The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the 12000 members it represents spent all night looking over the new proposal sent to them late yesterday afternoon from the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), and have flatly turned it down.
The AMPTP proposal would would have given the writers more than $130 million in additional compensation over the next three years.
The WGA rejected the math and dubbed the proposal both a “massive rollback” and a “bad deal,” according to a report in Variety.
What was thought to be a ray of hope for the glitz biz has become a continued pale of pessimism. Entertainment jorunalist Dave Mcnary was told by AMPTP insiders that the producers are irked that the WGA initially showed scant interest in the sweetened package of new-media proposals. “The WGA is not budging,” said the inside source.
Time is running out for the WGA as the AMPTP’s interest and time will soon be divided with them preparing to start negotiations with the Directors Guild of America (DGA), as their contract comes up for renewal early next year.
“The AMPTP’s intractability is dispiriting news but it must also be motivating,” said guild presidents Patric Verrone and Michael Winship. “Any movement on the part of these multinational conglomerates has been the result of the collective action of our membership, with the support of SAG, other unions, supportive politicians, and the general public. We must fight on, returning to the lines on Monday in force to make it clear that we will not back down, that we will not accept a bad deal, and that we are all in this together.”
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