2007 Strike of Writers Guild of America
Introduction
On November 5, 2007 the Writer’s Guild of America East and the Writer’s Guild of America West initiated a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (Cieply, 2007). The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is a trade organization that represents the interests of 397 producers in the film and television industries (AMPTP Official Website). The strike lasted 100 days, finally ending on February 12, 2008. The strike put the economy of Los Angeles under severe strain with losses estimateds as high as $2.1 billion. The strike resulted from the regular renegotiation of standard contracts, or the Minimum Basic Agreement with the AMPTP. According to contract proposals from the Writers Guild of America (WGA)WGA, issues arose between the WGA Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the AMPTP over DVD residuals, union jurisdiction of animation and reality program writers, and compensation for digital technology called “‘new media” (WGA Contract 2007 Proposals). Issues Behind the Strike
Three major issues dominated the contention between the WGA and the AMPTP. The first of these issues is was DVD residuals. Twenty years ago, the dominant media for the home viewer market was VHS tapes. When the industry standards for compensation were developed for this media, production costs for VHS tapes were high and the market for these tapes had not yet taken off. The agreement gave writers 0.3% of the first million reportable gross and 0.36% after the first million sold as residual. At first this was an acceptable arrangement as tapes were selling for between $40 and $100. However, the production technology improved, decreasing production costs. Writers, seeing this, felt short-changed in the arrangement. Even as DVD’s were introduced in the mid-1990s, this arrangement stayed in place and dictated compensation for DVD residuals as well. (Verrier, 2007) In the negotiations, WGA expressed the importance of residuals
On November 5, 2007 the Writer’s Guild of America East and the Writer’s Guild of America West initiated a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (Cieply, 2007). The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is a trade organization that represents the interests of 397 producers in the film and television industries (AMPTP Official Website). The strike lasted 100 days, finally ending on February 12, 2008. The strike put the economy of Los Angeles under severe strain with losses estimateds as high as $2.1 billion. The strike resulted from the regular renegotiation of standard contracts, or the Minimum Basic Agreement with the AMPTP. According to contract proposals from the Writers Guild of America (WGA)WGA, issues arose between the WGA Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the AMPTP over DVD residuals, union jurisdiction of animation and reality program writers, and compensation for digital technology called “‘new media” (WGA Contract 2007 Proposals). Issues Behind the Strike
Three major issues dominated the contention between the WGA and the AMPTP. The first of these issues is was DVD residuals. Twenty years ago, the dominant media for the home viewer market was VHS tapes. When the industry standards for compensation were developed for this media, production costs for VHS tapes were high and the market for these tapes had not yet taken off. The agreement gave writers 0.3% of the first million reportable gross and 0.36% after the first million sold as residual. At first this was an acceptable arrangement as tapes were selling for between $40 and $100. However, the production technology improved, decreasing production costs. Writers, seeing this, felt short-changed in the arrangement. Even as DVD’s were introduced in the mid-1990s, this arrangement stayed in place and dictated compensation for DVD residuals as well. (Verrier, 2007) In the negotiations, WGA expressed the importance of residuals
References: The NewYork Times, 2007-11-02. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/business/ Elsworth, Catherine. "US TV strike could give British a star role", London Telegraph, 2007-11-14 Finke, Nikki (2007-11-14). Bitchslapping Between IATSE & WGA: Why Tom Short Is Pissed At Verrone Et Al Finke, Nikki (2007-11-07). On The Line: Writers Strike News, Day 3 . Deadline Hollywood Daily. LA Weekly. Retrieved from http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/on-the-line-writers-strike-news-day-3/ on 2008-3-20. "Internet Media Replacing Traditional Media", Podcasting News, 2007-08-27. Leopold, Tony. "Changing media landscape takes center stage in strike", CNN, 2007-11-08 Verrier, Richard. "Writers Guild votes overwhelmingly to authorize a strike", LosAngeles Times, 2007-10-20