WGA Meets Today On Terms of Surrender

The three month Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has been a complete failure because the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), the bargaining arm of the studios, walked away and never came back. Now the WGA negotiating committee is meeting in L.A. and New York today to draw up its terms of surrender. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA), whose leadership has already crafted a deal that is now out for a ratification vote, are ready to get back to work. The AMPTP will probably accept the DGA deal, which puts even more pressure on the WGA to draw up an agreement that the AMPTP can't reject (get nothing but make it sound good). We suspect the WGA membership will accept anything at this point. And if the actors can't 'strut their stuff' at the Academy Awards, that will be the last straw with that ally.

The WGA East meeting is at 2 p.m. EST at a Manhattan hotel, eight hours before the WGA West meeting at 7 p.m. PST at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. The WGA negotiating committee will vote to recommend a contract to members. If the negotiating committee approves the agreement and members don't reject it, the WGAW board and WGAE council could vote on the pact by the end of the weekend. Under the WGA constitution, the board and council can halt a strike without a membership ratification vote. (Wash Post)