Writers Headed Back To Work

With the approval of the Writers Guild board on Sunday and a similarly positive vote expected from the membership Tuesday, the four-month WGA strike now appears to be history.

History was much on the mind of WGA West President Patric Verrone as he told reporters at a Sunday news conference,

"Since we began negotiations in July, we've been saying, 'If they get paid, we get paid.' This contract makes that a reality. It's the best deal this Guild has bargained for in 30 years after the most successful strike this Guild has waged in 35 years. It was arguably the most successful strike in the American labor movement in a decade, clearly the most important of this young century. It is not all that we hoped for, and not all that we deserved. But as I told our members, this strike was about the future, and this deal assures for us and for future generations of writers a share in the future..."

Verrone, an amination writer himslf, said it was "heartbreaking for me personally" to discard the original planks in the writers' demands calling for more control over animation and reality TV,

"But it was more important that we make a deal that benefited the membership and the town as a whole and got people back to work...the legacy of the '88 strike was the ability of the companies to develop content without writers and creators. The legacy of this strike will be the ability of writers and creators to develop content without the companies. We are making deals, and we will continue to make deals, with Google, Yahoo, and others beyond just the 7 conglomerates.

The guild leadership made a point of alowing show runners to set to work today, largely satisfying the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' proviso that a speedy restart of the industry wa part of the settlement package, and the bulk of the emmbership was expected to be back at work on Wednesday following the Tuesday ratification vote.

(left to right: WGA leaders John Bowman, Patric Verrone and David Young at their Sunday press conference; photo by Toby Canham/Getty Images)