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Screenwriters and Studios Negotiate in Hours Before Strike Deadline Hollywood Writers and Studios, Scrambling to Avert Strike, Reach Last-Minute Deal
(about 9 hours later)
LOS ANGELES — Screenwriters and entertainment companies held contract talks in the final hours before a strike deadline on Monday, as union loyalists flooded Twitter with messages of resolve and as the rest of Hollywood held its collective breath. LOS ANGELES — Hollywood writers reached a tentative deal for a new three-year contract with television and movie studios early Tuesday, averting a strike in dramatic overtime negotiations.
As of midafternoon, negotiators for the Writers Guild of America, West, and the Writers Guild of America, East, were still meeting with their studio counterparts. Studios had made a new offer on Sunday — one reflecting improvements in some areas (health care) and scant movement in others (raises for Netflix and Amazon Prime shows) — and the unions came back Monday with a counteroffer, according to three people briefed on the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings. These people said the unions’ latest proposals varied little from previous ones. At nearly 1 a.m. on the West Coast, weary union leaders, including Patric Verrone, the former president of the Writers Guild of America, West, emerged from the offices of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of studios, and said that a favorable contract had been drawn up.
The writers’ contract expires at midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Monday. In a statement posted on its website, the Writers Guild, West, said it had made “unprecedented gains.” It added, “Did we get everything we wanted? No. Everything we deserve? Certainly not. But because we had the near-unanimous backing of you and your fellow writers, we were able to achieve a deal that will net this guild’s members $130 million more, over the life of the contract, than the pattern we were expected to accept.”
The unions and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of studios, have declined to comment on the state of negotiations while adhering to a news media blackout. But union members, including one involved with talks, posted messages on Twitter using the hashtag #wgaunity. Some fans and members of other Hollywood unions joined them. In a one-sentence joint statement, writers and the producers’ alliance said that they had secured “a tentative agreement on terms for a new three-year collective bargaining agreement.”
“Our demands remain reasonable, affordable and fair,” wrote Billy Ray, a member of his union’s negotiating committee whose credits include the Tom Hanks movie “Captain Phillips” and the coming Amazon series “The Last Tycoon.” Eileen Conn, whose credits include the Disney Channel series “K. C. Undercover” and the 1990s sitcom “Just Shoot Me,” posted a photo of Sally Field as the title character from the film “Norma Rae” and wrote: “We are strong! We are united!” The previous contract between studios and more than 12,000 writers expired at midnight. The Writers Guild of America, West, and the Writers Guild of America, East, had vowed to go on strike as soon as Tuesday morning.
Writers last month voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike; 6,310 ballots were cast, representing 68 percent of eligible voters, with 96 percent in favor of a walkout if no palatable deal was offered by studios. Some guild members were expected to gather on Monday night to make more placards to carry outside eight Los Angeles-area studios as soon as Tuesday morning. Union negotiators had locked horns with their studio counterparts all the way through. On Sunday, studios had made a new offer — one reflecting improvements in some areas (health care) and scant movement in others (raises for streaming series) — and the unions on Monday made counteroffers that held a hard line on multiple demands, according to three people briefed on the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings.
A strike would pit union writers, whose position has been eroded by reality television, the rise of lower-paying streaming networks and reduced output by major movie studios, against entertainment conglomerates like Comcast, the Walt Disney Company and Time Warner. Television talk shows that rely on writers for monologues and skits — “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Saturday Night Live” — would be affected first, followed by soap operas and some scripted summer series. A deal only started to take shape as midnight approached, with both sides scrambling to find common ground.
In the last big Hollywood strike, a decade ago, an enraged Writers Guild walked out over pay for digitally distributed shows. Tens of thousands of entertainment workers were idled, and the action cost the Los Angeles economy more than $2 billion, according to the Milken Institute. As the news spread, union loyalists flooded Twitter with messages of relief and self-congratulation, even though details of the agreement were few. “Victory!!!” wrote Phillip Iscove, a creator of the Fox drama “Sleepy Hollow.”
Writers and studios did not see eye to eye on several issues involving technology. Most prominently, writers wanted pay rates for shows that run on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime to be more like those for blue-chip broadcast network series. The unions also wanted members to receive bigger residual payments for online reruns of old shows and movies.
Another sticking point involved what is known as “span,” or how long TV writers spend on each script. There are more shows than ever, but networks are ordering many fewer episodes per season — as few as six, compared with 22 or more in the past. At the same time, the episodes that are ordered are taking longer to produce — up to three weeks per episode, rather than the usual two. So series writers who are paid per episode are often making less while working more.
Part of the deal involved a union health insurance plan, which is running steep deficits, in part because it provides extremely generous coverage. Studios agreed to a bailout, while the union agreed to cost-saving changes.
Under proposals discussed Monday, according to analysts at Moody’s, higher compensation for writers would cost some entertainment companies $100 million to $125 million annually for each year of a new three-year contract. Unions representing directors and actors “will likely key off any agreement” with writers, adding to cost increases.
The actors’ contract with studios expires on June 30.
As the entertainment capital waited for word on talks on Monday, union members, including one involved with talks, posted messages on Twitter using the hashtag #wgaunity. Eileen Conn, whose credits include the Disney Channel series “K.C. Undercover” and the 1990s sitcom “Just Shoot Me,” posted a photo of Sally Field as the title character from the film “Norma Rae” and wrote: “We are strong! We are united!”
Some prominent politicians joined them. “I stand with the Writers Guild of America for fair pay and decent health care because it’s the right thing to do — and because Bruce and I can’t wait for the next season of ‘Ballers’ to start,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, wrote on Facebook, referring to her husband, Bruce Mann.
Writers last month voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike; 6,310 ballots were cast, representing 68 percent of eligible voters, with 96 percent in favor of a walkout if no palatable deal was offered by studios.
A strike would have pitted union writers, whose position has been eroded by reality television, the rise of lower-paying streaming networks and reduced output by major movie studios, against entertainment conglomerates like Comcast, the Walt Disney Company and Time Warner. Television talk shows that rely on writers for monologues and skits — “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Saturday Night Live” — would have been affected first, followed by soap operas and some scripted summer series.
In the last big Hollywood strike, a decade ago, an enraged Writers Guild walked out for 100 days over pay for digitally distributed shows. Tens of thousands of entertainment workers were idled, and the action cost the Los Angeles economy more than $2 billion, according to the Milken Institute.