LOS ANGELES – Members of the Writers Guild of America will officially hit the pickets Tuesday morning after weeks of failed negotiations with some of Hollywood’s biggest studios and streaming companies.
In a statement released Monday afternoon before the midnight deadline when the current contract between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Writers Guild expired, Ellen Stutzman, chief negotiator along with committee co-chairs of WGA Negotiations, David A. Goodman and Chris Keyser, announced ; “Our negotiation with the studios and the streamers has not reached an agreement. We are on strike”.
Deadline’s Dominic Patton, who has been covering the WGA-AMPTP talks, reported:
Leaders of the Writers Guild of America say Monday night that the guild was forced to strike at midnight PT because their proposals to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on basic contract issues “fell on deaf ears “.
Money is a big issue: The union is seeking a new contract that would increase wages and benefits by $429 million over three years, but says the studios only offered $86 million. But preserving writing as a profession is an even bigger issue and goes to the heart of what the strike is about.
Patton also described that in a phone interview with Deadline shortly after contract negotiations broke down, WGA West President Meredith Stiehm and WGA Negotiations Committee Co-Chairs David A. Goodman and Chris Keyser , told Deadline that the AMPTP “shut down” the guild from the get-go. start of negotiations on a “constellation” of proposals demanded by the trade unions.
In the WGA’s statement, Guild leadership outlined union concerns, including how corporate business practices have reduced our compensation and waste and undermined our working conditions.
WGA negotiators also stated that “given the existential crisis facing writers. The companies’ behavior has created a gig economy within a unionized workforce, and their unwavering position in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devalue the writing profession. From its refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment on episodic television, to its creation of a “daily rate” in variety comedy, to its insistence on free work for writers and AI for all writers, have closed the door to their work. strength and opened the door to writing as a fully autonomous profession. This accession could never contemplate this agreement.”
The release noted that the WGA West and WGA East strike against the AMPTP will begin on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 12:01 am PT/3:01 am ET. The picketing will begin Tuesday afternoon, according to the WGA West.
The AMPTP has also issued a statement:
“The AMPTP presented a comprehensive package proposal to the union last night that included generous increases in writers’ compensation as well as improvements to broadcast residuals,” the statement said.
“The AMPTP also indicated to the WGA that it is willing to improve this offer, but did not want to because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the guild continues to insist on. The main sticking points are mandatory staffing and length of employment, union proposals that would require a company to run a show with a certain number of writers for a certain period of time, whether it’s necessary or not.
AMPTP member companies remain united in their desire to reach an agreement that is beneficial to writers and to the health and longevity of the industry, and to avoid hardship for the thousands of employees who depend on the industry for his life. The AMPTP is willing to engage in discussions with the WGA to try to break this deadlock.”
In an interview with KABC 7 Los Angeles, Deadline’s Patton said both sides are stuck.
“The differences between the guild and the studios are important,” he said. “We’re looking at hundreds of millions of dollars and completely different attitudes toward things like AI, things that are almost completely insurmountable right now.”
The last major strike against the studios occurred in 2007, with union members out of work for 100 days and bringing production to a standstill. According to various estimates from different organizations, the 100-day strike cost the economy of Los Angeles County and Southern California between $2 billion and $3 billion.
Patton also noted, “All the people who provide services and goods to the film industry, vendors, they’re going to have no one to sell to. So this is going to have an explosion radius throughout Los Angeles County probably pretty quickly.” .
The immediate impact will be late night TV shows followed by scripted TV productions and some movie sets.
The Writers’ Guild also said in its statement that it was calling for the exit:
“This is what every writer knows: the companies have broken this business. They have taken a lot from the very people, the writers, who have made them rich. But what they can’t take from us is each other, our solidarity, our mutual commitment to save ourselves and this profession we love. We hoped to do it through reasonable conversation. Now we will do it through struggle. For the sake of our present and our future, we has given no other option.”
For its part, the AMPTP said its statement: “The main points of conflict are ‘mandatory staffing’ and ‘length of employment’ – union proposals that would require a company to put on a show with a certain number of writers for a certain period of time, whether necessary or not.”
