Strike Watch 2007!

WGA Ponders Offer from Producers; Talks Resume Tuesday

The Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Thursday presented a "New Economic Partnership" to the WGA, which according to a statement from the AMPTP "includes groundbreaking moves in several areas of new media, including streaming, content made for new media and programming delivered over digital broadcast channels." Dollars- and cents-wise, the AMPTP says, "The entire value of the [deal] will deliver more than $130 million in additional compensation above and beyond the more than $1.3 billion writers already receive each year."

The WGA has asked for time to study the proposals, and talks are scheduled to resume on Tuesday, December 4.

Says the AMPTP, "We continue to believe that there is common ground to be found between the two sides, and that our proposal for a New Economic Partnership offers the best chance to find it."

WGA Calls "New" Deal a "Bad Deal," Rejects Offer Well, that didn't take long. The WGA has swiftly dismissed the "New Economic Partnership" put forth by the AMPTP on Thursday, saying in a statement that "for the first three days of this week, the companies presented in essence their November 4 [pre-strike] package with not an iota of movement on any of the issues that matter to writers. Thursday morning, the first new proposal was finally presented to us. It dealt only with streaming and made-for-Internet jurisdiction, and it amounts to a massive rollback."

The WGA reports that with regards to Internet streaming, they were offered "a single fixed payment of less than $250 for a year's reuse of an hour-long program (compared to over $20,000 payable for a network rerun)." For made-for-Internet material, the AMPTP "continued to refuse to grant jurisdiction," "they made absolutely no move on the download formula" and "continue to assert that they can deem any reuse 'promotional' and pay no residual (even if they replay the entire film or TV episode, and even if they make money)."

Talks are scheduled to resume on Tuesday. Says the WGA, "We must fight on, returning to the lines... in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together."