Writers, Studios To Resume Talks Nov. 26
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/18/2007 8:11:00 AM
Striking TV writers and studios mutually agreed to resume formal contract negotiations Nov. 26, both sides said late Friday.
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers jointly announced that they were going back to the negotiating table.
Talks between both sides broke down Nov. 4, with the writers going on strike the next day. The WGA contract with the studios expired Nov. 1.
Even though negotiations will start again in a week, the union is continuing its strike and will continue picketing this week.
In a letter to his members about talks resuming, WGA East president Michael Winship said, “The welcome return to negotiations is a result of all of this public pressure, attention and activity. But we still have a long way to go. Remember, until further notice, WE ARE STILL ON STRIKE…. This Tuesday, we’ll be picketing the Sony Corporation. We’ll be at their corporate HQ, at 56th and Madison, from 10-2. Join us.”
Winship also cited a letter that his counterpart at the WGA West wrote to Left Coast writers.
“As my counterpart in California, Patric Verrone, wrote his members in the West last night, ‘Our work is not done until we achieve a good contract and that is by no means assured. Accordingly, what we achieve in negotiations will be a direct result of how successfully we can keep up our determination and resolve,’” Winship wrote in his own letter, quoting Verrone.
Winship summed up the union’s efforts last week.
“You realize that a portion of revenues from the Internet and new media is crucial to our mutual survival as writers; that for us, this is the fight of our creative lives,” Winship told WGA East members. “You have turned out on the picket lines in droves. You’ve attended meetings, volunteered to write articles and produced ingenious and savagely funny viral videos. You have made phone calls and helped out in our office, you’ve made yourselves available for media interviews. You’ve even baked cookies for your friends and colleagues on the picket. Thank you.”
No New Talks Set In TV Writers’ Strike
11/06/2007Striking WGA Sets Weekend Member Meetings
02/05/2008WGA Denies Deal With Studios
02/02/2008TV Writers Set Rallies as Talks Resume
11/26/2007
