Writers ready to strike?

2008-11-25 13:01

Los Angeles - The Hollywood writers union claims studios aren't paying for work used on the internet - just as the Screen Actors Guild plans to ask its members for a vote to strike over internet payments.

The two unions appear to be reading from the same script with an eye to disrupting the upcoming Hollywood awards season, much as last year's strike abbreviated the Golden Globes.

"If, God forbid, we should go on strike, you want to do it at a time when it has the most impact," Guild president Alan Rosenberg told The Associated Press on Monday. "We want to use whatever leverage we can muster."

Federally mediated talks between the actors union and Hollywood's major studios broke down early on Saturday. The writers union ended a 100-day strike on February 12.

The actors' union claims studios want to cut the residual fees actors receive when their work appears in reruns by shifting reruns to the internet, where fees are a minimum of about $23 per actor, compared with more than $700 for TV reruns.

Not paying the lower fee

The Writers Guild of America said in an arbitration claim last week that the studios are not even paying the lower fee.

The writers union says the internet residuals apply to movies made after July 1971 and TV programme from 1977 and later, while the studios say they apply only to work done after February 13 of 2008.

The studios also argue any shift in reruns to the Internet is not deliberate, and that residuals are lower there because less revenue is generated online than on TV.

"The companies have reneged on this agreement," John F Bowman, chair of the Writers Guild of America's negotiating committee last year, said in a statement. "The guild will not allow this to stand."

Outrage has spilled into the ranks of actors and is serving as fodder for their union's push for a vote as soon as possible on whether to strike.

Stand behind leadership

Ron Perkins, a 58-year-old actor with a recurring role as a doctor on NBC's Heroes, said the issue highlighted why actors have been holding out since their contract expired in June.

"The other unions who have accepted contracts are finding out, especially with the writers, that there are some problems," he said. "I think we need to stand behind our leadership."

Adding residuals for material reused via internet downloads was a "core issue" of the last writers strike.

A vote on whether actors authorise a strike could take more than a month. It requires 75% approval to pass.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major Hollywood studios, said on Monday in a statement that it "simply cannot put the future of the industry at stake - even if it means that awards shows are disrupted in some way."

The studio group refuses to alter the new media agreement that it has reached with six other labour groups, including directors, writers, stagehands and another actors union.

"SAG cannot justify why it deserves a better deal," the group's statement said.

- AP