Optimism Greets WGA Deal

By John Horn and Matea Gold, LA Times, | February 10, 2008

Writers walk the picket lines.

Strike isn't over just yet; writers will vote in coming days

The Writers Guild of America leadership recommended Saturday that striking writers approve a contract offer from television networks and movie studios, signaling a likely -- but not immediate -- resolution to the crippling labor impasse.

The tentative pact -- which guild members greeted enthusiastically but hardly exuberantly -- still requires a ratification vote to end the 14-week strike. The guild had considered allowing its 10,000 members to return to work Monday, but decided to give writers a chance to consider the contract.

The guild expects the strike votes to be counted -- and writers to be back at their keyboards -- as early as Wednesday. If approved, the contract would not take effect for about two weeks.

Until the strike is lifted, thousands of workers in businesses as varied as catering, lighting and security will remain furloughed, and the production of new television episodes will not resume right away. The fate of the Feb. 24 Academy Awards remains in limbo, as show organizers have said they need at least two weeks of writing to prepare the ceremony and have not yet been granted a waiver from the guild that would permit such work.

"We have a deal," Patric Verrone, president of the guild's West Coast branch, told thousands of cheering out-of-work writers in a special meeting Saturday at the Shrine Auditorium. "More importantly, you have a deal."

Verrone said the final details of the deal between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were resolved at 1:30 a.m. Saturday, and the guild convened meetings of its members on both coasts later that day to walk them through the terms.

While the proposed deal did not deliver any landmark gains for the writers, it did not include any of the rollbacks proffered by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Guild leaders -- who were welcomed at the Shrine with several sustained standing ovations -- said that it was the best agreement they could obtain, and that it gave writers new compensation formulas for work created for, streamed and rebroadcast on the Internet.

"It is the best deal the guild has bargained for in 30 years. Admittedly, the contract has some holes," Verrone said. The studios declined to comment.

"I think we came away with a good deal," Michael Winship, president of the guild's East Coast branch, said at the New York meeting. "I hope the membership endorses it."

The Writers Guild's negotiating committee is scheduled to meet Sunday morning to endorse the deal before the guild's board, which also is expected to recommend it to members.

"You can decide whether to lift the strike," Verrone told members gathered at the Shrine. "The decision to lift the strike will be yours."

Under the tentative deal, film and television writers, who previously got nothing for shows and movies streamed over the Internet, will receive a fixed residual payment of about $1,300 a year for one-hour shows streamed online in the first two years of the new contract.

In the third year of the deal, however, they would receive something directors will not: residuals equal to 2 percent of the revenue received by the program's distributor. Productions of certain shows created for the Internet will now be covered by the Writers Guild contract.

"The reason for this strike was to make sure we had coverage of the Internet, that it didn't become a guild-free zone, and I think we accomplished that," said Warren Leight, executive producer of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." "I think some people will push for more. But it becomes one of those analyses: How much more can you get for how much more pain?"

The tentative agreement also includes a doubling of the residual rate for movies and TV shows sold online and secures the union's jurisdiction over content created specifically for the Web, above certain budget thresholds. And like directors, writers would receive a 3.5 percent increase in minimum pay rates for television and film work.

Carmen Culver, a writer for movies and miniseries, called the agreement a complicated deal. "There were some parts I was very happy about and others less so," she said. "But I'm extremely proud of the guild for hanging tough. It's a great day for the labor movement. We have really stood up and said to these corporations that it all begins with the word. I think the big boys have been brought to their knees."

Filmmaker Michael Moore came out of the New York meeting substantially more enthusiastic than when he entered. "This is an historic moment for labor in this country," Moore said. "To have the writers union stand up like we did, not give back a single thing and make them give -- it was a really great moment."