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WGA Strike: A Tentative Deal Has Been Reached, Now What ?

By fred | February 9, 2008

Recently rumors were strong that the strike could be over real soon, as soon as this week-end, and people going back to work on Monday and many shows going back to production that soon. Earlier today I actually reported about what could happen to Lost, should the strike be resolved soon.

Well, one thing is for certain now : it will all be played out by Monday.

Today WGA announced that they have a tentative deal. What this means is that WGA and AMPTP agreed on a deal, and now it’s up to the writers to say what they think of it. Meetings are planned, and might even be taking place already on East coast, and WGA negotiating team will have to judge whether writers like the deal or not. If they do, and if it seems that a majority of them will likely ratify the deal, then it’s likely that on Sunday they will vote to lift the strike, and everyone is back to work on Monday.

This is what we all want, but it may not happen.

If it does, people are back to work on Monday, meanwhile over 10 days the writers actually vote and votes are counted…

But if after the meetings it looks like writers aren’t too pleased with the deal and could not ratify it, then they’ll vote not to lift the strike, and the strike goes on for 10 more days, during which the vote actually takes place. And basically, if this happens then we’re fucked, even if writers do not vote that deal down.

Because with 10 more days of strike, we’ll be around February 21, and so the Oscars are screwed, so is the rest of TV season, and maybe even next year’s pilot season. This means no show is coming back this season, not one more episode of anything will be done, even if the deal was eventually agreed by writers.

And if it’s not, WGA and AMPTP have to go back and negotiate, but then it may take a while to get a new agreement done, and there’s no guarantee that a better deal could be agreed on. Some even think that the strike could then extend up until the SAG contracts expires (June 30) and SAG goes on strike as well.

So let’s stay tune and hope that the deal will be agreed on, although there are signs out that some writers aren’t too pleased with this deal, while others think it is a good one. Let’s wait & see. And hope for the best.

Here’s the message sent out to writers by WGA Presidents.

To Our Fellow Members,

We have a tentative deal.It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet becomes the primary means of both content creation and delivery. It creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, “When they get paid, we get paid.”

Specific terms of the agreement are described in the summary at the following link and will be further discussed at our Saturday membership meetings on both coasts. At those meetings we will also discuss how we will proceed regarding ratification of this agreement and lifting the restraining order that ends the strike. Details of the Los Angeles meeting can be found here.

Less than six months ago, the AMPTP wanted to enact profit-based residuals, defer all Internet compensation in favor of a study, forever eliminate “distributor’s gross” valuations, and enforce 39 pages of rollbacks to compensation, pension and health benefits, reacquisition, and separated rights. Today, thanks to three months of physical resolve, determination, and perseverance, we have a contract that includes WGA jurisdiction and separated rights in new media, residuals for Internet reuse, enforcement and auditing tools, expansion of fair market value and distributor’s gross language, improvements to other traditional elements of the MBA, and no rollbacks.

Over these three difficult months, we shut down production of nearly all scripted content in TV and film and had a serious impact on the business of our employers in ways they did not expect and were hard pressed to deflect. Nevertheless, an ongoing struggle against seven, multinational media conglomerates, no matter how successful, is exhausting, taking an enormous personal toll on our members and countless others. As such, we believe that continuing to strike now will not bring sufficient gains to outweigh the potential risks and that the time has come to accept this contract and settle the strike.

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. We activated, engaged, and involved the membership of our Guilds with a solidarity that has never before occurred. We developed a captains system and a communications structure that used the Internet to build bonds within our membership and beyond. We earned the backing of other unions and their members worldwide, the respect of elected leaders and politicians throughout the nation, and the overwhelming support of fans and the general public. Our thanks to all of them, and to the staffs at both Guilds who have worked so long and patiently to help us all.

There is much yet to be done and we intend to use all the techniques and relationships we’ve developed in this strike to make it happen. We must support our brothers and sisters in SAG who, as their contract expires in less than five months, will be facing many of the same challenges we have just endured. We must further pursue new relationships we have established in Washington and in state and local governments so that we can maintain leverage against the consolidated multinational conglomerates with whom we bargain. We must be vigilant in monitoring the deals that are made in new media so that in the years ahead we can enforce and expand our contract. We must fight to get decent working conditions and benefits for writers of reality TV, animation, and any other genre in which writers do not have a WGA contract.

Most important, however, is to continue to use the new collective power we have generated for our collective benefit. More than ever, now and beyond, we are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

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