Last week, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers offered to meet with the striking Writers Guild of America for the first time in nearly 100 days. But almost immediately after leaving the bargaining table, the WGA started receiving calls from trade magazines asking for comments on the negotiations. This usually wouldn’t be a problem, except that the AMPTP had repeatedly asked for a media blackout.
This information comes directly from the WGA, which posted a negotiation update on its site. So, the WGA responded the best way it knew how: by laying out line by line and demand by demand what the AMPTP wanted to keep quiet.
The biggest takeaway from this meeting is that the AMPTP was offering the WGA the same deal that had been signed by the Directors Guild of America in June. The deal was signed after the WGA had gone on strike, and is widely believed by many people to be a poor deal, especially in retrospect. The WGA said that the AMPTP “were not willing to engage on the preservation of the writers’ room, or success-based residuals,” which are key pattern demands for the WGA.
In the meeting, the WGA reports, the AMPTP re-iterated its talking point that “people just want to get back to work,” which the union sees as lacking some important nuance: people do want to work, but under a fair contract that supports them, protects their rights, and will allow a future for writers in Hollywood. “We agree, with the caveat that those conditions that have made writers’ jobs increasingly untenable must first be addressed,” the WGA wrote in its statement, adding “this committee does not intend to leave anyone behind, or make merely an incremental deal to conclude this strike.”
It’s unfortunate that the AMPTP seems to think that a deal made with the DGA is at all the same deal it should pursue with the WGA, an entirely separate guild with its own valid concerns. It is learning, the hard way, that the WGA will not settle for anything less than a fair contract—a deal that the AMPTP could offer at any time.
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