Hollywood's striking writers have agreed to drop two key demands
that studios and television networks have long viewed as
non-starters, signaling a possible thaw in the 3 month-old labor
dispute, union officials said Wednesday.
The writers' union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and
Television Producers, which represent major studios and TV networks
in negotiations, said in a joint statement that they were meeting
to determine whether there is enough common ground to resume formal
negotiations.
Leaders of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) reportedly told
top studio chiefs during a meeting Tuesday that they would ditch
previous proposals to unionize writers who work on animated movies
and reality TV shows, according to the Los Angeles Times.
That marks a switch from December, when writers balked at studio
demands to take those and other proposals off the table as a
condition for continuing talks on the core issue -- how much
writers should earn when their work is delivered over the Internet,
cellphones and other new-media devices.
Securing the union's jurisdiction in the burgeoning reality TV
sector has been a priority for WGA leaders. However, the union's
leaders said a letter to members that they made the decision in
hopes of "bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations."
In what appears to be an effort to defuse tension, the union
urged members to "exercise restraint in their public statements."
Previous negotiations between the two organizations had been marred
by vitriolic rhetoric on both sides.
The current informal discussion appear to be an attempt to
mirror the actions of the Directors Guild of America, which had a
series of informal talks with studios before entering into contract
talks earlier this month. Those talks took only several days before
a tentative contract was reached last week.
In stark contrast, the WGA has been on strike since November,
and no talks have been held since early December. Even the most
optimistic people believe it will take at least two weeks to work
out a WGA deal -- a scenario that would allow the annual Academy
Awards to proceed its February 24 ceremony without striking
writers' picket lines.
Screen Actors Guild leaders have warned that actors will not
cross WGA picket lines to attend the Oscar ceremony at the Kodak
Theater. They also downplayed optimism about the directors' deal
being used to reach pacts with the writers and actors.
Meanwhile, the WGA earlier has decided that there would be no
picketing at the Grammy Awards, clearing the path for some
performers who might not have crossed a picket line to attend the
February 10 event.
But the union has still to decide whether it will grant The
Recording Academy a requested waiver that would allow its members
to work on the Grammy ceremony. WGA officials have said previously
they likely would not grant such a waiver.
The union's refusal to grant a waiver to the Golden Globe Awards
forced the cancellation of the usually star-studded ceremony on
Feb. 13. The awards' winners were instead announced in a 30-minute
news conference.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2008)