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The Writers Guild of America West and East have sent out a “Wish List” summation of their goals for the upcoming negotiations with the major studios. Here is the missive sent to membership:
To Our Fellow Members,
Approval of a Pattern of Demands is a constitutionally-required step as we prepare to negotiate a new Minimum Basic Agreement (the current contract expires on May 1, 2011). The Pattern does not detail specific proposals that will be made during negotiations but is designed to inform the memberships of our two Guilds of the general objectives we will pursue.
We are writing to ask for your support in the form of a YES vote in favor of the enclosed Pattern of Demands. This Pattern comes to you unanimously recommended by our Negotiating Committee and is presented for membership approval by the WGA West’s Board and the WGA East’s Council.
Your sacrifices during the last negotiation and the WGA’s 100-day strike led to historic advances in the areas of new media residuals and jurisdiction over writing for new media. While there is no such single galvanizing issue in the current negotiation cycle, this does not mean there is a lack of important objectives to be achieved in the upcoming negotiations. The new MBA must address the long term financial stability of the WGA Pension Plan and Health Fund, provide increases in our wages and improve working conditions. These objectives, and a number of others, are reflected in the enclosed Pattern.
The Pattern of Demands is the result of a continuing dialogue with our members conducted over the past three years. As a result of this process, we are confident that this Pattern will meet with your approval.
Please submit your ballot before January 24, 2010. Outreach meetings, e-mails, website postings and other communications will continue in the months ahead to further engage and mobilize writers.
Thank you for your attention to this first step in our negotiating process.
John Wells
President, WGA WestMichael Winship
President, WGA East
—
2011 Pattern of demandsCOMPENSATION AND RESIDUALS
Increase minimum compensation in all areas.
Substantially increase upset price.
Add CW as a network.
Increase residuals for made for pay and made for basic cable programs.
Further address reuse in new media.
Increase home video residuals.
Increase funding for MBA compliance programs.PENSION PLAN AND HEALTH FUND
Increase contributions to Pension Plan and Health Fund.PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND PROTECTIONS IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF WRITERS
Address problems in the employment process, such as “prewrites,” sweepstakes pitching and one-step deals.
Limit option periods for renewal of employment on episodic series.
Improve the communication process between the network/studio and writers in episodic television.
Amend definition of “professional writer” to include writing for new media.
Create and fund a Screenwriter Training Program.
Increase funding for the Showrunner Training Program.
Provide that separated rights include the use of a principal character in a musical or stage production.
Expand Guild coverage in other areas where WGA members can be employed, including motion capture, animation and videogames.
Establish minimums for certain ancillary uses of Appendix A programs.
Strengthen the requirements regarding employment guarantees for daytime writers.
Require unique project identifying codes, e.g., ISAn number, to be listed on notices of Tentative Writing Credits.
Expand arbitrator lists for grievance and arbitration.
Modify requirements for work lists and other information submitted by Companies.
Add credits schedule for theatrical documentaries.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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This is all good but unless and until the credit points is expanded in such a way that it stretches for new writers, well, frankly, new writers may as well be screaming in space. My clients (and I know other agents too who know this) have highly skilled and craft solid writers with thick arsenals. But the credit system may not be applied to them unless a variety of ‘stars’ line up and by that I mean and insane amount of luck. In the end, it’s the industry as a whole which suffers, the releases suffer and the game changers are lack luster. We are pro WGA as we are WGA; but we must recognize that there has to be some way to help the newer writer. And I wish I knew just what that was, as I, do date, don’t.
Even though I’m a WGA member, I doubt that anyone will take their demands seriously. Especially after they caved in at the last strike.
Nobody WANTED to strike the first time; nobody wants a strike now.
There was no CAVE during the last strike.
Some people dispute the amount of gains; that happens no matter what. But have no doubt-
The strike of 2007 was the first time WGA members achieved jurisdiction over a new form of media in over 60 years. Talk about windows, budgets and such all you want… That is a success.
Once our foot was in the door and secure in new media contractually, the idea of our respected colleagues losing homes was not something the writers were willing to stay on strike to risk… It was a choice.
Like someone said down below this comment, most writers have other jobs.
Writers could have stayed on strike, but the basic necessity of new media coverage was assured, for everyone else’s sake, the writers ended it.
I am not saying a strike is possible or impossible in 2011.
Working writers like myself hope to never strike again. But hopes are simply that.
If the AMPTP comes to the table as our coworkers, unlike Nick Counter did last year, I have no doubt all can and will be sorted out without incident.
New leadership is in place on both sides of the table, so comparing what happened last time is not really applicable.
As always,
WGA Anonymous
This comment is not completely accurate, although I empathize with the sentiments behind it.
The truth is that in 2007, David Young spent months planning for and threatening a strike rather than a fruitful negotiation. He then succeeded in having a strike, but like his earlier actions with the workers at Guess Jeans, he didn’t anticipate the consequences.
The jurisdictional foot in the door for internet media was always part of the contract under discussion between the WGA and AMPTP in 2007. But the WGA also wanted a raise in the DVD residuals, jurisdiction over reality and animation, and various other ideas, including a removal of the “no strike” clause, something even the Teamsters have never been able to negotiate.
The one real achievement that came out of the 2007 strike is that the AMPTP gave in on distributor’s gross, so that now we regularly get the figures of what the majors are really earning, including on internet media. And the figures consistently show that the internet numbers are much smaller than more traditional platforms, like reruns and syndication.
We should remember that a major reason why the WGA voted to end the strike was because the members realized that their health coverage was at risk. During a pre-strike Informational Meeting, David Young made the mistake of telling members that “the clock will stop” on qualifying for health insurance while they walked the picket line. This was of course totally false. Had the strike gone into April 2008, a small number of WGA members would have lost their coverage. Had things gone to July, as SAG hoped at the time, a much larger number of WGA members would have lost their coverage. So the WGA cut their losses for understandable reasons.
I agree that there’s no way to know whether a strike will happen, but it’s far, far less likely this time around. And not because Nick Counter isn’t there – Counter was present for many successful negotiations with the WGA over the years.
I certainly hope that as the negotiations progress, we hear from actual WGA members. I think WGA Anonymous is one. But there were plenty of people who happily posed as WGA members when posting here during the strike, usually yelling the most hardline slogans they could. If you had only read their comments here, you would have thought the strike would last years.
At the merest hint of a strike over this I’m going fi-core.
How cute. Thinking you have credibility after the way you caved LAST time.
“Address problems in the employment process, such as “prewrites,” sweepstakes pitching and one-step deals.”
Jesus – how will producers ever be able to make a decision without having a project completely handed to them on a silver platter at little to no cost?
They can’t possibly pick a writer unless they meet 50 of them, hear their take, have them do a 15 page treatment and then revise it twice!
I can’t wait to see all the amazing gains we get as reward from the studios for electing John Wells. Come on, John, show the Guild how much more we get by playing ball!
The Showrunners caved in. They are Gods, get use to it. I knew we were done when the DVD increases were taken off the table for internet royalities. Are you frickin kidding me… The studios called it a marketing product window and we bought that Kool Aid
Site readers,
Please don’t let any of the strike-happy “we caved” commenters sway you. Working writers don’t even want to hear the word strike right now. Being a WGA member is terrifying — 90 percent to the voting members don’t make a living as a writer. A strike is fun for them — makes them feel like a writer again. Well not this time folks.
Sorry I couldn’t let this post go without a comment. This is too much like an Aaron Sorkin BS comment.
A little more than 50% of WGA members are actually working as writers each year (which is really good, especially compared to the other guilds). I tried to find updated stats, but during the 2007 year out of the 54% working members, 1/4 made less than $37,700 a year and 1/2 make less than $105,000 a year. Over a five year period of employment and unemployment, a writer’s average income is $62,000 per year. (That according to the WGA.) That means you a quarter of the writers are making more than $105K a year, and a substantial percentage more are making between $37k and $105k.
I not saying this to say that a majority of WGA members are making a good living. What I am trying to say is that your “90 percent to the voting members don’t make a living as a writer” is completely wrong.
Agreed, Chris. Each negotiating cycle is an exercise in terror.
Oh, are there “working writers” right now? Sure, a hundred in tv, maybe a hundred in features. That leaves, what, 15,000 unemployed. So pardon me while I vomit at your arrogance.
The sad irony is that these prewrites, sweepstakes pitches and one- step deals are a direct result of our last strike. The New Normal has empowered producers and execs to ask for (and most often receive) free work. They know that for all but the top 2% of working writers, it’s either capitulation or unemployment. I applaud our leaders for wanting to remedy this, they’re right to do so, but it will continue no matter what the MBA says. It’s already against the rules to do a “producer’s rewrite”–anybody remember the last time they didn’t do one? Or three? The only way for a writer to win is to be so damn wanted and desired that you can say no and not be immediately replaced. Be in the top 2% or die. Kind of like America. So godspeed on this one, captains, but I’ll be home working on my shit. I have no choice. For my generation, aggressive quality is the only means of survival.
First let me point out that I am a working writer, some would consider A list or near to it. And I fully support the Guild. The WGA has become the de facto negotiating unit for the DGA and SAG. Yes, it’s good cop bad cop, but that’s what it is. We’re the only one who have really ever used the nuclear option.
As I’ve pointed out before, the last strike was not for us, but for the next generation of writers when the money will be big from online.
I’ve said before for all you complainers, I revere the Guild every time I go to a doctor or the hospital. The WGA struck for a YEAR in 1967 for health benefits. And now everyone has them. How many people lost homes and their savings for that bravery?
So, obviously there won’t be a strike this time, but unlike those geldings from SAG and the MGA (Management Guild of America aka DGA) we will go through the normal process of actually raising issues to be negotiated, rather than raising the white flag a priori.
And for you whores that threaten fi core, fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
Just want you to know no matter how legit you seemed in the first paragraph, you have since thrown it all out with your rant at the end. Please understand that cursing for no reason and acting like a baby is why people hated the WGA strike in the first place. It put many people, outside of the WGA, out of a work and in the end accomplished very little.
So you can stand on your soap box and try to preach to the masses but truth is if you really were an “A lit” or close to it then you wouldn’t act in the childish manner you are. And if you want to prove me wrong, try signing the boards with your real name.
I believe most, if not all, of the comments here of the “We caved, not again” variety are posted by producers and studio trolls hoping to ward off a WGA strike.
WGA execs — take a hard line, guys, and hold it.
You still after all this time think there are “trolls” out there trying to tarnish your “good name”. Give it up. People speaking out against you aren’t trolls, they are just intelligent, reasonable people. Patrick Verone was an idiot the last time around in handling your negotiations. For your sake I hope the new people in charge aren’t so stupid.
Nothing like signaling capitulation before negotiations begin. Well done, assholes.
The industry, as a whole, is still feeling the effects of the last Writer’s Srike. It would be idiotic in THIS economic period, to even utter the word strike. Take 3%, leave everything else as is, and keep working. Otherwise, all you’re doing by voting on a strike, is creating more reality shows.
The Cable Nets have jumped back into scripted dramas and comedies (A&E, AMC, just to name two) creating additional writing jobs that weren’t available during the last negotiation/strike.
Better to be working, then watching jobs dissappear.
Speaking for me only.
I believe this is the key phrase from the wGA missive — The new MBA must address the long term financial stability of the WGA Pension Plan and Health Fund…
As unpleasant as the prospect of another strike may be to some, if you ever want to retire it may be necessary to again walk the picket line. This is much more important than the stupid New Media incremental demands last time. When the viability of your pension plan could be at stake, it doesn’t get any more serious. The wGA has my full support in doing whatever it takes to fully fund the pension plan and that includes a protracted work stoppage.
The writers can’t go it alone every time. Since the actors signed, there’s really no point in contemplating a strike. We can’t be the Calvary every time for the whole industry. That shot gets old fast.
“Calvary” was the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, so maybe we can …
I’d like to think there’s a middle ground between fi-core cowards and those cynics who see the process as gamed before it even starts. I’m not expecting any great gains. Nor am I expecting a strike. But don’t be surprised if there are some valid wins, eg regarding sweepstake pitches and free rewrites.
But most of all. How about not giving up or checking out before the we even start to negotiate?
A guild protects its members from doing free work. The WGA should not be considered a guild.
The big mother load for writers is over. The web proves you don’t have to belong in an exclusive guild to be creative and prosperous. As for TV writers, if the pro-strikers want the “big money” in internet viewing of TV shows, are they going to lower the fees they get for TV residuals as the TV ratings are in the dumps? I doubt it. Most writers live in their own little imaginary world.
Think of the unemployed TV writers who never worked again after the last strike. How many writers does it take to write “Next week on American Idol…”
It’s mother “lode”.
I hope both sides in this stay aware of the less than perfect state of the economy. Progress can be made without being penny-wise and pound-foolish. Keep people working.
The AMPTP is shaking right now. Seriously, Young and the BOD are delusional.
Man, this brings back memories of the dust-ups we used to have in the Newspaper Guild.
For what it’s worth, I have one WGA story that might be relevant to what Babz (the first reader to comment) had to say about new writers. In 2004 I was disappointed to learn that I was ineligible to join the WGA even though I had worked on, and was credited on, a wide-release film that was primarily produced by a signatory.
The problem was, the producer who had originally hired me was not a signatory, so even though my work ended up being used by a firm that was bound by the agreement, it didn’t count as far as membership eligibility was concerned.
I really could have used the WGA in my corner, too. The producer who hired me washed his hands of my contract, said it was up to the signatory firm to pay me. That company’s attitude was huh? who is this writer? we don’t know him!
Anyway, I hope THAT loophole has been closed by now. I had never imagined that signatory firms could get around the agreement so easily, just do business through a non-signatory.
Best to all,
Tony
A “Training Class For Screenwriters” to be paid for by the studios? To create more screenwriters to compete for the few gigs out there? Are we guys nuts?