Take Two: Writers Guild, Studios to Resume Talks Friday
Strike day 102, meeting No. 2. Can they get to a deal by Labor Day?
One week after that seemingly rocky meeting to talk about meeting, the Writers Guild let members know today that… there will in fact be another face-to-face this Friday with the AMPTP, the negotiating arm that represents the labor interests of Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros. and other studios.
According to an email update to membership, screenshotted above, the AMPTP’s president and chief negotiator Carol Lombardini reached out to the guild’s negotiating committee to set up another time to talk. It will mark the second meeting since the start of the strike on May 2, which is now on Day 101.
So, despite the mild disdain conveyed following last Friday’s meeting, in which the WGA alleged the studios leaked its version of things to the press despite talk of a media blackout, and despite the alleged leaking itself, what initially appeared to be a fruitless get-together has ultimately spurred more movement.
This time, the guild says it is expecting responses to its proposals, which include staffing minimums, employment duration minimums, viewership-based streaming residuals and regulation over the use of artificial intelligence.
Per the WGA’s previous negotiation update on Aug. 4, Lombardini was “willing to increase their offer on a few writer-specific TV minimums — and willing to talk about AI — but that they were not willing to engage on the preservation of the writers’ room, or success-based residuals. She did not indicate willingness to address screenwriter issues, Appendix A issues, and many of the other proposals that remain on our list.”
The AMPTP declined to comment on the upcoming talks. At the start of the strike in early May, it had pointed to staffing minimums and duration of employment minimums among its “primary sticking points,” but said it had offered “generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals.”
We’ll see tomorrow if either side budges on those issues in particular. On the picket lines, at least, writers often lament that their rooms of colleagues have shrunk, residuals are scarcer, and time between jobs has only grown in the streaming era. On the surface, it seems unlikely that the union would accept a new three-year contract that doesn’t address those concerns in some form.
Elsewhere on The Ankler
Richard Rushfield, aka The Ankler himself, has a grab bag of gems in his column for the town to pore over this week, including an awards scene that “looks like the Zeppelin has caught fire while the unaware pilots are still circling looking for a perfect photogenic landing,” and some thoughts on the box office performance of Sound of Freedom:
I’ve been deeply impressed by the industry’s blanket lack of curiosity in the Sound of Freedom phenom, confirming once again that we (and by we I mean the trade media in particular) only take interest in success stories that confirm our worldview.
Even if Sound is not your cup of tea, even if it’s a horrible, hateful, cursed piece of garbage, surely the biggest success story of independent film in a decade has some lessons to teach us? Something we can take away and put to better uses? If we’re still in the business of selling movie tickets that is.
Well, according to THR, some in town are taking an interest, suggesting there is something untoward in the crazy pay-it-forward ticketing scheme the film encourages — in which after you see the movie, you buy a ticket and leave it for a deserving person to attend for free; that person on exiting pays the ticket forward and leaves behind another ticket for someone else.
But the scheme, it is claimed, opens the doors to chicanery, with interested groups buying blocks of tickets that may or may not be used.
Read the full column, available to all subscribers, on The Ankler.
Today in Strike News
Building off an analysis from the 2007-08 WGA strike, paired with inflation and other factors, a Cal State Northridge professor has estimated that the impact of writers strike to the California economy lies around $3 billion in the first 100 days, and could rise to $5 billion if it lasts until October. (The Wrap)
Roughly 60 employees — agents, executives, and support staff alike — are set to become casualties in CAA’s incoming round of layoffs, as the major agency factors in the impact of the production shutdown. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Real Housewives star Bethenny Frankel’s effort to acquire union protections for reality television performers gained some momentum today, as SAG-AFTRA vowed to support the group. “We stand ready to assist Bethenny Frankel, Bryan Freedman and [attorney] Mark Geragos along with reality performers and our members in the fight and are tired of studios and production companies trying to circumvent the Union in order to exploit the talent that they rely upon to make their product,” SAG-AFTRA said. (Los Angeles Times)
Motion Picture Sound Editors, a nonprofit organization of professional sound and music editors in the film, TV, and gaming spaces, is waiving membership dues this year in recognition of the ongoing strikes. (Deadline)
Fox and the Television Academy have announced that this year’s Emmy Awards will take place on Monday, January 15, 2024 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day), nearly four months after its originally planned air date. (Variety)
An existential labor dispute… for him to poop on: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog appeared on the picket lines this past week to roast writers, actors, and the studios alike. “I haven’t heard this much honking since I went down on the Aflac duck,” Triumph told a bemused WGA strike captain. (Report #1, Report #2)
Picket Sign of the Day
But hey, it’s the No. 1 picket site for metro-level controversies like Tree-gate and Sidewalk-gate, not to mention this massive SAG-AFTRA rally that shut down Lankershim.
Additional reporting for Today in Strike News by Matthew Frank.
Disclosure: Elaine Low is an inactive member of SAG-AFTRA.