From
New York Times (
Source):
February 10, 2008
Tentative Deal Is Reached in Writers' StrikeBy MICHAEL CIEPLY
LOS ANGELES — An end to Hollywood’s long and bitter writers’ strike appeared close on Saturday, as union leaders representing 12,000 movie and television writers said they had reached a tentative three-year deal with production companies.
The strike, which began Nov. 5, remains in effect until the governing boards of the two writers’ guilds gauge the sense of their membership in mass meetings on both coasts this weekend and decide whether to end the walkout. The boards are expected to meet as early as Sunday, and the strike could be over by Monday morning.
A resolution would be good news for the producers, who have been patching together prime-time schedules with reruns and reality shows and have delayed some of their feature film plans. It would also bring relief to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which was nervously making plans for an Oscar night on Feb. 24 without writers or stars.
Late-night talk shows that have operated without writers would benefit immediately. Shows like NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” are already inviting writers back to work on Monday, assuming the strike ends. Dramas and comedies like Fox’s “24” and “Back to You” are likely to take weeks to get back in production. Weaker shows might not return at all, and shake-ups in network planning might delay the return of some shows, even though production would soon be possible.
The agreement would let writers claim to have bettered a similar deal achieved last month between the production companies and the Directors Guild of America. In the third year of the Writers Guild deal, writers will be paid a percentage of the distributor’s revenue rather than the flat fee for Web-streamed television shows granted to the directors. The writers had insisted on this issue to ensure they not lose out on any new-media windfall the studios and networks may get from Web video. The producers yielded on this point — and the directors did not push it —arguing that Internet distribution is unlikely to become a significant business during the length of these contracts.
Word of the tentative deal came on Saturday in an early morning e-mail message to members of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East. The deal was to be reviewed by members at previously scheduled meetings here and in New York on Saturday.
In their e-mail message, Patric M. Verrone, president of the West Coast guild, and Michael Winship, his East Coast counterpart, said: “Much has been achieved, and while this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success.”
While approval appears likely, members have warily debated the expected agreement all week, and they are certain to scrutinize the details closely. Members at the New York meeting on Saturday afternoon appeared largely upbeat, according to a writer who attended but spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with union leaders. But several questioners said they did not fully understand the contract, and some asked why the unions were being asked to lift the strike so quickly.
“It’ll be nuclear winter if we don’t ratify this,” said Terry George, a negotiating committee member, in response to one query. “If we don’t ratify this now, they can take everything back.” Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Winship drew substantial applause when he declared: “It is no exaggeration to say, a new era has begun.”
Speaking outside the New York meeting, Carmen Culver, who has written television movies and miniseries, said “the mood was more positive, certainly, than not.” She added, “There also, of course, lots of questions.”
Spokesmen for the writers and for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents over 300 production companies, declined to comment.
The walkout, Hollywood’s longest since writers went on strike for five months in 1988, shut down dozens of television shows, slowed development of feature films and threw tens of thousands of people out of work.
Writers had demanded a much bigger share of returns from new media than they had received in the past from the distribution of shows on older media like cassettes and DVDs, as well as expanded jurisdiction over reality television and animated features.
Company representatives initially responded by insisting on a complete revamping of Hollywood’s time-honored residuals system, under which writers, directors, actors and others are paid for re-use of their work on television and home video.
As the more expansive demands for wider jurisdiction and a narrowing of residuals were dropped, the sides were finally left with a more conventional negotiation. That turned on precise amounts of, and methods for calculating, payments for the growing digital distribution of shows in the next three years.
In Hollywood, excitement about a possible return to work has been dampened by widespread realization that the Screen Actors Guild, which represents 120,000 actors, is approaching a contract negotiation no less difficult than the writers’ talks.
A memorandum sent to some writers guild members summarized a four-hour meeting on Friday in which union leaders briefed a group of 300 strike captains. According to the memorandum, the captains were deeply divided as to whether the strike should be lifted before a full membership vote.
“Returning to work prior to an actual vote signaled it was over and felt undemocratic,” the memo sent to some guild members said, in summarizing the discussion. “Others felt the deal was being ‘rammed down our throats’ too quickly,” while still others felt that “returning to work was imperative.”
If members balk at an immediate return, the guilds could organize a rapid-fire vote by fax, Web and in meetings, polling writers over the next few days rather than ending the strike by board action. An accelerated member vote might put writers back to work by Wednesday.
The tentative agreement became possible when the sides reached a handshake deal nine days ago on a crucial term under which writers would be paid a fixed residual amounting to about $1,300 for the right to stream a television program online. In the third year of their contract, the writers would achieve one of their major goals: payments amounting to 2 percent of the distributor’s revenue from such streams.
The percentage formula is viewed by many writers as protection against the possibility that traditional reruns — which have paid them residuals amounting to tens of thousands of dollars per episode in the past — will disappear because of Web streams in the near future.
Other major gains include a pay plan that pegs residuals for electronic downloads of movies and televisions shows at nearly double the rate paid historically for DVDs, and calculates the rate as a percentage of the distributor’s revenue, junking an old formula.
The tentative agreement grew from a week-long, and sometimes heated, exchange of contractual provisions. Informal talks between guild leaders and key executives — primarily Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, and the president of News Corporation, Peter A. Chernin — began immediately after companies reached a deal with the directors guild in mid-January, pointing toward solutions that helped resolve the dispute with writers.
Television viewers began seeing the effects of the strike firsthand in the last few weeks, as scripted shows faded further into reruns and networks started promoting reality shows like “American Gladiators” on NBC that do not employ guild writers.
At the Friday strike captains’ meeting, Mr. Verrone said his guild had achieved two of its three prime objectives by securing coverage over Internet work and locking in a residuals formula for new media. According to the memorandum describing the meeting, Mr. Verrone called the failure to win jurisdiction over reality television and animation “a heartbreaking loss for him personally,” though he vowed to continue the fight.
Bill Carter and Colin Moynihan contributed reporting from New York.Click on any of the linked icons below to access the following:
