Striking Writers May Have A New Contract

Striking members of the Writers Guild of America East and West are reviewing terms of a contract proposal from motion picture and television producers that could end the three month walkout and get writers back to work possibly as early as Monday. More noteworthy is the early report that writers may have gotten most of what they wanted in the agreement.

Writers staged a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers largely over residual rights to produced work that airs on the internet or that is sold via DVD. Producers have kept all of the revenue for themselves despite the fact that the entertainment industry is moving more and more product into these new technologies. Writers have been asking for as little as 2 cents on the dollar, but the tight-fisted producers have continued to play Scrooge.

But with the industry’s premiere event, the Academy Awards, just weeks away and the threat of a repeat of this year’s Golden Globe Awards, where there was no ability to use writers and nominees who were members of the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild stayed away in a show of support, producers had incentive to come to their senses and return to the bargaining table.

UPDATE: This editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times suggests the strike was worth it.