Talks Between Writers and Producers Break Down

LOS ANGELES, December 10: Negotiations between the Alliance
of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the Writers Guild of America
(WGA) broke down on Friday, as the strike enters its fifth week.

The AMPTP said that it was “puzzled and disheartened by an
ongoing WGA negotiating strategy that seems designed to delay or derail talks
rather than facilitate an end to this strike.” The AMPTP statement continued,
“We have serious concerns about whether they’re capable of reaching reasonable
compromises that are in the best interests of our entire industry. It is now
absolutely clear that the WGA’s organizers are determined to advance their own
political ideologies and personal agendas at the expense of working writers and
every other working person who depends on our industry for their livelihoods.”

The AMPTP has cited a host of “unreasonable” demands on the
part of writers, including “full control over reality television and animation.
In other words, they want us to make membership in their union mandatory to
work in this industry—even though thousands of people in reality and
animation have already chosen not to join the WGA.”

Online streaming has been one of the most contentious
issues, and the AMPTP says that the writers’ “proposal for Internet
compensation could actually cost producers more than they receive in revenues,
thereby dooming the Internet media business before it ever gets started.”

“These are the terms the WGA organizers demand for ending
the strike —money that doesn’t exist, restrictions that are legally
dubious, and control over people who have refused to join their union.”

The statement concludes: “Their quixotic pursuit of radical
demands led them to begin this strike, and now has caused this breakdown in
negotiations. We hope that the WGA will come back to this table with a rational
plan that can lead us to a fair and equitable resolution to a strike that is causing
so much distress for so many people in our industry and community.”

The Writers Guild has taken issue with the AMPTP’s proposal
of a $250 fixed residual for unlimited one-year streaming after a six-week
window of free use. The AMPTP has also offered the current DVD rate for
Internet downloads.

The WGA said in its statement: “This offer was accompanied
by an ultimatum: the AMPTP demands we give up several of our proposals,
including Fair Market Value (our protection against vertical integration and self-dealing),
animation, reality, and, most crucially, any proposal that uses distributor’s
gross as a basis for residuals. This would require us to concede most of our
Internet proposal as a precondition for continued bargaining. The AMPTP insists
we let them do to the Internet what they did to home video.

“We reject the idea of an ultimatum. Although a number of
items we have on the table are negotiable, we cannot be forced to bargain with
ourselves. The AMPTP has many proposals on the table that are unacceptable to
writers, but we have never delivered ultimatums.

“We remain ready and willing to negotiate, no matter how
intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too
high. We were prepared to counter their proposal tonight, and when any of them
are ready to return to the table, we’re here, ready to make a fair deal.”

—By Mansha Daswani