The Writers Guild of America is continuing to downplay expectations for Friday’s meeting with the studios, and is telling members that it will not be pressured into accepting a bad deal.
Ellen Stutzman, the WGA‘s chief negotiator, is scheduled to meet Friday with the head of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. It will be the first formal meeting between the two sides since the writers went on strike on May 1. They are expected to discuss how to resume negotiations.
But the WGA is making it clear that does not mean that a deal is at hand.
“We have been down this road before,” the guild’s negotiating committee said in a message to the members on Tuesday afternoon.
The committee reminded members of the history of the last strike, in 2007-08. In that case, bargaining resumed in late November, three weeks into the strike, but broke off again in December.
“Why? Because when the companies came back to the table they weren’t serious about addressing the WGA’s proposals,” the committee stated. “They called Guild leadership ‘out-of-touch.’ They waged a relentless campaign through the media and surrogates to spread dissent.”
That strike was not resolved until February.
The committee added that it “won’t prejudge what’s to come. But playbooks die hard.”
Carol Lombardini, the CEO of the AMPTP, called Stutzman on Tuesday to arrange the meeting. That was the first sign of progress in the talks since the strike began, and it led to a wave of optimism in offices around Hollywood.
But in its message to members, the WGA warned that such sentiment — and the rumors of progress that preceded Tuesday’s call — can be a “useful tactic” for the studios to force an end to the strike.
“Give the town hope, soften us up, and try to use the suffering of other workers and businesses to pressure us to settle. Get us to throw away the power we have collectively accumulated and make us accept a bad deal,” the committee stated. “It is all part of the playbook. Every move they make at the bargaining table and every rumor away from it needs to be evaluated through the lens of their attempts to get us to accept less.”
“We’re not falling for it,” the message continued. “We have struck to make writing a viable profession for all of us, now and in the future. We have not come all this way, and sacrificed this much, to half-save ourselves.”
In response, the AMPTP called the WGA’s rhetoric “unfortunate.”
“Tomorrow’s discussion with the WGA is to determine whether we have a willing bargaining partner. The WGA Bargaining Committee’s rhetoric is unfortunate,” the studio group said. “This strike has hurt thousands of people in this industry, and we take that very seriously. Our only playbook is getting people back to work.”
The WGA is seeking a TV staffing minimum, which would range from six writers to 12 for most shows. It is also seeking a viewership-based streaming residual, which would pay writers more for working on hit shows. The studios have previously indicated that those proposals are non-starters.
