Strike Days: Lights Out For The Talks?

As the strike winds on, with late night chat shows seeming to be the focus of the most speculation (are they the bulwark of the writers' power to withhold services, a New York Times piece seemed to ask, or are they the likely first place where the dam starts to crack?), the below message from WGA head Patric Verrone--soon to be answered by the AMPTP, below--seemed to be asking the membership to be, more than ever, on a war footing:

December 7, 2007

CONTRACT 2007 NEGOTIATIONS STATEMENT

LOS ANGELES - Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) President Patric M. Verrone and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) President Michael Winship today issued the following message regarding Contract 2007 negotiations:

Dear Fellow Members,

Before we head into negotiations this morning, we want to give you an update on where we stand.

On Tuesday, after the companies had requested a four-day break so they could work on their proposals, we returned to the bargaining table. We presented a counter proposal to their streaming proposal of November 29. They presented no new proposals. On Wednesday, the AMPTP again had no new proposals, but they did have detailed questions about our streaming counter proposal and other aspects of our overall proposals - and from the give and take of those discussions, we felt that they might finally be ready to engage in serious bargaining. They told us they would have new proposals for us Thursday. On Thursday, we met at 10am, and they told us their new proposals would be ready shortly. At 5pm, they told us their proposals still weren't ready, that they would be working on them late into the night, and that we should come back this morning at 10am. The fact that we saw everyone from the AMPTP leave the building by 6:45pm is not a promising sign, but we will be at the table at 10am this morning, ready to receive their new proposal.

We'd like to address some of the disturbing rumors and back channel communications we've been hearing. For one, we've heard that one or more of the companies are prepared to throw away the spring and fall TV season, plus features, and prolong the strike. Aside from the devastating effect this would have on the unions, workers, and their families in this industry, it would certainly explain the AMPTP's refusal to put any new proposals, even a bad one, on the table. Also, highly placed executives have been telling some of our writers that the companies are preparing to abruptly cut off negotiations. They say the companies plan to accuse the WGA of stalling and being unwilling to negotiate, and that the companies will use that as an excuse to walk out.

The Writers Guilds of America, West and East are going on record now that any such claims are absolutely untrue. We have been at the negotiating table every day, willing to bargain. Furthermore, we hereby challenge the AMPTP to negotiate in good faith, day and night, through the Christmas and New Year's holidays - whatever is necessary - to get this done and get the town back to work. The Writers Guilds will remain at the table every day, for as long as it takes, to make a fair deal.

Thank you for your patience, support, and solidarity through these difficult times. Please come to the Freemantle rally today. We remain all in this together.

Patric M. Verrone
President
Writers Guild of America, West

Michael Winship
President
Writers Guild of America, East

Soon after came the AMPTP response::

December 7, 2007

Statement from Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers:

The WGA's organizers sent a letter to WGA members today that contains a series of factual mistakes.

WGA Organizer Statement

"[T]he companies had requested a four-day break so they could work on their proposals."

The Facts

On Nov. 29, the WGA's organizers requested the four-day break after the
producers presented their proposed New Economic Partnership.

WGA Organizer Statement

The producers "told us they would have new proposals."

The Facts

The producers did present a new proposal, the New Economic Partnership, which would increase the average working writer's salary to more than $230,000 a year.
The WGA's organizers have yet to respond directly to that proposal, preferring instead to focus on jurisdictional issues in the areas of reality and animation television.

WGA Organizer Statement

"We have been at the negotiating table every day, willing to bargain."

The Facts

The WGA's organizers actually spend relatively little time at the negotiating
table. The WGA's organizers sought a four-day break, and when they returned sessions that were supposed to begin at 10:00 am often did not start until after lunchtime. When they are at the negotiating site, WGA organizers typically spend as much time speaking among themselves as they do at the negotiating table.

WGA Organizer Statement

"We will remain at the table every day, for as long as it takes, to make a fair
deal."

The Facts

The WGA's organizers refused repeated requests by the producers to begin
negotiations much earlier, in the spring of 2007. Had negotiations begun when the producers wanted them to start, perhaps the industry would not now be in the midst of this strike.

Meanwhile, Ellen I'm-Not-(Happy)-Giving-Back-the-Dog DeGeneres is still dodging flak for being up and running while most of her chat show counterparts go dark, but she got creative by hosting Presidential daughter Jenna Bush yesterday. Making a nominally surprise phone call to dad and mom at the White House ("I'm not watching you because you're taping right now," said her TV-op savvy mom, "I'm just sitting here with daddy.") and DeGeneres spoke with the President thusly after he asked, "How's my little girl doing?"

"Oh, she's great," answered the host. "She's scared she's going to get in trouble [and] not going to get any Christmas presents."

Along the post-Katrina Gulf Coast, where an estimated 46,000 to 64,900 children are experiencing serious post-storm mental health and other problems, as reported in today's New York Times in covering a Columbia University Children's Health Fund study, three-year-old young Isis Riley's problems go beyond that to a stress-related spate, now ameliorated, of "uncontrollable temper tantrums". Some 11,000 children are still in FEMA trailers--many not knowing where the next stop is as the agency shutters them. But DeGeneres, raised in the expensive N`awlins-outlying area of Metairie, was not heard to ask the Chief Executive, on behalf of her former New Orleanians, if more effective help could be rendered. At Mardi Gras time, kids shout up to the floats, "Throw me something, mister!" But DeGeneres, riding up top as celebrities are wont to do, apparently can neither hear nor ask that question.