Strikes Has Cost WGA Members $150 Million: AMPTP
TV, Film Studios Claim Writers Have Lost More In Wages, Benefits Than They Aspired To Pocket
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 12/28/2007 3:42:00 AM
In a pre-New Year’s salvo, TV and film studios Friday claimed that writers have now lost more in wages and benefits during their nearly nine-week-old strike than they hoped to ever gain.
The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers issued a statement that said according to its calculations, as of 10:11 a.m Friday morning the strike by the Writers Guild of America has cost writers more than $150 million. WGA leaders had previously said that their demands to studios added up to about $150 million over three years.
“It's official: The people in charge at the WGA have led working writers into a strike that has now cost those working writers more in salary and benefits than the WGA's organizers ever expected to gain from the strike,” the AMPTP said. “And the strike continues because the union's leaders are focused on jurisdictional issues that would expand their own power, at the expense of the new media issues that working writers care most about."
The WGA went out on strike Nov. 5, and contract talks broke off in December over the issue of new-media residuals and the union’s bid to get jurisdiction over animation and reality shows.
In response to the AMPTP Friday, the WGA said, “Big media walked away from the table and refuses to negotiate. The media conglomerates know that the core issue in these negotiations is new media. Their current proposals would cause writers even more economic harm in the future than they claim this strike has caused. To sidestep this fact, they erroneously claim we are focused on other issues. The conglomerates are responsible for creating the economic havoc. They should put their energies into making a fair deal with writers rather than issuing misleading statements.”
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