Writers Strike and Take to Picket Lines
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 11/4/2007 11:50:00 PM
(Strike Photos)
TV and film writers went on strike early Monday and were slated to man picket lines today at sites in Manhattan and the West Coast.
Eleventh-hour talks Sunday between the scribes and producers in California with a federal mediator failed to head off the strike, which kicked off in New York City just after midnight.
The Writers Guild of America will start picketing at 9 a.m. at Rockefeller Plaza, NBC’s headquarters, with other sites reportedly and at 9 a.m., and then at a variety of locations on the West Coast, such as Fox, CBS Television City, Warner Bros. and Paramount.
The contract between the WGA, which represents 12,000 writers, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Writers expired Nov. 1. There was a negotiating session Friday, and the last-ditch one Sunday, that failed to bring a resolution.
The AMPTP issued a statement Sunday after those talks broke off.
“Notwithstanding the fact that negotiations were ongoing, the WGA decided to start their strike in New York,” APTP President Nick Counter. “When we asked if they would ‘stop the clock’ for the purpose of delaying the strike to allow negotiations to continue, they refused. We made an attempt at meeting them in a number of their key areas including Internet streaming and jurisdiction in New Media. Ultimately, the guild was unwilling to compromise on most of their major demands. It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action.”
Talks have been hang up on the issues of DVD residuals and compensation for new-media use of content. Writers wanted a doubling of DVD residuals, and want payment when their work is streamed over the Internet.
Monday morning, the WGA issued a statement and said it had “completely withdrew its DVD proposal, which the companies said was a stumbling block.”
But the AMPTP was still insisting on, according to the WGA: No jurisdiction for most of new media writing; no economic proposal for the part of new media writing where they do propose to give coverage; Internet downloads at the DVD rate; no residual for streaming video of theatrical product; a "promotional" proposal that allows them to reuse even complete movies or TV shows on any platform with no residual; and “window” of free reuse on the Internet “that makes a mockery of any residual.”
The WGA claimed that the producers have “made no response to any of the other proposals that the WGA has made since July. The AMPTP proposed that today's meeting be ‘off the record,’ meaning no press statements, but they have reneged on that.”
The last strike by the WGA was in 1988 and lasted five months.
