Writers Look to Bypass Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
WGA Attempts to Negotiate Separate Union Agreements with Studios
By Steve Donohue -- Multichannel News, 12/15/2007 4:19:00 PM MT
In a change in strategy, the Writers Guild of America will attempt to bypass the trade group for producers and approach individual studios and producers in an attempt to negotiate separate union agreements.
In a letter to the membership Saturday, the WGA negotiation committee indicated that bargaining with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade group for the studios and independent producers, is “an option, not a requirement.”
Each signatory to the WGA agreements is required to bargain with the writers union individually if the WGA makes a legal demand to do so, the letter to the membership said.
The WGA will approach individual producers beginning Dec. 17, according to the letter.
The AMPTP countered the letter with an expression of solidarity among the producers.
“This is merely the latest indication that the WGA organizers are grasping for straws and have never had a coherent strategy for engaging in serious negotiations. The AMPTP may have different companies with different assets in different businesses, but they are all unified in one common goal -- to reach an agreement with writers that positions everyone in our industry for success in a rapidly changing marketplace,” the AMPTP statement said.
