WGA Strike on Last Legs

By Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 11, 2008

The Writers Guild of America moved yesterday toward a resolution of its strike, with guild leaders recommending a new contract to members and asking them to vote on an end to the three-month walkout. Membership meetings will be held tomorrow in New York and Los Angeles to allow writers to decide.

The WGA, comprising an East and a West branch, called for a membership ratification vote, which will be conducted by mail and should take about two weeks. Union members could return to work as early as Wednesday.

At heavily attended membership meetings Saturday in New York and Los Angeles, there was resounding support for the proposed deal that could put television and movie production back on track, salvage the rest of the TV season, and allow this month's Academy Awards to proceed as planned.

An outline of the three-year deal was reached in recent talks between studio executives and the guild. According to the guild's summary, the deal provides union jurisdiction over projects created for the Internet based on certain guidelines, sets compensation for streamed, ad-supported programs, and increases residuals for downloaded movies and TV programs. The deal is similar to one reached last month by the Directors Guild of America, including a provision stating that compensation for ad-supported streaming doesn't kick in until after a window of between 17 and 24 days, deemed "promotional" by the studios. Writers would get a maximum $1,200 flat fee for streamed programs in the deal's first two years, and then get a percentage of a distributor's gross in the third year.

Together, the guilds represent 12,000 writers, about 10,000 of whom have been involved in the strike that began November 5.