Broader issues facing US film and television writers

The AMPTP, representing multibillion-dollar companies, has refused to budge on these issues. Its spokesman Nick Counter declared in a statement addressed to the union, “We want to make a deal. But ... no further movement is possible to close the gap between us so long as your DVD proposal remains on the table.”

The WGA has been demanding the doubling of the residuals writers receive from the sale of DVDs and remuneration for programs either transmitted through the Internet or distributed digitally (especially if they are delivered with advertising). Since last July, not only have the producers refused to entertain the idea of increasing the residuals from DVDs, but they initially proposed that the writers submit to a rollback of those benefits. They eventually dropped that demand on October 16.

But on October 26, the producers came back with a new demand: a rollback in the pension and health funds, which is also an important, if secondary, point of contention.

The union responded to Counter’s statement Wednesday: “Every issue that matters to writers, including Internet reuse, original writing for new media, DVDs, and jurisdiction, has been ignored [by the AMPTP]. This is completely unacceptable.”