2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike

By Hurmoth
in The Media Room

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2007 Hollywood Strike  

282 members have voted

  1. 1. Who do you support in the strike?

    • The AMPTP
      35
    • The WGA
      140
    • Undecided/Don't Care
      107

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Grand Master

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So I've just been told that Peter Chernin did make it to Super Bowl XLII after all. (Heck, it's News Corp's Fox Sports televising it, and Phoenix is only an hour's corporate jet ride away.) And the mogul is telling Hollywood folk there that "the strike is over", according to emails coming fast and furious out of that venue.

Source

Grand Master

Rappy Veteran

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I'll wait for their website to say so....

Of course wait for confirmation that was just someone who heard something but I could say I heard something and put it on net for it not to be true.

Grand Master

Hurmoth

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I'll wait for their website to say so....

I don't know, Deadline Hollywood is a very accurate site. I believe it personally. I think everyone involved is tired of the strike and I think the congloms realized that Nick Counter was the problem, not the writers. I haven't heard Nick's name mentioned since these new talks began and I have to wonder if the congloms told him to get the **** out of the way.

Grand Master

episode

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I love the strike. It is making people realize how uninteresting and useless the entire industry is and lets us focus on better and more creative forms of entertainment (books, video games). Kinda like the baseball strike; it was already on a downhill slide and people in the U.S. got to see just how boring it was and how easy it would be to live without it.

Hopefully, the studios and the writers will continue this path and mutually starve each other to death. Screw 'em.

Baseball is more popular now than it was previous to the strike.

Try again.

Grand Master

Mathachew Veteran

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I don't know, Deadline Hollywood is a very accurate site. I believe it personally. I think everyone involved is tired of the strike and I think the congloms realized that Nick Counter was the problem, not the writers. I haven't heard Nick's name mentioned since these new talks began and I have to wonder if the congloms told him to get the **** out of the way.

For now I'm just hesitant to get excited. This kind of sums it up:

In all my decades as a member of the WGA I’ve learned a few lessons about strikes and negotiations, the most important being that it’s never over ’til it’s over, no matter how much the lady singer might weigh.
Grand Master

Hurmoth

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If the Writers' Strike Is Over, How Come No One Told the Writers?

So, as reported right here in this column, the widespread rumor reverberating through Hollywood over the weekend was that the WGA-AMPTP deal was "done," and all that was left before the strike was officially over was to dot the i's and cross the t's.

Giddy over this prospect, we fanned out to interrogate some folks on the writers' side about what this means for the rest of the TV season.

Emails came back as a mixture of "Say wha?" and "Says who?" Huh.

Then came the letter from WGA president Patric Verrone to members, which said, essentially, that it ain't over till it's over. "We are still in talks and do not yet have a contract," Verrone wrote. "Picketing will resume on Monday." Damn.

After interviewing multiple sources close to the negotiations yesterday and today, it has become clear there are a couple of remaining issues on the table.

Among them, according to sources, is an established length of proposed "promotional clips" that the studios and networks could use free of charge under the new agreement. (Is a "clip" 20 seconds? Two minutes? All 22 minutes of an episode of 30 Rock?) That length was not determined in the DGA deal.

So, why the widespread word on Saturday that the deal was done? (According to Nikki Finke's blog at deadlinehollywooddaily.com, Peter Chernin was telling people at the Super Bowl yesterday that "the strike was over," which is exactly what everyone else in Hollywood was hearing.)

One longtime screenwriter close to the negotiations lobs this allegation: "We think [the AMPTP] sent out the message that the strike is over to try and weaken our resolve. Why else would anyone try to announce anything before it is actually over?"

The AMPTP also went on record today to deny rumors of a done deal, though an AMPTP source also told time.com to "stay tuned."

Meanwhile, a nonpartisan, looky-loo commuter just texted in to tell us: "Just drove past Paramount [studios], and the [WGA] picketers are out in full force. They are stronger than I've seen in many weeks."

Where do things stand now? Well, the writers have the very big stick of an Oscar picket line. The producers wield the weighty bat of "Work stoppages hurt the little guy most."

Here's that Time article...

Is the Writers Strike Nearing an End?

The ice appears to be cracking in Hollywood's long, cold winter of picket lines, shuttered productions and canceled award shows. As early as this week, the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike for three months, may be presented with a new contract. With two key industry events fast approaching ? the Academy Awards and TV pilot season ? the writers and the studios have had plenty of incentive to return to the negotiating table and get past the rancor that doomed the early talks. Thanks to a deal hammered out by directors, they have also had a road map to a contract.

Despite rumors and media reports of a deal struck over the weekend, WGA Presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship e-mailed their members Sunday, saying, "We are still in talks and do not yet have a contract... Picketing will resume on Monday." The Alliance of Motion Picture Television Producers (AMPTP) also waved off reports of a done deal, though an AMPTP source said to "stay tuned."

WGA negotiators are expected to bring the union's board of directors a rough contract on Monday, the result of recent bargaining sessions attended by News Corp Chairman Peter Chernin, Walt Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger and WGA negotiators David Young, John F. Bowman and Verrone. The negotiators have used the contract producers struck with the Directors' Guild of America last month as something of a template. That deal doubles residual payments for films and TV shows sold online and grants the union jurisdiction over shows created for the Internet.

Once the DGA deal got writers and studios back at the bargaining table, the WGA was the first to make concessions, dropping its demands to unionize writers on animated movies and reality TV shows. The studios, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times, are offering the writers a slightly sweeter deal than they did the directors, paying more for shows that are streamed free on ad-supported web sites. The directors get a flat $1,200 fee for the entire first year of streaming, a prospect that underwhelmed many striking writers.

"The DGA deal had some positive elements, but it was, 'eh'," says John Aboud, a WGA strike captain and contributor to the strike blog UnitedHollywood.com. "The pressure on everyone has been building. The creative community on an emotional level can't afford to lose the Oscars, and the companies can't afford to lose them on a financial level."

If the WGA board approves the tentative deal Monday, contract language will be finalized over the next several days or weeks. If past Hollywood strikes are any guide, the writers may resume work before every detail of the contract is agreed upon. With less than two weeks to pen some Oscar patter and with plenty of productions anxious to resume, writers may want to start flexing their typing fingers.

Grand Master

Hurmoth

Posted
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Hollywood on verge of deal to end strike - sources

Negotiators for Hollywood studios and striking writers have agreed to terms of a new contract that could be presented to union leaders in days and, if approved, end their three-month-old labor clash later this week, two sources told Reuters on Monday.

While the outlines of an accord were reached over the weekend, the two sides still need to hammer out contract language before the deal is submitted for approval to the governing boards the East and West Coast branches of the Writers Guild of America, they said.

Those sources, who were briefed on the status of talks but were not authorized to speak publicly about them under a media blackout, said negotiators hoped action by the WGA boards on a deal could come as early as Friday.

One source said the big breakthrough in the latest round of talks, which began Jan. 23, came on the key sticking point of how much writers should be paid for advertising-supported Internet "streaming" of television shows.

I really hope this is true. I'm ready for new episodes :p

But I, more importantly, hope the writers get a fair deal though.

Grand Master

ShaneSparky_YYZ

Posted
Posted
Baseball is more popular now than it was previous to the strike.

Try again.

I disagree, the hype isn't as big as it was in the early 90's (before the strike in 94) as it is today.

I went to a baseball game 2 yrs ago and it wasn't busy at all, back in the day it was packed always.

A lot has changed that tho, not just the strike.

As for the tv strike, when it comes back in full force it'll be booming as usual. We're mindless beings and many love TV to get away from their own life. Just my view on things.

Grand Master

episode

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I disagree, the hype isn't as big as it was in the early 90's (before the strike in 94) as it is today.

I went to a baseball game 2 yrs ago and it wasn't busy at all, back in the day it was packed always.

A lot has changed that tho, not just the strike.

As for the tv strike, when it comes back in full force it'll be booming as usual. We're mindless beings and many love TV to get away from their own life. Just my view on things.

Well, the Jays are the one exception. They were HUGE, and they are the one crowd that never came back (besides the Expos).

Gotta be something with you Canadians. Don't forget, the Jays were just off two World Series in that time period.

Anyway, baseball drew about 80m people this year. The pre-strike peak was 70m.

http://www.super70s.com/Baseball/Teams/Bac...und/Attendance/

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

Grand Master

Hurmoth

Posted
  • Author
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Dunno how true this is but w00t if true!

I don't know how though. I thought they had ran out of scripts? Even if there is a deal in place, if the writers are caught writing before the deal is ratified by the some 10,000 odd members then they can be seriously punished.

I hope filming has resumed, but only under WGA guidelines, if you know what I mean? I don't anyone to get in trouble :no:

Grand Master

Rappy Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
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I don't know how though. I thought they had ran out of scripts? Even if there is a deal in place, if the writers are caught writing before the deal is ratified by the some 10,000 odd members then they can be seriously punished.

I hope filming has resumed, but only under WGA guidelines, if you know what I mean? I don't anyone to get in trouble :no:

As far as the site is reporting they had some scenes done before the strike for the remaining episode but they weren't full episodes so they just filming random scenes its a bit like Heroes who made that preview for Villains but isn't an episode its just scenes.

Grand Master

episode

Posted
Posted
I don't know how though. I thought they had ran out of scripts? Even if there is a deal in place, if the writers are caught writing before the deal is ratified by the some 10,000 odd members then they can be seriously punished.

I hope filming has resumed, but only under WGA guidelines, if you know what I mean? I don't anyone to get in trouble :no:

I thought it was more like the situation 'The Office' was in. There are more scripts, but since the showrunners weren't on set, they didn't film them.

Grand Master

ShaneSparky_YYZ

Posted
Posted
Well, the Jays are the one exception. They were HUGE, and they are the one crowd that never came back (besides the Expos).

Gotta be something with you Canadians. Don't forget, the Jays were just off two World Series in that time period.

Anyway, baseball drew about 80m people this year. The pre-strike peak was 70m.

http://www.super70s.com/Baseball/Teams/Bac...und/Attendance/

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance

The Jays, hahah, what a joke they are, I don't bother going to our games, I was down in Florida for a Marlins game, everytime I go down there (usually every 2 yrs) I catch a game down there. Maybe something else was going on I dunno, gotta be something with you Americans doing something better that day.

Grand Master

episode

Posted
Posted (edited)
The Jays, hahah, what a joke they are, I don't bother going to our games, I was down in Florida for a Marlins game, everytime I go down there (usually every 2 yrs) I catch a game down there. Maybe something else was going on I dunno, gotta be something with you Americans doing something better that day.

No, the Marlins don't have good attendance either. Basically because of the stadium, but also because they only spend money on the team once every 6 or 7 years.

Anyway, any other new news on the strike?

Edited by episode
Grand Master

Hurmoth

Posted
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Posted

Letter To Membership From WGA Presidents

This was sent today to WGA members from Presidents Verrone and Winship. Emphasis is mine -- because I think it's incredibly important. --LK

To Our Fellow Members,

As Negotiating Committee Chair John Bowman wrote you last night, we are continuing to negotiate the terms of a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. We anticipate that we will be able to present the terms of that agreement to you in the next few days. In order to have a full discussion with you of the terms and how they were reached, and in order to get your input before making recommendations or decisions, we have scheduled membership meetings for current-active members only for this Saturday, February 9, in New York and Los Angeles.

The New York meeting will take place at 2 pm ET in the Broadway Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Times Square, 1606 Broadway (Broadway and 49th Street).

The Los Angeles meeting will take place at 7 pm PT in the Shrine Auditorium (665 W. Jefferson Blvd.).

We urge you to attend. We have gotten to this point in our negotiation as the direct result of the power of this strike, which each of you has generated. Neither the Negotiating Committee, nor the West Board or the East Council, will take action on any contract until after the membership meetings are held and your voices have been heard. We are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone

President

Writers Guild of America, West

Michael Winship

President

Writers Guild of America, East

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