That won’t be easy as producers often turn unions and guilds against each other. Talks resume Sept. 19.
By Alex Ben Block
HOLLYWOOD, CA. (Hollywood Today) – 8/29/07 – With lucrative Internet and new media income on the line and a possible writer’s strike on Oct. 31, the two sides are digging in. Studios have been stockpiling scripts and networks speeding up series development in anticipation of a work stoppage by writers, and soon after that, actors.
Writers Guild of America West President Patric Verrone, who will lead the guild’s 17-member negotiating team when contract talks finally resume with Hollywood producers September 19, says a key to their success will be a unified front by the entertainment guilds and unions; even though producers have managed to turn the labor-management relationship upside down over the years.
Verrone told Hollywood Today the producers often seek to turn one union against another, while the producers spokesman, J. Nicholas Counter, has managed to hold together his diverse coalition of studios, producers and television networks.
Writers and key actors are used to getting residuals and other payments from re-runs, syndication, DVD sales, etc., but are seeing their work increasingly appear on websites and cell phones for which they receive little or no payment.
“Our strategy obviously includes the (a united front by the) Screen Actors Guild, AFTRA, the Directors Guild and any other unions,” continues Verrone. “It is a great leverage building device for us to show unity among the unions because if anything, that’s what the companies are doing. The pattern of bargaining that exists in so many other industries where the unions unite and pick out one company and then impose a pattern on the others has been turned on its head by Nick Counter over the past 25 years. (In Hollywood) the companies unite and pick off the weak union, or play the unions against each other, and as a result the pattern is applied union to union. We’re working very hard to reverse that.”
A spokesman for Counter at the AMPTP declined to respond. Counter, however, has issued pointed statements to the writers that he expects them to take seriously all of the producer’s proposals and provided detailed responses. That outburst came after the writers rejected two proposals by producers out of hand after two brief initial negotiating sessions on July 16 and 18.
Both sides had taken time after the initial meetings to study the other side’s proposals, but the delay has stretched out. It will be two months before the talks resume Sept. 19. That will be about six weeks before the current deal is up. However, it remains unlikely there will be any settlement before the contract expires Oct. 31, if then.
he threat of a strike by writers, and next year by actors, is seen as more real than any time in the past two decades, as activist guild leadership take on powerful studios and networks over a string of divisive issues that include compensation for works distributed on new media platforms, an overall pay increase and a controversial proposal by producers to roll back residual payments. However, that isn’t likely to translate into writers walking the picket lines as soon as Nov. 1.
Instead, it is likely the writers will do as they have in the past and keep working under the old contract for some period of time. That could be until the actor’s contract comes up at the end of June 2008, which would allow the guilds to act in unison to take on the producers.
Sources close to the producers said they will continue to exploit a rift between the two major acting unions. As technology changes, the lines of which union has jurisdiction has blurred. In the past, SAG handled film shoots and AFTRA video productions. Today, with high definition video, almost all TV and many films are shot on video that normally would fall under SAG jurisdiction. The TV networks in particular have been aggressive about pushing for AFTRA jurisdiction, because that means lower costs and fewer rules for them.
The writer’s did win one point. The talks will resume at the WGA West headquarters in West Los Angeles, not at the AMPTP headquarters in Encino, where the two sides met briefly twice this past July, before the negotiations broke off. At that time both sides put forth proposals for the negotiating agenda, and then made them public, which is very unusual. By going public, the pressure is increased on both sides, and some flexibility is lost.
The producers in July put forward two surprising proposals. One was to put all discussion of new media on hold while a multiyear study of the economic impact was completed. That was one of those rejected out of hand by writers, and the producers did take it off the table.
The other proposal from producers was a complicated 32-page document detailing plans to roll back residual payments to writers. In effect, the writers would have to wait for anything beyond an initial set of payments until the producing entity had made back its cost of production. The writers also rejected that but the producers continue to insist it is a subject for discussion, and have told the writers they expected a detailed, item by item response.
The guilds also want to expand their jurisdiction to cover reality television, animation, game shows and other non-fiction programming. Their organizing efforts in those areas so far have been largely futile and it is unlikely they will win at the negotiating table either. Writers also want to discuss their right to consultation on product integration deals with advertisers, which producers will continue to resist.
In the new media area, the producers have generally tried not to pay any additional fees arguing that these new markets are undeveloped, and are ancillary revenue needed to offset losses in film and TV production and distribution. Verrone said that the only fair way is to have creative talent participate in the revenue stream as it arrives, and that any efforts to tie payments to profits would be futile.
“For us it’s incremental,” explained Verrone. “You pay us the way you pay us in all these other places. And as your business moves there, and as your business models that evolve ostensively will be similar to the ones that are being done in traditional media, namely, they get paid, and we get paid. It shouldn’t be that thorny.”
One reason for the delay in resuming talks, according to sources close to the producers, is that the studios and networks want to see the results of guild elections before the vote. In the case of the WGA, President Patrick Verrone is running again Kathy Kiernan, a member of the news writer’s component, which is seen as less powerful than the script and screen writers. There is only one slate campaigning for officer and board positions called Writers United, led by Verrone, who is highly likely to win re-election.
On the east coast, TV writer Michael Winship is running against TV news writer Tom Phillips to succeed WGA East president Chris Albers. Members will vote by mail or in person at the annual WGAW membership meeting September 17, and ballots will be counted the next day. Typically 20 percent of the 9,000 members of the WGA actually vote. Negotiations will now resume two days later.
Later that week, on Sept. 20, the Screen Actors Guild will announce the winners of its elections. One third of the 69 national board seats, as well as the offices of President and Secretary-Treasurer, are to be decided. Alan Rosenberg, who has taken a hard line during his first two year term is running for re-election. Running against Rosenberg are Seymour Cassel, Charley M. De La Peña and Barry Simmonds. Connie Stevens is unopposed for secretary-treasurer.
The producers had also held off while completing talks with the Teamsters, which have now been successfully completed, on a new three year contract that doesn’t touch on any new media issues.
If as expected the negotiations go beyond Oct. 31, the WGA is not seen as strong enough to strike on its own, at least immediately. The consequences would follow two tracks if there is any work stoppage. The first victim would be the new TV season, although the networks have increasingly turned to reality and non-fiction shows that don’t use guild writers. Still, a shutdown would impact the entire TV season.
For movie writers, the impact would probably not be felt until early 2008, since movies go into production far in advance. By next Spring, it will be time to put new tent pole movies for late 2008 and summer 2009 into production, which could be a problem if there is a strike.
Actors are expected to get into negotiations early in 2008 as well in an effort to not only avoid a strike, but also to stop any defector strike action. In the past, when negotiations have dragged on, the studios have accelerated production. Then when the strike threat ends, there is a surplus of material that has to be worked off, which can cause a different kind of work stoppage for writers, actors and others.