Both sides looking for end to strike.
Is this a strike that could have been prevented?Both producers and writers are angry over the way talks collapsed Sunday night, with both sides creating a Rashomon atmosphere of disagreeing over who did what — and when. But pretty much everyone agrees that action must be taken in the next 48 hours if Hollywood is going to avoid a long and costly strike.
The question: Who will take the initiative to get talks to resume? Producers believe it’s up to the writers to make the first move; the WGA says it’s ready, willing and able to resume talks at any point.
“I think both sides want to continue negotiations,” WGA West exec director David Young said Monday. “We are not getting a divorce.”
But with a full-fledged strike started and lingering acrimony between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, prospects for resuming talks are dimming. Many already believe that the Directors Guild of America will end up riding in like the cavalry to make a deal that could lead to labor peace — even though WGA leaders have already asserted that they won’t look favorably at such an outcome.
The confusing outlook could get especially ugly by Thursday, when the Writers Guild of America has given as the deadline for its Script Validation Program, whereby writers must turn in drafts of their current works. Studios and networks have demanded the guild cease and desist from enforcing that program.
Sources close to talks said that five key sticking points were on the table at the start of talks Sunday, and those had been whittled down to just two by the dinner break. Many in both camps feel that they could have made serious progress if the talks continued.
But AMPTP president Nick Counter said the talks collapsed when the companies were in caucus ater 9 p.m. PST and discovered that the WGA East website was declaring the strike had started. The AMPTP reps then asked WGA East topper Mona Mangan if that was indeed the case, and she said it was.
“We asked the WGA if they’d be willing to put a pin in the strike so we could continue negotiations and Mona and David Young said ‘no’,” Counter said. “We were having dialogue and making some progress and then we hit a brick wall.”
But Young said that he had told the AMPTP at noon Sunday that the WGA was willing to talk all night but that it would not call off the strike. He also admitted that there had been some progress during the session.
“If it were Oct. 10, I would be hopeful and happy,” he added. “But here we are at 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 and they still have not made an economic proposal. We had gotten some movement but nothing on their economic package.”
WGA negotiators were infuriated by what they perceived as a lack of movement by the AMPTP once they had taken their proposal to double DVD residuals off the table. Negotiating committee member and showrunner Shawn Ryan (“The Shield,” “The Unit“) sent out an angry email afterward after spending nearly 12 hours in the Sunday session.
“I watched our side desperately try to make a deal,” Ryan said. “We gave up our request to increase revenue on DVDs, something that was very painful to give up, but something we felt we had to in order to get a deal made in new media, which is our future. I watched as the company’s representatives treated us horrendously, disrespectfully, and then walked out on us at 9:30 and then lied to the trades, claiming we had broken off negotiations.”
The key sticking points remain residuals for new media, payment for work for the Internet and use of streaming video. Counter painted a grim future on Monday.
“The outlook for future WGA negotiations is pretty bleak,” he admitted. “The only guideline we have is that the 1988 strike by the WGA lasted five months.”
Less than 24 hours after the strike began, TV studios have sent letters to all of their producers with overall deals informing them that, effective immediately, their pacts are being suspended. That means no more paychecks, effective immediately.
Writers who have projects actively in production — and who are still rendering services — will still get paid.
