Per The Hollywood Reporter, The Writer’s Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reached a tentative deal:
Striking WGA members could be back to work by Monday if a tentative agreement, reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, is embraced by members in key meetings scheduled for later Saturday.
A four-page summary of the agreement was e-mailed to the WGA’s 10,500 membership at 3 a.m. Saturday ahead of the meetings in New York and Los Angeles.
A summary of the key points to the deal can be found here. Mark Verheiden offers commentary:
Tonight’s full membership meeting at the Shrine promises to be interesting. I suspect there will be much venting over what the new deal did not achieve, but if we’ve trusted our leadership this far, then jumping overboard at the last moment doesn’t make much sense. And the uncomfortable truth, as was explained to me by one of the negotiating committee members earlier this week, is that if the WGA rejects this deal, we lose our leverage. At this point there can still be a truncated pilot season, networks shows could possibly go back into production and the Oscar-cast can happen. Past that, writers would have no leverage until SAG goes out June 30. Me? I don’t think any possible incremental improvements we might get by holding out for another four + months would be worth the financial devastation that would befall writers, actors, directors, production people and “the town.” If that doesn’t sound open minded, well, I guess it’s not.
As does Mark Evanier, who said, “… it seems to me like an acceptable but not great offer.”
February 9th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I hope so. They deserve to get paid properly. Hopefully it’ll go through so we can get TV back again soon.
February 9th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
If this deal’s sound, take it. If not, strike on, my brothers and sisters in prose.
February 9th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I’m with Roy. Problem is, as evidenced by certain WGA members I’ve spoken to recently, the WGA doesn’t seem to know how to properly strike.
Not enough done to encourage viewers to not watch reruns, struck shows, or reality TV (which has writers, but they just have not been rolled into the union yet). Not enough done to court public opinion.
The most taxing thing they asked sympathetic non-union people to do seemed to be writing letters to the heads of networks. The public you need to influence isn’t all in the greater NYC and Los Angeles areas, you know?
I would have gladly picketed a local affiliate if I could have gotten some support from the WGA to do so.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
If the strike continues and/or this deal isn’t ratified, the WGA will lose what few shreds of support and sympathy they have left with the general public.
February 9th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Hope this pans out – some shows may see new episodes produced this season if the strike finishes by midmonth.
February 9th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I definitely hope that offer is good… otherwise, STRIKE ON. What meager consequence that might come, be damned.
In the long run, a better deal will simply EASILY outweigh ANY of the short-term ill effects.
February 9th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
At first I wanted the strike to end (in the WGA’s favor) so that I could get back to watching all my shows. Now I’m mostly relieved about it ending so that I’ll never again have to read endless volumes of catty, unionier-than-thou bitching on the ‘rama boards.
February 9th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
It’s hard to digest all those numbers (and I’m not crazy about all the flat figures), but it is at least a solid foot in the door. That’s what I was hoping for.
But then again, I’m not a member, so I can’t say what they should do.
February 9th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
KHux: “I would have gladly picketed a local affiliate if I could have gotten some support from the WGA to do so.”
Having worked for two local television stations for four years or so, I can clearly tell you that would pretty much just annoy a bunch of apathetic people who have made bad career choices, and have no real impact on anyone or anything.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
I think Kevin’s point isn’t so much about what he would do, but that he’s probably not alone in his willingness to do so. And that if the WGA supported/promoted such ideas, and if you had such protests around the nation outside of affiliates, it would get national coverage, and would perhaps gain more public support for the WGA. It wouldn’t be about the people inside those particular affiliates in the least, and the protest wouldn’t be ‘functional’ in the way that picketing the studios in NY and LA is. It would be symbolic and spread knowledge and earn support, which is what the strike is lacking a lot of among the public. At least, that’s my understanding.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Thanks, James. That’s the point.
I’m not talking about hassling people going into the affiliate to work. They aren’t crossing a true picket line. But their offices are downtown in the biggest metropolitan areas around the country, for the most part.
People with signs at affiliates around the country means more individuals see the strike and that it is harder to ignore covering on a daily basis. More “man on the street” interviews with a local angle. It adds up to more than what was done during this strike…and asks people that hope to benefit from this deal in the future to do something about it now.
I just don’t think the WGA did nearly enough to help themselves here, all in the name of not alienating themselves from a public that producers were actively trying to alienate from the public. Oh well…that’s just me being unionier-than-thou, I guess…
February 10th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
The grubby, greedy TV writers should be glad they even have a job to go back to. The strike has hurt viewers…not them….they only care about themselves.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Post #12…you want Swiss or cheddar?
February 10th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Oh Jon. The strike *helps* viewers- if writers get better residuals and have more ownership in their work, it helps to make for better TV. If they’re getting peanuts, they write peanuts.
Hmm… peanuts…
That, and, the Man ultimately wants us all to be watching Survivor reruns and Survivor *sucks*.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:24 am
“The grubby, greedy TV writers should be glad they even have a job to go back to. The strike has hurt viewers…not them….they only care about themselves.”
Yeah, my livelihood has really been affected. I’ll be so happy when this strike ends, so that my life can finally get back on track.
February 11th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Is Joe Lawler being sarcastic? I suck ass at interpreting sarcasm and sardonism.. :\
Anyways, Jon Masters is full of nonsense.
February 11th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
“I just don’t think the WGA did nearly enough to help themselves here, all in the name of not alienating themselves from a public that producers were actively trying to alienate from the public. Oh well…that’s just me being unionier-than-thou, I guess…”
Kevin Huxford
I disagree because check out the protest and comedy shorts on youtube.com. This is the first labor strike in the 21st century to use the Internet as a podium.
If anything, the shorts educated the public about what the WGA wanted. Besides, the writers on the strike line don’t look like George Clooney or Charlize Theron; they look like us, and that was their advantage in the public siding with them (what middle class guy would side with a corporation in this matter?).
February 11th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
“The grubby, greedy TV writers should be glad they even have a job to go back to. The strike has hurt viewers…not them….they only care about themselves. ”
I don’t care about fair wages, I’M MISSING MY STORIES HERE!
February 11th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Great sarcasm, Gregg. I’d like to add that other labor unions should use the Internet as a tool of protest. They should create shorts for youtube hire local actors to detail feelings for striking. Be creative and persuasive at the same time.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Thanks for the kind words!
February 13th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Roy, it was great that they took advantage of the internet, but they still didn’t do enough to run an effective strike. When you have members saying it is OK to watch strike shows as long as you don’t DVR it or have a Nielsen box, you’re not really asking for enough from the public.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I don’t care about the TV/MOVIE writers. Comic books FOREVER!
February 21st, 2008 at 2:53 pm
“Roy, it was great that they took advantage of the internet, but they still didn’t do enough to run an effective strike. When you have members saying it is OK to watch strike shows as long as you don’t DVR it or have a Nielsen box, you’re not really asking for enough from the public.”
Kevin, the writers wanted the public to contact the networks execs so both camps could have a fair deal. Watching shows whose writing staff was help too. What more could they (the writers) have done?