WGA Says It Only Got A 'Lecture' From Iger, Zaslav & Co. At Tuesday-Night Meeting To Discuss Strike
Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) hit another standstill when a Tuesday-night meeting between the two sides reportedly led to no actual talks, but a "lecture," per the WGA.
After said confab, the studios broke a mutually agreed-upon media blackout by going public with their 12-day-old offer of a "comprehensive package" to the writers.
After receiving an invite to sit down Tuesday evening with Disney's Bob Iger, Universal Pictures' Donna Langley, Netflix's Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav and AMPTP president Carol Lombardini, "we were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was," the WGA negotiating committee wrote in an email to members (pasted below in full).
"But this wasn't a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not 20 minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals," says the WGA email. "This was the companies' plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other."
As the studios and streamers disclosed on Tuesday night, back on Aug. 11 they offered the WGA "increased data transparency" which will be comprised of "viewership data in the form of quarterly confidential reports," provided to the guild. This includes "total SVOD view hours per title."
Other aspects of the Aug. 11 proposal include a compounded 13% compensation increase over a three-year contract, including residual increases; protections (financial and otherwise) against the use of AI; a guaranteed minimum employment rate in development rooms; and new terms and conditions for AVOD (advertising-based video on demand) and SVOD (subscription video on demand).
In response to the AMPTP going to the press with their Aug. 11 offer, the WGA has promised to share a "detailed description of the state of the negotiations" on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, read the WGA's latest letter to its members in full below.
"DEAR MEMBERS,
After 102 days of being on strike and of AMPTP silence, the companies began to bargain with us on August 11th, presenting us for the first time with a counteroffer.
We responded to their counter at the beginning of last week and engaged in further discussions throughout the week.
On Monday of this week, we received an invitation to meet with Bob Iger, Donna Langley, Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav, and Carol Lombardini. It was accompanied by a message that it was past time to end this strike and that the companies were finally ready to bargain a deal.
We accepted that invitation and, in good faith, met tonight, in hopes that the companies were serious about getting the industry back to work.
Instead, on the 113th day of the strike – and while SAG-AFTRA is walking the picket lines by our side – we were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was.
We explained all the ways in which their counter's limitations and loopholes and omissions failed to sufficiently protect writers from the existential threats that caused us to strike in the first place. We told them that a strike has a price, and that price is an answer to all – and not just some – of the problems they have created in the business.
But this wasn't a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not 20 minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals.
This was the companies' plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other.
Tomorrow we will send a more detailed description of the state of the negotiations. And we will see you all out on the picket lines so that the companies continue to see what labor power looks like."