Calling all WGA members

WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East president Michael Winship have sent out a fairly short official message to members asking them to attend Saturday's meetings for a briefing on a tentative deal that could end the writers strike.

The duo reiterated the points made Monday night by negotiating committee chief John Bowman -- that the WGA's continuing to negotiate with the majors and that the WGA's ruling bodies will not take official on the proposed deal until after the member meetings.

Here's the entire message --

To Our Fellow Members,

As Negotiating Committee Chair John Bowman wrote you last night, we are continuing to negotiate the terms of a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. We anticipate that we will be able to present the terms of that agreement to you in the next few days.

In order to have a full discussion with you of the terms and how they were reached, and in order to get your input before making recommendations or decisions, we have scheduled membership meetings for current-active members only for this Saturday, February 9, in New York and Los Angeles.

The New York meeting will take place at 2 pm ET in the Broadway Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Times Square, 1606 Broadway (Broadway and 49th Street). The Los Angeles meeting will take place at 7 pm PT in the Shrine Auditorium (665 W. Jefferson Blvd.).

We urge you to attend. We have gotten to this point in our negotiation as the direct result of the power of this strike, which each of you has generated. Neither the Negotiating Committee, nor the East Council or the West Board, will take action on any contract until after the membership meetings are held and your voices have been heard. We are all in this together.

Best,

Michael Winship
President
Writers Guild of America, East

Patric M. Verrone
President
Writers Guild of America, West

-- D. McNary

Comments

[simon]

What an inconvenient time to require membership get their asses downtown!
I will have to miss most of my niece's wedding to attend this g. damn thing.
And for what?
To be told by Verrone, Bowman and Young that they support a horrendous deal in which
the WGA allowed the companies to find a new and far from creative way to screw us? The AMPTP this time around have successfully pulled off something called a PROMOTIONAL window-- but Verrone plans to try to convince membership that 2% of distributors gross in year THREE of the new contract is somehow a ground breaking advancement? This 2% distributors gross falls after another promotional window ?

Hey, I've got a bridge...

Why is there ANY sort of promotional window?
This sounds like another awful situation for writers, akin to four cents on DVDs!

There are ways to follow traffic and writers should enjoy the
success of the properties they created along with the AMPTP when they make money online-- WHILE THEY ARE ACTUALLY POPULAR AND SUCCESSFUL-- not two weeks or even a month later.
Do these people representing us know anything about the area they are negotiating in?
They just listen to what the other guys tell them? Is that it?
I hate to sound like a broken record-- but why were experts in this area not hired to handle these negotiations? Or at least hired to ADVISE against these onerous terms?

I find it suspicious that none of the stories in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter or the New York or LA Times mention what the DVD rate was raised to in these negotiations.
I thought the point of these last three months was to raise the DVD rates AND make sure we don't get screwed on the internet the way we have been on DVDs -- did they make any significant gains? a cent or two at least? I know they didn't get the 8 cents they were asking for originally-- how was that ever going to be possible when they didn't leave any room to negotiate for it in the first place. I always felt they should have been asking for TWELVE cents if they wanted eight.
If I find out those DVD rates weren't raised-- I will not only vote AGAINST this deal-- but I will stand up at this meeting and take issue with leadership over this matter.
First they took DVDs off the table prematurely-- if they didn't bring them back and fight vigorously for a raise in the DVD rate-- esp when the trend now and for the foreseeable future is for ALL SERIES TO GO TO DVD-- I will find these WGA "negotiators" completely incompetent. This promotional window period is just as bad as the original DVD deal.
Once you agree to a promotional window-- we're stuck with it the same way we spent the last 20 years in this crazy DVD rate.

What will the companies do with this promotional window?
They'll use it to make money on online advertising and then I can only imagine they will pull the shows just before they would have to pay the writer and actor any money and then release them on DVDS and screw us six ways to Sunday.

I get to miss a very big part of my niece's wedding for what will in all likelihood be crappy news.
you better believe i'll be giving my two cents at this meeting-- AND I will be coming with facts and figures. My nephew emails me every day telling me how many ways the WGA is screwing this deal up-- he's been working in research at KPMG in Information, Communication and Entertainment for 6 years.
He seems to think we've been totally f&*$ed based on the stuff he has read at these industry gossip sites like United Hollywood and Nicky Finke.

If in the terms of this deal there are not HUGE improvements from the DGA deal, I'm going to vote against this deal-- no matter what leadership says.

So Says Simon-- a writer who has already lost a pilot and a sizable amount of money over the last three months. I don't want to feel I lost these things in vain, and from what I've been reading about this deal-- there's no other way to understand it.

[don't be a dick]

simon...

don't be a dick. the militant faction of the wga has been holding this industry/town hostage for four months. over 50,000 people ( not counting family members ) have had to suffer so that 12,000 can benfit. do you see something wrong with that. it's no different than us paying $3.50 for gas so that a few oil tycoons can get rich. the many should not be having to suffer for the few. you can use the lame excuse: " i'm sorry you're out of work...but it's the producers fault for not giving us what we want.." is akin to a terrorist shooting a hostage in the head and saying the authorities are the ones responsible for not meeting their demands. it takes two to tango. when the teamsters went on strike the wga had crossed their picket line. the writers weren't willing to make the same sacrifice that tens of thousands of support crew members are being force to make. i really am sorry for your losses... you losing your house etc. does not help anybody or the economy. but for all the support crews who have lost cars, houses ( like my neighbor who is a studio electrician)..health insurance etc..wether the writers win or lose, its a lose lose situation.for us .and there is gonna be alot of animosity towards writers returning to work.

the thing that is scary is that a majority of the writers voting have sold maybe one script and work as waiters or whatever on the side and have nothing to lose if this strike goes on.

when comes it comes to the meeting this weekend simon.

don't be a dick lest karma will be making her rounds in th enear future.

[k3d]

Yes Simon, Go eff yourself!

[don't be a dick is a huge one]

don't be a dick:
You are a huge one. Writers are oil tycoons? Really? Do writers control the price here? Writers are terrorists, hostage takers, and murderers? Really? Simon, in all his anger, said nothing even close to what you're saying. What is wrong with you? You should be ashamed of yourself.

[reelbusy]

The whole point of this strike is to get a deal where you're getting screwed the least by the studios and networks. If this is the best least screwing deal then you each have to make that call based on your personal principles. If Simon Says he doesn't like it then it's his right to do so. And the KPMG's of the world are right in the point that the global-multi-media corporations will continue to grow, merge and shrink the pool of funds the entire above and below the line community must live on. Get used to Hollywood being a third world nation/city where your only payoff is fame from reality TV.

[don't be a dick]

i never said writers ARE terrorist or oil tycoons..jeeeeeeezz!!lol . i was using those two situations as an analogy.. when did i ever say they control gas prices?? all i said was that many are having to pay and suffer so a much smaller group can benefit. what the hell is so hard about that to understand? the militant writers ( meaning not all writers ..dumbass) do not care what happens to anybody else in this town so long as they get theirs. it's selfishness pure and simple..and also i did say did i not that i was sorry he lost his pilot and a sizable amount of money.. bad things happening to him does not help anybody. i was just stating how a majority of support crew workers feel. are we all completely wrong.?????

so please don't put words in my mouth lest you like my dick in yours.

peace.

[don't be a dick is a huge one]

"it's no different than us paying $3.50 for gas so that a few oil tycoons can get rich"
"is akin to a terrorist shooting a hostage in the head and saying the authorities are the ones responsible for not meeting their demands"

Your words, not mine. No different than... Akin to... You're putting your own foot (and dick) in your own mouth. And if you don't see the difference between valid opinions on either side, and your own words seriously crossing the line, then you need serious help.

peace.

[don't be a dick]

hey dumbass please quote where i specifically said " writers are terrorists" or where i said " writers are oil tycoons"
because that cute little posts doesn't answer that...
again maybe you should take an english course to decipher the difference between a direct statement and a COMPARATIVE ANALOGY... there is a difference...don't get mad at me because you're too uneducated to understand.

that chip on your shoulder must be hell on your back :-)

[a suit]

Now that's a couple of writers! ...arguing over whether something was an analogy or a simile or a literal comparison...go get 'em guys.

reelbusy is onto something, my version of which would be that a good guild deal is one where you're getting less screwed than the previous deal. Done. If you want better than that than go get a more aggressive agent, write a brilliant spec, or become your own producer (a very good idea, by the way, it worked for Chayevsky).

In the meantime, don't double down on a bad bet that's already done irreparable damage to the collaborative human fabric that surrounds, supports, and makes relevant the great work that writers do.

[don't be a dick is a huge one]

don't be a dick:
Then I guess it's okay for me to say that you are NO DIFFERENT THAN a Nazi. You are akin to Hitler. There's a reason that people don't go to those places. You could have chosen any number of other analogies to get your point across. And you could have used phrasing that was way more tactful. But no, you chose your words on purpose, because of the dick you are. And your continued arguing the point instead of thinking even for just a moment that you could have been slightly more tactful and still have gotten your message across, just continues to show your true nature.