As reported here on the BTL blog a seeming century ago of “strike time” (I think that means about a week or two…), we’d received credible information that if the AMPTP talks collapsed, the WGA was going to start negotiating individually with production companies/corporations, attempting to handle things on a contract-by-contract basis. Comes word today, via an official WGA announcement, that the trigger on that option is evidently being “pulled” as we speak. Virtually speaking.
The statement says this will begin happening Monday, and the sooner the WGA can get this done, the more they can influence the DGA talks which will start early in the new year:
As you know, the AMPTP is currently unwilling to bargain with us. The internal dynamics of the AMPTP make it difficult for the conglomerates to reach consensus and negotiate with us on a give and take basis. We believe this multi-employer structure inhibits individual companies from pursuing their self-interest in negotiations. We nonetheless continue to hope that the AMPTP will return in good faith to negotiate a fair contract with writers, as two television seasons and numerous feature projects are currently at great risk.
We want to do everything in our power to move negotiations forward and end this devastating strike. We have therefore decided to reach out to major AMPTP companies and begin to negotiate with them individually. As you may know, bargaining on a multi-employer basis through the AMPTP is an option for the WGA, not a legal requirement. Each signatory employer is required to bargain with us individually if we make a legal demand that it do so.
We will make this demand on Monday December 17th and hope that each company responds promptly, in accordance with the law.
In the meantime, we urge you to support us and our negotiations team and leadership during these difficult times. We look forward to making a fair deal that will resolve this strike, protect our future and put us all back to work, for the good of the industry and all of its employees.
Signed,
John F. Bowman, Chair
John Auerbach
Neal Baer
Marc Cherry
Bill Condon
Carlton Cuse
Stephen Gaghan
Terry George
David A. Goodman
Carl Gottlieb
Susannah Grant
Carol Mendelsohn
Marc Norman
Shawn Ryan
Melissa Salmons
Robin Schiff
Ed Solomon
