"Viacom will double its revenue from digital this year," reads this flier from the Writers Guild of America, members of which will demonstrate alongside Viacom "freelancers" this afternoon at 1pm. Where do they come by this information? From remarks made this year by Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone. Ha! That'll teach you to talk up your company's cash flow just before yanking benefits in a move towards "efficiency"!

In a memo issued this afternoon, MTV Networks performed a near-180, relenting to complaints from freelancers who were told last week their benefits would be cut. "We've implemented a process for evaluating freelance and temporary employee positions for possible conversion to staff positions," reads the announcement from JoAnne Griffith, MTVN's executive vice president for HR. "This process is currently underway." Freelancers will now have the choice to continue with their current health plan—including dental!—or sign on to MTV's Aetna plan. Either way, they won't have to make the decision until February of next year, nearly three months after the original deadline set by the company last week. Full memo after the jump.

On Day 2 of The Great Viacom Walkouts of 2007 in Times Square, the "freelancers" were really getting organized. There were better signs ("This is a Kurt Loder of Crap"), more literature ("Let's Find Out If We Really Are Freelancers?"), and a list was being circulated of everyone's personal email addresses, "so we can organize a website that people can go to for information." A union rep from the Radio-Television Broadcast Engineers Union was circling the crowd, and by 3:30 people were already spouting the party line: "Unless we have some sort of collective bargaining agreement, they can do whatever they want to us," one guy said.

Video guy Nick McGlynn hung out this afternoon with the outraged Viacom contractors. (Freelancers? Permalancers? Slave labor?) Actual employees in the eyes of the law, probably, considering how one staffer described her freelance staff. "They're here everyday, these guys comes in Monday to Friday, Saturday, Sunday, weekends, holidays, everything, to work and make this channel run," she told us. Steady paychecks render such commitment completely obsolete—most fully employed people we know support a wide-ranging interpretation of the conventional five-day-workweek. Best slogan heard at the (first!) Viacom Networks Walkout Of 2007: "No one sucks dick for free." (Also great: "No pills, no 'Hills.'" Ha!) Damn straight—we don't even tongue-kiss for anything less than one employer-sponsored retirement plan and a reasonable deductible.

Is anyone confused by all the fuss over freelancer benefits in the Viacom mess? Freelancer, permalancer, part-time employee, full-time employee: What's the difference anymore? Why are Viacom's independent contractors complaining about having their benefits cut when the general impression is that freelancers don't qualify for benefits in the first place? Where does the actual, you know, law come down on this issue? And do most media companies abide by it? Let's learn more!

The Writers Guild of America East is marching on Viacom Thursday morning! "Students and future members of the Writers Guild will join us to march with us, learn about the issues of our strike and show their support," reads a description of the event on their website. Hey, the longer the picket line, the shorter the strike—but will there be stickers and t-shirts? Let us know!

Last night, video guy Richard Blakeley and I headed down to the Hammerstein Ballroom to ask Viacom freelancers how they were, you know, feeling about getting Scrooged just in time for the holidays. Are they all revved up for the planned strike on Monday? "What strike?" said one guy. We're also thinking about adopting the kid who told us that he's currently unattached but if "he or she were, he would be at home." Oh honey, it really is probably time to give up the ghost on that "she" pronoun. Adorable. Inside, a huge glass snow globe was set up on stage; hired actors had a protracted "snowball" fight in it all night. Excessively pricey street theater is an oxymoron, we think. (Particularly indoors!) Very few senior managers were in attendance, though CEO Judy McGrath showed up briefly. Brave. Bonus! More party pix after the jump.

Viacom finally got it together enough yesterday to address the fact that they'd seriously mishandled the announcement of major cuts to freelancer benefits."We understand there are many valid questions, concerns and bad feelings around the new policies for freelance, in-house and project-based temporary employees and the way they were communicated," reads a memo issued late yesterday from executive vice president of human resources, JoAnne Griffith. "We are listening closely to the response and moving to quickly address the questions and concerns by making some immediate changes, based on your feedback." Was that really so hard? Where have you been all week, JoAnne?

"MTVN Freelance, Temp and Animation employees hired on or before October 12th that are paid through in-house payroll and have received a direct deposit receipt or paycheck on all four of the following consecutive dates: October 18, October 25, November 1 and November 8." And there's more! Full memo after the jump.

MTV Networks employees are planning a walkout for Monday afternoon, and are spreading the word: "What do we do? Suck it up and deal? Leave the company? There is a third option—50% of the company stands up and says 'WE DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS.'" Walking out is generally associated with student protest groups, like the East Los Angeles students who attracted attention to their cause in 1968 by leaving school grounds en masse. It's a more than telling association—freelance workers have so little leverage within their companies that they're forced to resort to dissent tactics employed by groups whose only bargaining chip is attendance.

"Word has it that Viacom permalancers will be barred from their holiday party tonight over concerns that there will be protests/disturbances related to the decision to slash benefits and salaries," an insider tells us. "The organizers of the holiday party are concerned about the bad press and potential for outbursts." Bad press! Outbursts! We are shocked! "Employees are afraid to contact Viacom security to find out of (sic) this is true." We were less (slightly) afraid, but when we got through to MTV's security desk and asked whether freelancers would be allowed at tonight's holiday shindig, a security guard, sounding more than a little cranky, said "I have no idea," and promptly hung up on us. Cheeky! Not like we can blame the guy, what with the headache he's got in keeping all those rowdy sticker-making, t-shirt-screening non-employee "employees" in line. So? What's the haps? We're sure Viacom wouldn't do something this stupid—oh, wait.

Not content to limit themselves to revolt-by-t-shirt, MTV contractors have slipped these stickers under the doors of all their colleagues this morning, and asked fellow employees to "Please support your current and future freelance friends and colleagues by wearing this sticker tonight at the holiday party." Says a worker: "They are all over the floor and under the door of every office and on every desk. ROCK IT!"

The MTVN freelancers' petition we'd found its way to us just now and these downtrodden drudges have a plan! It includes subterfuge and silk-screening. "Wear your custom permalance T-shirt Thursday night at the Holiday Party," the petition suggests. "In addition to getting drunk and making out with co-workers Thursday night, let's make a statement!" Rioting contractors are encouraged to conceal their fightwear under whatever proper party attire they can afford. The full outrage is after the jump.

Was MTV trying to get away with snowing contractors into signing away benefits by just sort of, you know, not mentioning it and hoping for the best? "We were distributed the paperwork and told that we were to fill it out because MTV was changing payroll companies. There was no mention of the insurance change AT ALL," says one freelancer, who was not pleased to learn of the change in her work conditions from the Internets. Full memo after the jump.

Non-staff employees at MTV Networks had a meeting with the company's HR department this afternoon. Nearly 200 attended, and the HR person running the meeting said, "If we would've known so many of you were going to show up, we would've ordered lunch to help soften the blow." Lunch or no, it didn't go over so well! "It's a sinking ship. I think we're all fucked," is how one employee put it. Human resources had no plans to discuss any of the changes with their contractors, we're told, but supervising producers demanded the meeting take place. Attaway middlemen, tell 'em!

Here's what we hear from what we believe has truly become the Viacom sweatshop. (One Viacom permalancer estimates that almost 50% of the staff are contract workers at this point.) A 50-hour workweek will now be standard, at least at MTV Digital (which means no overtime until after 50 hours, and no overtime at all for higher-level people, like producers and segment producers), and all will go from a day rate to an hourly rate. Healthcare, which was offered to permalancers after a staggering year of service, will now be offered only to employees who have worked 1,280 hours (25 of those 50-hour workweeks) in any one division. And that's the catch: Get transfered, as often happens, from VH1 to MTV or the like, and you start over on that clock.