by Mike Hall, Dec 10, 2007

Hollywood producers walked away from the bargaining table late Friday as negotiators for the Writers Guild of America were preparing a counteroffer to the producers’ demand that the writers withdraw half a dozen critical proposals.

In a message on the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) website, John Bowman, chairman of the negotiating committee, describes the breakdown:

As we prepared our counteroffer, at 6:05 p.m., Nick Counter, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Television and Movie Producers (AMPTP), came and said to us, in the mediator’s presence: “We are leaving. When you write us a letter saying you will take all these items off the table, we will reschedule negotiations with you.” Within minutes, the AMPTP had posted a lengthy statement announcing the breakdown of negotiations.

 

We reject the idea of an ultimatum. Although a number of items we have on the table are negotiable, we cannot be forced to bargain with ourselves. The AMPTP has many proposals on the table that are unacceptable to writers, but we have never delivered ultimatums.

The strike, now in its fifth week, centers on the writers’ fair share of revenue from DVDs, online broadcasts, iPod downloads and other new forms of media—new streams of revenue that are filling studios’ coffers.

WGAE President Michael Winsap slammed the AMPTP’s attempts to spin the end of the talks as a result of the unions’ refusal to come to a fair settlement. In a letter to union members, he writes:

They lie. And then they lie again. And then they lie some more. Because the AMPTP wants to create confusion, doubt, fear and dissension. They want to divide and conquer, to undercut our proven solidarity. They are spending a fortune—money that better could be used to help cover the comparatively small amount we’re asking for—on newspapers ads, political spin doctors and crisis-management consultants specializing in union-busting.

 

[It’s] crystal-clear that this had been the AMPTP’s intention all along—a press release went out from them so headspinningly fast that it clearly had been prepared long in advance.

 

They refuse to negotiate until we accept their ultimatum. We refuse to bow to such supercilious, bullheaded intransigence, designed solely to destroy us. Yet we remain reasonable women and men willing to talk, bargain and negotiate anytime, anywhere.

In The Huffington Post, Robert J. Elisberg provides a closer look at some of the proposals and the producers’ attempt to paint the writers as greedy and the industry as struggling. He writes:

Keep in mind that these are the same people who fought James Garner in court for six years trying to insist that The Rockford Files had never made a profit in 16 years of first run and syndication. So, you have to ponder just a wee bit about the AMPTP corporations’ ability to tell the truth. And hide money.

Don’t forget, thanks to our friends at Firedoglake, you can send a message to the producers and executives of your favorite shows asking them to reach a fair deal with the writers.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article | Comments (1)