WGA East president says AMPTP tries to divide and conquer because real goal is to break the union; says this strike is about respect for writers

By Alex Ben Block

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) – 12/10/2007 – If you thought the writer’s strike provoked nasty comments before, the gloves have really come off now that the talks have broken down, A letter from a top Writers Guild official out Monday implies that the Hollywood producers organization, AMPTP, never planned to negotiate in good faith and that the real management agenda is to destroy the union.

The talks have crumbled, with no renewal of negotiations in sight. On Monday, WGA East President Michael Winship wrote his members a letter that began with this comment about the AMPTP: “They lie…And then they lie again. And then they lie some more.”

Why does Winship believe they lie? “Because the AMPTP wants to create confusion, doubt, fear and dissension,” he says. “They want to divide and conquer, to undercut our proven solidarity. They are spending a fortune — money that better could be used to help cover the comparatively small amount we’re asking for — on newspapers ads, political spin doctors and crisis management consultants specializing in union busting….The bottom line: Don’t believe a word the AMPTP has to say.”

Winship implies that the AMPTP never planned to negotiate in good faith, that the whole thing was a PR stunt to puff smoke to conceal their real purpose: “The talks broke down and it became crystal clear that this had been the AMPTP’s intention all along — a press release went out from them so headspinningly fast that it clearly had been prepared long in advance,” wrote Winship…”They refuse to negotiate until we accept their ultimatum. We refuse to bow to such supercilious, bullheaded intransigence, designed solely to destroy us.”

What Winship is implying, and the AMPTP has denied in the past, is that the real agenda for management is to break the guild, and eliminate unions in Hollywood altogether.

At the same time, Winship also makes clear that the WGA objective does go beyond scoring economic gains for its current members; or even getting a share of the new media pie. “As SEIU President Andy Stern told Friday’s Los Angeles Times, ‘This really is the first significant 21st century strike. It’s raising the issues, as work changes, about how prosperity is going to be shared.’”

In other words, as the New York Times Michael Cieply reported today, this isn’t just about how much money will be made. It is about a revolution in the way writers are perceived, treated and compensated. Cieply, who was a Hollywood writer and producer himself for a time before returning to journalism, says in a conversation eight months ago, WGA West President Patric Verrone told him that the strike would be about “respect.”

“Writers he said were looking to restore a sense of leverage and status that has been lost as ever-larger corporations took control of the entertainment business,” recalled Cieply. “He described Hollywood as teetering on the brink of a dark age, as far as creative types were concerned. ‘I think if they could do this business without, they would, and so making our task as mechanical and simple and low paying and unartistic as possible,’ Verrone said.”

What this all means is that that both sides are now digging in for a long and ugly strike. There is a lot of talk about how this will disrupt pilot season and the annual spring upfront sales ritual as well as the fall 2008 season. There are scenarios in which the while business is changed forever. And that might happen.

But I don’t think so. Instead, the networks will fill their schedules with reality shows, backlog of scripted shows, reruns of shows that can be rerun and material collected from non traditional and international sources. The TV screens will not go dark, and next May the networks will still need to find a way to squeeze those upfront billions out of the advertisers, so some form of that ritual will continue.

One Hollywood insider told me that the AMPTP did not go into the strike looking to break the guild forever. However, now that it has reached such a dire state, the moguls are using the strike to clean house, and are willing to take the strike for a year if it means they can destroy or marginalize the guilds forever – not just writers but the activist actors as well.

This wag compared it to baseball, which took a strike in 1994 and cancelled an entire season. Eventually the baseball union crawled back and settled, and that union has not been as loud, annoying or powerful ever since. That may well be the mogul’s script for Hollywood.

A spokesman for the AMPTP said on Monday they are considering a response to Winship, but are not sure if and when it might come. When it does, we will pass it on as well.

Here are more selected excerpts from Winship’s letter to WGA members out this morning:

“If I hadn’t seen and heard it with my own eyes, I might not have believed the extraordinary depths of their dissembling. Last week in Los Angeles, I sat in the caucus room as we waited for the studios and networks to come to the table and negotiate. And waited. And waited.

We were told that we would be receiving the second half of their so-called “New Economic Partnership,” a proposal the first half of which seemed more Orwellian in its title than truly new or a generous partnership. Instead, we acted first, presenting in good faith a reasonable counterproposal to the first half of their “NEP,” which had offered a puny amount of money — $253 max — for video streaming of television product.

Our counterproposal put forward a plan whereby for the first year, three percent of the applicable minimum would be paid, per quarter, for every 100,000 hits on the Internet. So if you wrote a one-hour episodic drama, you’d get $632.34 for the first 100,000 hits, then an additional $632.64 for the next 100,000 and the next 100,000 and so on — quarterly, for the first year. After that, it would revert to 2.5% of distributor’s gross.

There was no immediate response. Instead, the AMPTP asked that we break off into smaller groups to discuss not only our proposals for the Internet and new media but all aspects of our contract demands.

We saw this as progress — it wasn’t negotiating as such but it did lead to the first frank and substantive talks with the AMPTP on new media and a range of our other issues, from original content for the Internet to enforcement and jurisdiction in reality, animation and basic cable. (By the way, it is apparently on the basis of that brief discussion of jurisdiction that the AMPTP has fueled ludicrous rumors and fabricated the fairy tale that negotiations broke down because of animation and reality — another one of their gross distortions. DON’T you believe it.)

On Thursday, we waited all day for new proposals they said were forthcoming any minute. Didn’t happen. (This led to another lie from the AMPTP. They said, accusingly, “When they are at the negotiating site, WGA organizers typically spend as much time speaking among themselves as they do at the negotiating table.” Yes — but only because we were waiting for the truant AMPTP to show up around the bargaining table at all!)

On Friday, members of the negotiating committee waited all day AGAIN, until the end of the day and week, 6 pm, when the AMPTP finally made a presentation. As our negotiating committee chairman John Bowman wrote you, “The AMPTP came back to us with a proposal that included a total rejection of our proposal on Internet streaming of December 3rd. They are holding to their offer of a $250 fixed residual for unlimited one year streaming after a six-week window of free use. They still insist on the DVD rate for Internet downloads. They refuse to cover original material made for new media.

“This offer was accompanied by an ultimatum: the AMPTP demands we give up several of our proposals, including Fair Market Value (our protection against vertical integration and self-dealing), animation, reality, and, most crucially, any proposal that uses distributor’s gross as a basis for residuals. This would require us to concede most of our Internet proposal as a precondition for continued bargaining. The AMPTP insists we let them do to the Internet what they did to home video.”

At this point, the talks broke down and it became crystal clear that this had been the AMPTP’s intention all along — a press release went out from them so headspinningly fast that it clearly had been prepared long in advance.”

ON PLANS TO KEEP ON PICKETING: “On Tuesday, December 11, we’ll be picketing ABC Daytime, from 9:15 am to 2 pm, outside the studios of “The View” and “All My Children,” at 320 West 66th Street, just west of West End Avenue. We march in support of our striking writers at both shows. The four hosts of “The View” have been notably unsupportive of their striking writers and we intend to let them hear our dissatisfaction.

On Thursday, December 13, from 10 am to 2 pm, we’ll be back at Viacom at 44th and Broadway, this time with students and future WGAE members who will learn about our issues, show their support and help spread the word.

Seventy years ago, back in the fledgling days of the Writers Guild, its president, Dudley Nichols — who wrote such classic movies as “The Informer,” “Stagecoach” and “Bringing Up Baby” — was asked why we were unionizing. He replied, “Because writers happen to be people who think.”

“We are smarter, more committed and more united. That is our strength. That is our power. That is why we will win.”