In a sign of growing frustration with the Writers Guild of America, Hollywood studios have taken the unusual step of announcing their latest offering for the Guild.
Late Tuesday, top studio executives met with WGA negotiators to encourage them to accept a deal that would end the WGA’s 114-day strike, which has crippled film and television production. But after the WGA leaders refused to bow, the studios made their points of agreement public — despite the standard practice of honoring news blackouts during negotiations.
It seems that the resolution is intended to Notch strength in torque Hollywood labor unions offered them throughout the summer of strikes.
But this strategy appears to have backfired, prompting an outpouring of criticism from WGA members.
“They made a huge tactical mistake because they pissed everyone off,” said showrunner Mike Royce on Wednesday. “They are trying to bypass an important part of the deal-making process by bypassing our negotiating committee. This is just a red flag,” he added.
The studios’ maneuver – and the hostile reaction it provoked – exposed the bitterness and mistrust between the two sides, which led to the strike in early May and frustrated efforts to bring about labor peace in Hollywood.
One legal expert said the decision by the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance to release details of its show could contravene laws governing collective bargaining. The NRLB rule prevents management from defrauding union negotiators because both sides have a duty to negotiate in good faith.
“They’re trying to appeal to union members directly, which is a violation of the duty to bargain in good faith,” said Andrea Schneider, director of the Cokin Dispute Resolution Program at Cardozo College of Law in New York. “It’s not going to work. It hasn’t worked in business negotiations for 50 years.”
Read more: Hollywood writers have been on strike for 100 days, with no end in sight
Schneider said the tactic is known in legal circles as “Boulwarism,” a practice named after General Electric’s chief negotiator, Lemuel Ricketts Boulwer, who in the 1960s tried to force an agreement with the International Electric, Radio and Electric Union. Machine workers, as a “take it or leave it” approach to negotiations.
An AMPTP spokesperson did not immediately comment on the criticism. People close to the studios said there was no official agreement on the press blackout. One source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said AMPTP had told union leaders that they planned to make the offer public.
AMPTP said on Tuesday the offer It offered “significantly higher compensation”, with the largest increase in writers’ pay in 35 years.
People close to the studios who were not allowed to speak publicly also acknowledged that the decision to make the deal points public was designed to circumvent WGA leadership in order to incentivize writers, producers, and legions of financially struggling workers to start pressuring WGA leadership to accept it. an agreement.
The studios also wanted to publicly demonstrate that they were doing their part to try and strike a deal.
Tuesday’s meeting — which was attended by Disney CEO Bob Iger, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, NBCUniversal’s chief content officer Donna Langley plus AMPTP chief negotiator Carol Lombardini – serve as an effort to bring industry giants into the conference. room with writers to smooth the deal, according to two company insiders. Union members have asked to speak to decision makers, not just labor negotiators.
Companies are under pressure to end the strikesEspecially after SAG-AFTRA launched its own strike in mid-July. The actors’ strike threw the studio’s film and television marketing campaigns into disarray.
Studio executives privately say the upcoming TV season, film and television awards season — a financial driver for parts of the industry — along with film festivals and next year’s film slate are at risk if a deal is not reached with the WGA by mid-September 2018.
They say a failure to reach an agreement by next month could prolong the strike significantly because some companies will forgo the fourth quarter and start readjusting next year’s movie slate.
“Our priority is to end the strike so that our valued members of the creative community can get back to what they’re good at and end the hardships faced by so many people and companies serving the industry,” said Lombardini, President of AMPTP.
Read more: Writers’ Strike: What’s at stake and How It Could Disrupt Hollywood
After the studios announced their show, WGA criticized them In a statement issued just before midnight Tuesday.
“On the 113th day of the strike – and as SAG-AFTRA marched into the picket lines alongside us – we were met with a lecture on how good their one and only counter-offer was,” said the WGA’s negotiating committee.
The WGA questioned the studio executives’ motives.
The union committee said: “This was not a meeting to reach an agreement. This was a meeting to persuade us to give in, which is why, 20 minutes after we left the meeting, AMPTP released its summary of its proposals.” “This has been the companies’ plan from the start — not to bargain, but to confuse us. It’s their only strategy — to bet we’ll turn on each other.”
This strategy appears to follow the studios’ success during the WGA strike of 2007-2008, when the union seemed less united than it is today and prominent series creators opened back channels with studio executives to help secure the deal.
However, this year, showrunners who want to get their show back up and running have largely stayed on the sidelines of the negotiations and support for the leadership has been strong.
Social media has become an effective tool for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, amplifying the sentiments in the picket lines. Members have portrayed company executives as greedy and out of touch with the reality of trying to make a living wage in Los Angeles and New York.
Read more: WGA and AMPTP talk again. Why have studios been incentivized to get back to the table?
Studios have struggled to polish their public image.
More Americans have been supportive of striking actors and writers than studios have been, according to the Washington Post A recent poll by The Times by Canadian polling firm Legere.
“My feeling is that they think (the proposal’s release) might change the narrative,” said David Smith, professor of economics at the Pepperdine Graziadeo School of Business. “What they’re trying to do is change the public perception of their role in downtime.”
Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s School of Film, described AMPTP’s statement as an important step in strengthening their public relations.
“It means they were in pain, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it,” Galloway said.
Some industry observers said the AMPTP proposal was unlikely to break the unity of WGA members.
“There’s always hope that you can start to influence a critical mass of trade unions, but my sense is there are clear messages that these groups are very much united within their ranks this time around,” Smith said.
“We’re fully prepared to picket as long as we need to,” said Eli Edelson, a television writer and WGA captain, who joined others at the picket lines in Culver City outside Sony Pictures Entertainment. “This is already the third longest strike in our history. We are not going to sit around that long for a deal that isn’t as good as we deserve.”
Royce, the show’s creator, questioned the studios’ tactics.
“They should have kept quiet and continued the negotiations, and that’s all we’re asking,” Royce said. “But instead, they are trying to choke this matter down our throats, which made all of us very angry because this is not a deal we can accept. But, hopefully, this doesn’t mean we’ve reached a dead end. This must just be a stupid thing they did out of their way to deal.” .”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.