Leaders of the Writers Guild of America decided on Sunday not to
end its three-month-old strike until its members vote to do so,
although the guild's board members unanimously recommended approval
of a new contract.
A vote by the guild's more than 10,000 members in both Los
Angeles and New York is to be held Tuesday on ending the strike,
while another membership vote on the new contract is scheduled 10
to 14 days later.
"We're still on strike until that restraining order is lifted,"
said Patric Verrone, president of the WGA-West, Sunday at a press
conference here.
If an end to the strike is approved, writers could be back on
the job as early as Wednesday morning.
Some TV executives, hungry for fresh material for late-night TV
shows, were hoping that striking Hollywood screenwriters could go
back to work as early as Monday, ending the worst labor disruption
to the movie and television industry since 1988.
One possible stumbling block in the tentative agreement for some
writers is the absence of a clause that would pass on to WGA
members any new benefits awarded to actors when the Screen Actors
Guild contract is renegotiated this summer.
Some WGA members said Sunday that, although such a provision was
promised at the negotiating tables by the studios, the companies
did not put it in writing in the tentative contract.
The Screen Actors Guild's contract covers most movie actors, and
it expires in June. Another actors union contract, the American
Federation of Television and Radio Actors, also runs out then, and
a schism has developed between those two powerful unions.
WGA negotiating committee chairman John Bowman said it was the
failure of the Golden Globes Awards broadcast last month that
brought studio chief executives themselves to the bargaining
tables.
"We spent nearly three months with the studios' management,
frankly getting nowhere," Bowman said. "I think what happened at
the Golden Globes brought the CEOs to the table."
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which organizes the
Golden Globe Awards, suffered mightily when the WGA refused to
grant the normally glitzy awards show a waiver. The HFPA was forced
to settle for an hour-long news conference, in which the winners
were announced.
Under the pending contract, residuals for movies and TV shows
sold online would be doubled, and the WGA would be given
jurisdiction over content created specifically for the Web, above
certain budget thresholds.
And like directors, writers would receive a 3.5 percent increase
in minimum pay rates for television and film work.
WGA members, who were previously not paid for content streamed
for free via the Internet, will get a fixed residual payment of 1,
200 dollars a year for one-hour Webcasts during the first two years
of the new contract.
In the third year, writers -- unlike Director's Guild members --
would get residuals equal to 2 percent of any revenue taken in by
the program's distributor.
And although the WGA strike appears to be in its last chapter,
the 14-week work stoppage could still affect the Academy Awards on
Feb. 24. Producers have said they need at least two weeks to put
together the scripted parts of the awards show.
(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2008)