it's official!!!
THE STRIKE IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
from nytimes.com:
February 12, 2008
Writers Vote to End Strike
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood’s writers made it official on Tuesday night, ending their bitterly fought strike at the 100-day mark by an overwhelming margin. Of 3,775 writers who cast ballots, 92.5 percent voted in favor of ending the strike. Officials of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East disclosed results of the tally an hour after voting had closed at 6 p.m. here.
“The strike is over,” Patric M. Verrone, president of the West Coast guild, said in a statement.
“Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work.”
The decision to end the strike became all but inevitable after the guilds’ governing boards on Sunday unanimously approved the tentative three-year agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, following strong expressions of support at at mass meetings on both coasts.
Union members must still decide whether to ratify the contract in coming days. But Tuesday’s vote to end the strike brought relief to an entertainment industry that wants to get its television productions and future movie schedules back in order.
Wednesday morning will bring a rush to the office by television writers who are especially eager to get existing series like the CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men” and the ABC drama “Grey’s Anatomy” quickly up to speed. Television writers will also move quickly to salvage as much as possible of a pilot season that has been disrupted by the strike.
The strike upended the television viewing habits of millions of Americans by shutting down production on most dramas and comedies and forced movie studios to halt some big-budget films. It also dried up the livelihoods of not just the 12,000 guild members but tens of thousands of people who rely on such productions for work.
But how much economic damage was wrought by the walkout has been subject to debate. Writers predicted that the strike would cause $2.5 billion in economic losses if it continued to the five-month mark, as did their 1988 strike. But a report from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, reckoned losses for a strike of that length at only about $380 million, because companies had already spent heavily to stockpile programs and other factors.As of Tuesday afternoon, a running tally by the producers’ alliance estimated that the walkout had cost writers abut $285 million in lost wages, and had cost workers in other film unions nearly $500 million. The strike’s end appeared to make a walkout by Hollywood’s actors less likely when their contract expires on June 30. The actors’ unions have not yet opened negotiations; but the road map for digital media compensation laid out in recent agreements with both writers and directors raised the prospect that similar solutions could work with actors.
The writers’ strike followed a 19-year period in which Hollywood experienced no major strikes, after weathering a series of walkouts in the 1980s.
The latest dispute was finally settled when company executives - notably Peter Chernin, the News Corporation president, and Robert A. Iger the Walt Disney chief executive - opened direct talks with Mr. Verrone, along with David J. Young, executive director of the West Coast guild, and John Bowman, who headed the unions’ negotiating committee. A crucial break came when the two sides crafted a provision that provides the guilds a gain in the payment for digital distribution of entertainment beyond the terms of a recent deal between Hollywood producers and the Directors Guild of America.
Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS, said Hollywood executives might do well to spend more time with Guild leaders in coming months, if peace is to prevail in the long term. “The lesson is, we shouldn’t meet every three years,” said Mr. Moonves.
* * * * *
I'm so happy I could cry. For realz, yo.
I had this whole deep and serious entry in my head -- my day started out very strange, I was WAAAAAAY too far inside my own head this morning -- but then I had conversations during meetings like in high school and it started snowing retardedly and I left work early and came home to watch some Tivo and then West Wing and now I'm all happy because of the strike and yay! Oh, and I owe you guys a catsup entry besides, what with Ellen Page-y awesomeness and whatnot....but so yeah, deep & serious'll have to wait until some other time.
mwahs!!!!
~a
from nytimes.com:
February 12, 2008
Writers Vote to End Strike
By MICHAEL CIEPLY
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood’s writers made it official on Tuesday night, ending their bitterly fought strike at the 100-day mark by an overwhelming margin. Of 3,775 writers who cast ballots, 92.5 percent voted in favor of ending the strike. Officials of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East disclosed results of the tally an hour after voting had closed at 6 p.m. here.
“The strike is over,” Patric M. Verrone, president of the West Coast guild, said in a statement.
“Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work.”
The decision to end the strike became all but inevitable after the guilds’ governing boards on Sunday unanimously approved the tentative three-year agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, following strong expressions of support at at mass meetings on both coasts.
Union members must still decide whether to ratify the contract in coming days. But Tuesday’s vote to end the strike brought relief to an entertainment industry that wants to get its television productions and future movie schedules back in order.
Wednesday morning will bring a rush to the office by television writers who are especially eager to get existing series like the CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men” and the ABC drama “Grey’s Anatomy” quickly up to speed. Television writers will also move quickly to salvage as much as possible of a pilot season that has been disrupted by the strike.
The strike upended the television viewing habits of millions of Americans by shutting down production on most dramas and comedies and forced movie studios to halt some big-budget films. It also dried up the livelihoods of not just the 12,000 guild members but tens of thousands of people who rely on such productions for work.
But how much economic damage was wrought by the walkout has been subject to debate. Writers predicted that the strike would cause $2.5 billion in economic losses if it continued to the five-month mark, as did their 1988 strike. But a report from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, reckoned losses for a strike of that length at only about $380 million, because companies had already spent heavily to stockpile programs and other factors.As of Tuesday afternoon, a running tally by the producers’ alliance estimated that the walkout had cost writers abut $285 million in lost wages, and had cost workers in other film unions nearly $500 million. The strike’s end appeared to make a walkout by Hollywood’s actors less likely when their contract expires on June 30. The actors’ unions have not yet opened negotiations; but the road map for digital media compensation laid out in recent agreements with both writers and directors raised the prospect that similar solutions could work with actors.
The writers’ strike followed a 19-year period in which Hollywood experienced no major strikes, after weathering a series of walkouts in the 1980s.
The latest dispute was finally settled when company executives - notably Peter Chernin, the News Corporation president, and Robert A. Iger the Walt Disney chief executive - opened direct talks with Mr. Verrone, along with David J. Young, executive director of the West Coast guild, and John Bowman, who headed the unions’ negotiating committee. A crucial break came when the two sides crafted a provision that provides the guilds a gain in the payment for digital distribution of entertainment beyond the terms of a recent deal between Hollywood producers and the Directors Guild of America.
Leslie Moonves, chief executive of CBS, said Hollywood executives might do well to spend more time with Guild leaders in coming months, if peace is to prevail in the long term. “The lesson is, we shouldn’t meet every three years,” said Mr. Moonves.
* * * * *
I'm so happy I could cry. For realz, yo.
I had this whole deep and serious entry in my head -- my day started out very strange, I was WAAAAAAY too far inside my own head this morning -- but then I had conversations during meetings like in high school and it started snowing retardedly and I left work early and came home to watch some Tivo and then West Wing and now I'm all happy because of the strike and yay! Oh, and I owe you guys a catsup entry besides, what with Ellen Page-y awesomeness and whatnot....but so yeah, deep & serious'll have to wait until some other time.
mwahs!!!!
~a