, are two different things–aren’t they always? In order to accommodate Verrone, we booked a studio off our property so he would not have to cross a picket line. We were even willing to bring a live truck to his office.

“The WGA PR person told me CNBC’s early shows probably wouldn’t work because they are…early. So we agreed to try to have Verrone on ‘Power Lunch’ today. On Monday, the WGA said that would be too early, still, so we pushed it back to ‘Street Signs.’ Then yesterday, I learned there would be meetings that might conflict, so we re-booked the studio and changed production plans to accommodate Verrone for ‘Closing Bell.’

“You know what happened, don’t you? There’s no clever writer’s twist to this tale. This morning, as I prepared to promote Verrone’s ‘First on CNBC’ live appearance, I got a call saying, ‘Patric is really sick, and there are more meetings, and I wanted to let you know I’m concerned he may not make it.’ So I cancelled and said, ‘Let me know when he really wants to answer questions and we’ll be happy to have him on. We have CEO’s who don’t change things around so much.'”

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