For the past six weeks members of the Writers Guild of America have been out of work and slowly running out of patience with the negotiation process. Two days ago the situation look even grimmer when the announcement came that talks had been indefinitely suspended.
Then, just last night, a ray of hope emerged when the union representing the picketing writers said it would try to deal directly with Hollywood studios and production companies, bypassing the umbrella organization that has been representing them.
That’s welcome news for companies like the one that produces David Letterman’s “Late Show.” Letterman’s Worldwide Pants is independently owned and executives there said they hoped to broker a deal that would put the talk show host and his writers back to work.
The talk show host is a member of the Writers Guild, as is his show’s executive producer, Rob Burnett, and according to news reports, both indicated they were willing to negotiate a deal with striking writers.
“Worldwide Pants has always been a writer-friendly company,” Burnett said in a statement. “Since the beginning of the strike, we have expressed our willingness to sign an interim agreement with the guild consistent with its positions in this dispute. We’re happy that the guild has now adopted an approach that might make this possible. It is our strong desire to be back on the air with our writers and we hope that will happen as soon as possible.”
Union representatives said they will begin approaching production companies individually starting Monday. The move comes two weeks after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, announced it would not bargain further unless the Writers Guild of America dropped proposals that included the authority to unionize writers on reality shows and animation projects.
You’ll recall the work stoppage began November 5th, after talks broke down regarding the negotiation for writers to be compensated for programs, movies and other content streamed or downloaded over the Internet.
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