Writers and studio negotiators will return to the bargaining table today amid cautious optimism that the pickets and protests that have roiled the entertainment industry in the last three weeks might soon give way to labor peace, the Los Angeles Times reports.
But it’s too early to predict a Hollywood-style happy ending. Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers are still far from reaching a new contract to replace one that expired Oct. 31.
It could take several days, if not weeks, to craft a deal, given the complexity of the issues and the mistrust that has characterized previous bargaining sessions, people close to the negotiations say.
Although talks between the parties began in July, they didn’t get serious until Nov. 4 — the day before writers went on strike. And the sides remain far apart over how much money writers should get paid when their work is sold or reused on the Internet, cellphones, digital video players and other new-media devices.
“They’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment industry attorney and former associate counsel for the Writers Guild of America, West. “It’s time for both sides to buckle down in order to put this town back in business.”
An estimated 50 TV shows and a handful of movies have stopped production since the strike began, throwing thousands of people out of work and hurting local businesses, particularly those that rely on the entertainment industry.
Both camps have plenty of incentive to have a meeting of the minds. For studios, the strike has been initially more disruptive than the previous writers walkout in 1988, said Brian Walton, who was chief negotiator for the guild then.
“This has real bite to it,” Walton said. “It has been extremely well organized.”
In contrast to the 1988 strike, which began when the TV industry was on hiatus, this strike came in the middle of the fall season, before networks had enough time to heavily stockpile scripts. The work stoppage was helped by a show of solidarity among writer-producers, known as show runners, who joined picket lines and in many cases refused to work at all.
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