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Contract Update: Statement from John Bowman, Chair of the WGA Negotiating Committee

This letter was sent to members of the WGA by John Bowman, the chair of the WGA negotiating committee

LOS ANGELES – WGA Negotiating Committee Chair John F. Bowman, on behalf of the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), today issued the following message regarding Contract 2007 negotiations:

Fellow Guild Members:

Rumors, half-truths, and misinformation about what is actually happening at the bargaining table fly across the internet, are posted on blogs, passed across picket lines like a game of telephone, and appear in stories and advertisements in the trade papers.

So, to clarify exactly where we are, we have prepared a report and analysis, which you can read in its entirety at:

http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2628

In the meantime, here’s a brief summary:

The latest WGA proposal would cost the companies $151 million over three years. It is reasonable, serious, and easily affordable. For instance, it would cost Sony only $1.68 million per year. Paramount and CBS would each pay only $4.66 million per year. MGM would pay only $320,000 per year.

The AMPTP claims its proposal would give us $130 million over three years. Our analysis – and again, please visit the website to see for yourself – tells us their offer is worth only $32 million. But if you factor in the companies’ regressive proposal on “promotional use” (streaming TV shows and feature films in their entirety for free) writers could potentially lose $100 million in income over the course of this contract.

So while we don’t see how their proposal adds up to anywhere near $130 million, we greet their public willingness to make such an offer with real interest. If the AMPTP is serious about this figure, the WGA is confident we are closer to a deal than anyone has suggested, and we are hopeful that the companies will respond positively to our proposal, which is a serious, reasonable, and affordable attempt to bridge the gap between us.

Sincerely,

John F. Bowman

Chair, WGA Negotiating Committee

Letter from the Presidents

This was a letter sent to all WGA members from the presidents of the WGA West and the WGA East:

To My Fellow Members,

After four days of bargaining with the AMPTP, I am writing to let you know that, though we are still at the table, the press blackout has been lifted.

Our inability to communicate with our members has left a vacuum of information that has been filled with rumors, both well intentioned and deceptive.

Among the rumors was the assertion that the AMPTP had a groundbreaking proposal that would make this negotiation a "done deal." In fact, for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers.

Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback.

From streaming television episodes, the companies proposed a residual structure of a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun). For theatrical product they are offering no residuals whatsoever for streaming.

For made-for-Internet material, they offered minimums that would allow a studio to produce up to a 15 minute episode of network-derived web content for a script fee of $1300. They continued to refuse to grant jurisdiction over original content for the Internet.

In their new proposal, they made absolutely no move on the download formula (which they propose to pay at the DVD rate), and continue to assert that they can deem any reuse "promotional," and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode and even if they make money).

The AMPTP says it will have additional proposals to make but, as of Thursday evening, they have not been presented to us. We are scheduled to meet with them again on Tuesday.

In the meantime, I felt it was essential to update you accurately on where negotiations stood. On Wednesday we presented a comprehensive economic justification for our proposals. Our entire package would cost this industry $151 million over three years. That's a little over a 3% increase in writer earnings each year, while company revenues are projected to grow at a rate of 10%. We are falling behind.

For Sony, this entire deal would cost $1.68 million per year. For Disney $6.25 million. Paramount and CBS would each pay about $4.66 million, Warner about $11.2 million, Fox $6.04 million, and NBC/Universal $7.44 million. MGM would pay $320,000 and the entire universe of remaining companies would assume the remainder of about $8.3 million per year. As we've stated repeatedly, our proposals are more than reasonable and the companies have no excuse for denying it.

The AMPTP's intractability is dispiriting news but it must also be motivating. Any movement on the part of these multinational conglomerates has been the result of the collective action of our membership, with the support of SAG, other unions, supportive politicians, and the general public. We must fight on, returning to the lines on Monday in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together.

Best,
Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

Once again, all eye[s] are on CBS

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) have issued the following statement concerning the December 10th Presidential Debate hosted by CBS:

“The Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, West regret that the Democratic National Committee has had to cancel the December 10th Presidential Debate hosted by CBS. This was triggered by CBS' fear that the Democratic candidates would not cross a picket line by WGA-CBS News writers or WGA Film and TV writers to participate in the debate – a concern that could have been avoided entirely if CBS would simply sit down and negotiate a fair contract for its news and entertainment employees. Instead, CBS chose to make a decision that stifles the democratic process.”

WRITERS GUILD EAST STATEMENT ON CARSON DALY'S DECISION TO RETURN TO WORK

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) issued this statement today:

"The Writers Guild of America, East joins our colleagues of the Writers Guild of America, West in expressing our profound disappointment with Carson Daly's decision to return to work. Although he is not a member of the WGA, until now, Mr. Daly has followed the lead of his late night hosts and colleagues who are Writers Guild members -- (alphabetically) Stephen Colbert, Spike Feresten, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Jon Stewart. They have taken a forthright and principled position in solidarity with their writing staffs, which we applaud. We thank them and hope that Mr. Daly will reconsider his decision, including the soliciting of scab writers to provide material for his program."

WGA-East Responds to Support of Front Runner Democrats

The WGA-E issued this statement in response to the pledges of John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama not to cross the picket line.

"We are thrilled by the strong support we've received today from presidential candidates John Edwards, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. We are grateful to John Edwards for his decision that he and Elizabeth will not to appear on The View next week in support of our striking writers there. In addition, his, Hilary Clinton's and Barack Obama's public commitment not to cross potential picket lines at CBS News, should our WGA-CBS News members go on strike in the near future, sends a powerful message that our members cause is just and important. They have given us more reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving. We hope everyone follows their leads."

To read the original pledges made by each candidate click here:

Hillary Clinton

John Edwards

Barack Obama

Day 16 of the WGA Strike: Hollywood Rally

The Writers of House walk the picket line at Fox

The Writers of House walk the picket line at Fox and discuss the WGA strike with GotNews.TV

Day 15 of the WGA Strike: Fox Studios

CBS News Employees Say "Yes" to Strike Authorization

It was announced this morning that CBS News Employees represented by the WGA East and the WGA West voted to authorize a strike against CBS by an overwhelming 81 percent. 300 WGA-CBS members voted in a special election held on Thursday. This does not mean that they will go on strike yet, it merely means that the WGA is now authorized to call a strike at any time.

WGA-CBS news staffers have been working under an expired contract since 2005. In 2006, the WGA voted against a contract offer by CBS. CBS has since refused to come back to the table. The WGA-CBS membership consists of about 500 news employees working at both the local and national levels of television and radio. They include newswriters, editors, desk assistants, production assistants, graphic artists, promotion writers and researchers. The strike will effect workers in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

The WGA has provided a list of key elements in CBS's last contract offer which was rejected:

-A two-tier wage package – television and network radio members in one tier and local radio members in another – far below the cost of living with no retroactive pay. The proposal offered 2.2% raises for television and network radio, and 1.48% raises for local radio.

-The right to assign current WGA responsibilities at KNX Radio to non-WGA employees.

-The ability to merge or combine Guild shops with non-Guild units, and in doing so potentially force the Guild out of those shops. Stations affected may include WCBS-AM 880 and 1010 WINS in New York, and KNX and KFWB in Los Angeles.

-The WGA-CBS national agreement covers newswriters, editors, desk assistants, production assistants, graphic artists, promotion writers, and researchers in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles working in television and radio on the national and local levels. More than 500 WGA-CBS employees are covered under this contract, which expired on April 1, 2005. The two sides last met at the negotiations table on January 8, 2007.
[WGA-East]

Below: Picketers at Fox Studios (Day 15 of the Strike)

The Strike Continues as we await the vote of CBS news writers

Despite the announcement that the WGA and the AMPTP will resume contract negotiations on November 26th, the WGA has stated that the strike will continue.

Meanwhile, on Thursday CBS news writers represented by the WGA voted on whether or not they would go on strike. The WGA has stated that "There are 500 WGA-CBS employees involved - they work in television and radio, on the national and local levels, in New York, Chicago, Washington DC and Los Angeles. They are newswriters, editors, desk assistants, production assistants, graphic artists, promotion writers and researchers." Their vote will be announced on Monday.