TV Writers Plan to Strike
By Steve Donohue and Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/1/2007 8:07:00 PM
Several thousand TV and movie writes are expected to go on strike as early as Monday, after talks broke down between the Writers Guild of America and producers.
WGA officials may authorize the strike, which could thwart production for dozens of broadcast and cable network programs, at a 10 a.m. PT meeting in Los Angles on Friday.
Unless a last minute deal can be reached, a strike would probably start on Monday, The Los Angeles Times reporter Thursday. The WGA represents 12,000 writers.
A strike would hit programs such as Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and broadcast network late night programs the hardest.
While most broadcast networks have several episodes of dramas and sitcoms already produced, and ready to air, a prolonged strike would force network programmers to run repeats or seek other alternatives, including possibly licensing content from cable TV networks.
The last writers strike, in 1988, lasted five months.
The WGA has already begun planning the logistics for a strike, publishing information on its Web site on Thursday on how guild members can sign up to picket.
The scribes and producers are at loggerheads on several issues, namely: a proposed increase in residuals on DVDs; payments for content used on new-media platforms; and whether the WGA should be given jurisdiction over all basic-cable shows, reality and animation.
The WGA’s members several weeks ago voted and gave their union authorization to call a strike.
On Friday morning in Manhattan, the WGA plans to hand out leaflets outside of Rockefeller Plaza, where NBC is headquartered, a guild spokesman said.
The Teamsters issued a statement Thursday night supporting WGA members. “If we abandon our union brothers and sisters now, we abandon the very core principals of trade unionism,” Teamsters general president Jim Hoffa said in a prepared statement. “I encourage the members of WGA to stand strong and fight for what you believe is right and fair. The Teamsters support your cause.”
