Television Honchos Stalk Out of Talks with Writers

Television Honchos Stalk Out of Talks with Writers

by Mike Hall, Dec 10, 2007

Hollywood producers walked away from the bargaining table late Friday as negotiators for the Writers Guild of America were preparing a counteroffer to the producers’ demand that the writers withdraw half a dozen critical proposals.

In a message on the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) website, John Bowman, chairman of the negotiating committee, describes the breakdown:

As we prepared our counteroffer, at 6:05 p.m., Nick Counter, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Television and Movie Producers (AMPTP), came and said to us, in the mediator’s presence: “We are leaving. When you write us a letter saying you will take all these items off the table, we will reschedule negotiations with you.” Within minutes, the AMPTP had posted a lengthy statement announcing the breakdown of negotiations.

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.

The strike, now in its fifth week, centers on the writers’ fair share of revenue from DVDs, online broadcasts, iPod downloads and other new forms of media—new streams of revenue that are filling studios’ coffers.