As Michael Cieply reports in the in
The New York Times, members of the Writers Guild of America West are voting on whether to authorise their leadership to call a strike, as contract talks turn increasingly bitter.
What began as a dispute over compensation for future use of programming on the Internet, over cellphones or in media yet to be invented has unexpectedly turned into a brawl over a decades-old residuals system. That formula pays writers and others when movies and television shows are sold on DVD or on cable television.
The Hollywood Reporter also has
extensive coverage, while, on his
Artful Writer blog, screenwriter Craig Mazin, who has been critical of the WGA in the past, turns his fire on the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The AMPTP...has been acting atrociously. For those of you who don’t know, the proposal they currently have on the table isn’t just bad.
It’s immoral.
Goodness knows writers are insecure beings, find it hard enough to get work as it is, and the threat of a strike would make any of us hyperventilate. It's always a last resort of any union and never to be taken lightly. The WGAW is doing its very best to protect its members, as does the WGGB here.
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, our British television agreements differ to American ones, and we've been able to negotiate successfully for new technology residuals for DVDs, mobiles, downloads, etc. In negotiations, the Americans also have to factor in private health care which we in Britain, thanks to the NHS, don't have to do.
The British and American contracts may differ in many ways, but our ethos and constant vigilance in protecting our members is the same. As affiliated trade unions, we support our American colleagues and wish them good luck. And what writer couldn't use a bit more of that?
Gail Renard
Chair of the WGGB TV Committee