After talks between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke off Friday evening, Hollywood Insider got an update from WGA negotiating committee chair John Bowman (pictured). (Insider also requested an interview with the AMPTP and hopes to receive a reply soon.)
HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: We’ve been following this of course, but can you describe in your own words how talks have been going since Thanksgiving?
BOWMAN: Well, they broke off talks with us tonight [Friday]. We were preparing a counter proposal to what they had proposed to us earlier in the day, and they got up and left the hotel before we could deliver it to them… they left in a bit of a huff.
So what are you going to do now? Complete the counter-proposal and try to get it to them?
Yeah. What they’re doing is they have this sort of bargaining history with us. They always give ultimatums. They say if you won’t do this we won’t talk to you anymore. Like the night before we went on strike [Nov. 4] they said, “Before you take DVDs off the table, we won’t give you an Internet proposal.” And we took DVDs off the table and they didn’t give us one. Now they say unless you take six things off the table — like reality jurisdiction, animation, and then something we have in [place] to make sure they actually aren’t hiding money in these vertically integrated companies — so once again they said if you don’t do this we won’t talk to you anymore, and you can only do that to us once. These people manipulate and they try to trick you. They do everything but negotiate. And we actually had a very good week before [Friday] where we were actually talking to each other about the issues.
Did you feel like you were closer to hashing out new media?
Yeah, I honestly did. I thought we were actually talking to each other about things that mattered to us, and I thought we were sort of circling areas we could actually figure out a deal. And then they just got up and left the table, so it was actually quite a shock to me.
Do you think this will lead to a return to back-channel negotiating?
Yeah, I guess that’s all we have left, isn’t it. There’s going to have to be some back channeling now. The AMPTP is a difficult group to negotiate with because it’s seven big conglomerates who actually don’t agree on a lot of things and there’s a lot of internal dissension. It’s hard for them to come to an agreement and actually discuss things with us.
I understand they hired a PR team.
Yeah, Chris Lehane from the [Al] Gore campaign. Well, the whole week seemed like a drum roll towards Chris Lehane’s first PR announcement on behalf of the AMPTP, because honestly, five seconds after they told us they were leaving, Chris Lehane had a press release up on their website. So, unfortunately for them, it’s become more about public relations and less about actually sitting down and negotiating with us.
We both have a lot of items on the table and some of them are very important to us, some of them aren’t. No negotiator would say if you do this, I’ll do that — publicly. I’ll say it privately to them. I’d like them to sit down and talk with us privately. I think we might be able to get things moving forward…. Both sides have a lot of things on the table. Saying that if unless you move this, we won’t talk to you anymore, it sort of belies the actual point of negotiations. The point of negotiation is you do have things on the table that the other side doesn’t like and you trade them. They want to take all of our bargaining chips and they’ll leave all of theirs on the table and then they’ll try to grind us down. They’re not being very reasonable right now.
On Friday, the WGA sent a letter out to members, which addressed some of the rumors out there, one of which was that one or more of the companies is prepared to throw away the spring and fall TV season and prolong the strike.
The odd thing about this negotiation is that the AMPTP follows an almost predictable strategy and we had a strong sense this week that they were going to break off negotiations no matter what we did. Their whole game, since I’ve started this negotiation with them, is that they bully you, they try to scare you, they try to intimidate you, they do everything but try to negotiate. They plant rumors. You know, I have 20 showrunners a day and 20 A-listers a day calling me with rumors they’ve heard from their agents or managers that have been planted by the AMPTP. So I have to manage all of these people. They will do everything but negotiate. They try to divide and conquer; that’s sort of the negotiating strategy.
Did you see their response to the letter shortly after? It was an email pointing out factual mistakes in the WGA letter.
I looked at it briefly; it didn’t really get into much detail about what they thought the mistakes were.
From what you’re hearing, is the strike actually crippling the TV industry?
It’s not helping it. Writers are a necessary part of the process, and we haven’t been treated with much respect, I would have to say, during this negotiation. If they’re going to attempt to put a season on without scripted content, well, let’s see what happens. I don’t think it’s going to end up well for them.
Does the WGA think any parts of the producers’ counter-offer on Friday were reasonable?
I think they might publish it on their website; you can sort of look at it. I mean, it certainly was less movement than I would have liked, but nevertheless, it was enough for us — we wanted to stay there and counter and keep talking.
What are the people who are calling you saying?
Honestly, everybody wants this to get resolved as quickly as possible, and we do too. But everybody else says, If you don’t get a good deal here, I will kill you.
They don’t want it to be for nothing at this point.
Right. Everybody’s been out for a while and they’ve fought and they’ve struggled and they know this is a negotiation of a generation. I mean, every 20 years a new media form comes up, which you have to fight for. And the Writer’s Guild has been the guild that usually fights the hardest for what they want.
I also understand there’s a strike fund.
Yes, we have a strike fund where members who are suffering can come to us and partition us for help.
Is there any sense of when the DGA is going to begin negotiations with the AMPTP? There’s been a lot of speculation about that.
Yeah, it’s hard to say. The DGA can’t deliver us and they can’t deliver SAG. And we and SAG are pretty united on this. There’s no point in them entering into negotiations early if their plan is to undercut us, and I don’t think they would.
If they did, do you think that would undermine the WGA negotiations?
No. It would create a horribly tense situation with the DGA and us and SAG. I know that they don’t want to do that, and I don’t know why they would — they don’t have to. They care about the Internet as much as we do. They want jurisdiction on the Internet. Their TV directors want to make sure their streaming proposal is strong, and their film directors want to make sure their electronic sell through is strong. So all three guilds are fairly united here.
Is there somebody on the AMPTP’s negotiating committee who you think will be the white knight in the end?
It’s hard for me to say; I’m not privy to their internal discussion. I mean, I would hope somebody would step up at some point.
I guess that’s part of the back channeling.
Yes, I guess now that they’ve formally broken off negotiations, they’ll probably send some people to talk to us internally.
Has the mediator been of any help?
Oh sure, I think it does help to have a mediator there. But it’s difficult. The AMPTP has never negotiated with a guild quite as united as we are, and the guild that’s willing to strike and the guild that is willing to sit it out for as long as possible to get a good deal, so it’s a different ballgame, I would say.
Do you foresee this going into the New Year?
It’s hard for me to say; it’s up to them. We could’ve gotten this done in two days if they’d come in wheeling and dealing, and they’re not.
Do you think this will lead to a return to back-channel negotiating?
Yeah, I guess that’s all we have left, isn’t it. There’s going to have to be some back channeling now. The AMPTP is a difficult group to negotiate with because it’s seven big conglomerates who actually don’t agree on a lot of things and there’s a lot of internal dissension. It’s hard for them to come to an agreement and actually discuss things with us.
I understand they hired a PR team.
Yeah, Chris Lehane from the [Al] Gore campaign. Well, the whole week seemed like a drum roll towards Chris Lehane’s first PR announcement on behalf of the AMPTP, because honestly, five seconds after they told us they were leaving, Chris Lehane had a press release up on their website. So, unfortunately for them, it’s become more about public relations and less about actually sitting down and negotiating with us.
We both have a lot of items on the table and some of them are very important to us, some of them aren’t. No negotiator would say if you do this, I’ll do that — publicly. I’ll say it privately to them. I’d like them to sit down and talk with us privately. I think we might be able to get things moving forward…. Both sides have a lot of things on the table. Saying that if unless you move this, we won’t talk to you anymore, it sort of belies the actual point of negotiations. The point of negotiation is you do have things on the table that the other side doesn’t like and you trade them. They want to take all of our bargaining chips and they’ll leave all of theirs on the table and then they’ll try to grind us down. They’re not being very reasonable right now.
On Friday, the WGA sent a letter out to members, which addressed some of the rumors out there, one of which was that one or more of the companies is prepared to throw away the spring and fall TV season and prolong the strike.
The odd thing about this negotiation is that the AMPTP follows an almost predictable strategy and we had a strong sense this week that they were going to break off negotiations no matter what we did. Their whole game, since I’ve started this negotiation with them, is that they bully you, they try to scare you, they try to intimidate you, they do everything but try to negotiate. They plant rumors. You know, I have 20 showrunners a day and 20 A-listers a day calling me with rumors they’ve heard from their agents or managers that have been planted by the AMPTP. So I have to manage all of these people. They will do everything but negotiate. They try to divide and conquer; that’s sort of the negotiating strategy.
Did you see their response to the letter shortly after? It was an email pointing out factual mistakes in the WGA letter.
I looked at it briefly; it didn’t really get into much detail about what they thought the mistakes were.
From what you’re hearing, is the strike actually crippling the TV industry?
It’s not helping it. Writers are a necessary part of the process, and we haven’t been treated with much respect, I would have to say, during this negotiation. If they’re going to attempt to put a season on without scripted content, well, let’s see what happens. I don’t think it’s going to end up well for them.
Does the WGA think any parts of the producers’ counter-offer on Friday were reasonable?
I think they might publish it on their website; you can sort of look at it. I mean, it certainly was less movement than I would have liked, but nevertheless, it was enough for us — we wanted to stay there and counter and keep talking.
What are the people who are calling you saying?
Honestly, everybody wants this to get resolved as quickly as possible, and we do too. But everybody else says, If you don’t get a good deal here, I will kill you.
They don’t want it to be for nothing at this point.
Right. Everybody’s been out for a while and they’ve fought and they’ve struggled and they know this is a negotiation of a generation. I mean, every 20 years a new media form comes up, which you have to fight for. And the Writer’s Guild has been the guild that usually fights the hardest for what they want.
I also understand there’s a strike fund.
Yes, we have a strike fund where members who are suffering can come to us and partition us for help.
Is there any sense of when the DGA is going to begin negotiations with the AMPTP? There’s been a lot of speculation about that.
Yeah, it’s hard to say. The DGA can’t deliver us and they can’t deliver SAG. And we and SAG are pretty united on this. There’s no point in them entering into negotiations early if their plan is to undercut us, and I don’t think they would.
If they did, do you think that would undermine the WGA negotiations?
No. It would create a horribly tense situation with the DGA and us and SAG. I know that they don’t want to do that, and I don’t know why they would — they don’t have to. They care about the Internet as much as we do. They want jurisdiction on the Internet. Their TV directors want to make sure their streaming proposal is strong, and their film directors want to make sure their electronic sell through is strong. So all three guilds are fairly united here.
Is there somebody on the AMPTP’s negotiating committee who you think will be the white knight in the end?
It’s hard for me to say; I’m not privy to their internal discussion. I mean, I would hope somebody would step up at some point.
I guess that’s part of the back channeling.
Yes, I guess now that they’ve formally broken off negotiations, they’ll probably send some people to talk to us internally.
Has the mediator been of any help?
Oh sure, I think it does help to have a mediator there. But it’s difficult. The AMPTP has never negotiated with a guild quite as united as we are, and the guild that’s willing to strike and the guild that is willing to sit it out for as long as possible to get a good deal, so it’s a different ballgame, I would say.
Do you foresee this going into the New Year?
It’s hard for me to say; it’s up to them. We could’ve gotten this done in two days if they’d come in wheeling and dealing, and they’re not.
Fire all of the writers and hire new ones. I’m sure there are thousands of aspiring writers trying to break into the career field. Do to the same thing to the WGA that Reagan did to PATCO in 1981 when the Air Traffic Controllers went on strike. Organized Labor ceased being useful 50 years ago
Astroturf much, Chad? I implore you to look deep within yourself and find the character to admit that you’re a twit.
This website could stand to be a little less biased. Try the viewpoint of the subscribers and not a shill for the WGA.
Mike, out of curiosity do you work for the AMPTP or any of the studios? It sounds like it because if you were to look at the facts, the writers are on the good side and this website is taking the correct side. The writers need to win this strike for the future, otherwise they’ll end up getting screwed again like they have been in the past.
WRITERS, I SUPPORT THE STRIKE!!! Keep up the hard work, wish I could picket with you, but alas I must continue working myself, even if it is for chump change haha!
Hurmoth-I don’t work for the AMPTP or the studios. I work in an office and make nowhere near what the writers or producers do. I’m tired of reading about one side in this stupid strike. Where are the stories about technical people, food service and the hundreds of people who get nothing except no pay for months? Let’s hear about them. How about how advertisers have nothing to programming to buy? How long are other programming going to stay on the air? How will reality/game shows be able to sustain viewers in the long run?
Please WRITE about all sides of the story please!
As if the writers don’t make enough money as it is why don’t they live for a few days in a regular job making 7.00 an hour see how far that gets them poor babies only own 2 mansions. Please…. I hope they screw themselves with this strike and when they decide to comeback people don’t watch the shows well then they’ll just be outta luck!!!
interesting comments. first of all – organized labor has never been more important than it is now. Someone’s been listening to right wing sound bites too much. People that work for companies with no unions still benefit from unions because there is always that threat that workers getting the shaft will rise up. Take away all the unions and once again (as history will show) big business will do anything to save a buck. Big business is already trying to take away the ability for the little guy to take legal action against them. If Unions go it will only get worse. They aren’t perfect and at times have been corrupt but it’s still the best way to keep the system working and middle class working. For the record, only about .05 of writers in the union live big houses. If you’re going to label us all rich elitests you’re totally uninformed and have no business being in this argument.
Erin, maybe if you had an education, talent or both, you would make more than $7,- and hour.
The prodicers are the ones who simply don’t want anybodty else to make money but themselves. They’re the one driving the $150k cars, living in the multi-millio dollar mansions.
The majority of the writers liev a pretty normal lifestyle.
Try educating yourslef on the topic befor spouting your un-informed opinion.
We don’t know why Erin makes $7 an hour. Maybe she has a good reason. That was insulting. How much do you make? And why can’t you afford spellcheck?
Some of us, just want our TV shows back. We are not the enemy. Educate us nicely, but don’t insult us.
The first thing to do, to terminate the strike, is impeach the WGA leadership, who instigated it, and who persist with unreasonable demands, like for ad monies that producers don’t even see and for the monopolization of reality television. It would be to writers’ best interest to limit the amount of reality television and cheap, sleazy sensationalism in their works, because they hike up the COSTS of production, but, as a group, writers have absolutely no discernible principles, except the one, being selfish interest. To see how reckless, power-mad and idiotic the WGA’s leadership has become, just click on the first News Flash, on this site, and read Mr. Bowman’s literary blunder; this is the chief negotiator for a Writer’s Guild, mind you, referring to people who are suffering being able to “…partition (SIC)the Guild…” for help. I PETITION you guys: GO AWAY, not only are unions unnecessary, anymore, but you are cavalierly RUINING many people’s livelihoods.
They WGA is all stopid. They AMPTP is not stopid. They WGA eat there chidwen. They AMPTP is Gods frend.
The large sums of money writers make isn’t the issue. The money will be there regardless, it’s just a matter of who gets to benefit from it. It should be the writers, director, and actors who get these shows made. The executives and producers shouldn’t be allowed to pocket all of it. Take the cast of “Friends” when they negotiated $1M per episode. Is that more money than anyone should EVER make? Pretty much. It’s a ridiculous sum. However, the show was able to sell advertising and reruns at huge amounts of money because that cast was so phenomenal. Therefore, should the cast be paid quite well? Absolutely. Same principle applies here. Go Writers Go!!
After slaving unpaid for 2 years, I finished my first screenplay the day the strike started. Did that sodomise my career? Damn right. Do I support the strike? Freaking-A-yeah. I won’t even bother responding to Chad, Erin, Lee – you’re just sad, sad human beings and my script had enough of those (oops – so I suppose you’ll be demanding royalties from me too?). But to Mike: Just because a writer’s site focuses on WRITERS (duh) doesn’t make it biased. It makes YOU biased. If you’re so neutral, Mr Switzerland, why not post us a link to the AMPTP sites where we can read about the plight of the set workers and TV viewers? And all the good stuff which the AMPTP, bless its heart, is doing to ease their suffering?
I wasn’t even going to respond to the chidish anti-writer insults but I have to back K Brian on this. I’m a writer, heavily pregnant and last time had to wait 7 years between selling scripts. It was eventually produced, but no, Chad, I don’t have a swimming pool at my mansion. You know why? Because I don’t HAVE a mansion goddamit! Now Mike, I’m not into namecalling but you’re easily the most ignorant “neutral” I’ve ever run into. Like K Brian alluded to, when reading about a WRITERS’ strike, why would anyone ever expect that writers wouldn’t be the focal point? The technical & support staff help put bread on my plate (unbuttered though it might be), and I support them 100%. But to suggest that Entertainment Weekly is biased is quite frankly ludicrous, especially since I 1st read about the set workers’ plight on this site. To K Brian, I wish him/her all the best with that script and here’s hoping one day we’ll collaborate on a script about this strike – and give it a happy ending.
Keep at it guys & gals. Support from the UK. The Movie companies get bigger & bigger and seem to able to buy everyone else off. You stick to your guns. The Internet is Evolving, they know it, they are just getting greedier.
As much as i love my “24″ you have support over the water.
Best of luck