The Writers Guild of America has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board about the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and what they call bad-faith bargaining. Hollywood Wiretap has a summary of the several articles detailing this new twist in the bitter negotiations that are keeping us from having David Letterman help us find out if things float. The WGA says the AMPTP violated federal law by issuing an ultimatum and then breaking off talks.
"This is a laying down of the gauntlet in some sense," David Smith, a labor economist at Pepperdine, told the LA Times. "It's a strategic move that in my mind is likely to set up further tension between the two groups."
"It is a clear violation of federal law for the AMPTP to issue an ultimatum and break off negotiations if we fail to cave to their illegal demands. We are in the midst of the holiday season, with thousands of our members and the membership of other unions out of work. It is the height of irresponsibility and intransigence for the AMPTP to refuse to negotiate a fair agreement with the WGA. We reiterate our demand that the AMPTP immediately return to the negotiations, rather than going on vacation, so that this town can be put back to work,” said the Guild.
The AMPTP fired back: "The WGA has now been reduced to pounding the table, and this baseless, desperate NLRB complaint is just the latest indication that the WGA's negotiating strategy has achieved nothing for working writers."
It's not unusual for opposing sides in a labor dispute to file such complaints in an attempt to turn up the bargaining pressure, Daniel J.B. Mitchell, a professor of management and public policy at UCLA told the Associated Press.
Speaking of Letterman, though, Variety also says that the WGA might be losing some leverage soon, because the late-night TV hosts might have to cave and come back to work. None of them, though, want to get the Carson Daly treatment, who came back early, ostensibly to keep his crew in their jobs, as he likely can't afford to pay them all out of pocket like Letterman and Leno and the others have been. His show not only sucks (not that it did WITH writers), but WGA members have infiltrated his show and disrupted it out of protest.
Also undermining WGA leverage would be the Directors' Guild of America starting negotiations while the strike was still ongoing. Deadline Hollywood Daily has a letter that reveals the DGA may not be able to hold off much longer since the writers' strike shows no signs of ending soon. This is an excerpt from a letter the DGA wrote to its joint DGA-WGA members:
This issue is not between the DGA and the WGA. To make that the fight only strengthens the other side. But sharing a goal is not the same as sharing tactics and strategy. And our differing views of the best way to achieve our goals may lead us to act differently. Traditionally our negotiations start early and usually are done by January. This has been our pattern for the past 20 years for a very simple reason: We believe -- and our experience shows -- that this is the most effective way to negotiate the best deal. The WGA has made a different decision on how to handle their negotiations. Out of respect for them, we have done what you asked for in your letter -- we have refrained from commencing our own negotiations. And, at the same time we have refrained from commenting publicly on our thoughts about the direction of their proposals and the progress of their negotiations.
But the reality is that WGA and the AMPTP have been meeting since July -- and, despite a strike that has put tens of thousands of people out of work, they seem nowhere near reaching a deal. Each passing day, more people are unemployed. We are getting calls from members who are worried about their economic livelihood and their families. We're sure you feel the same concern for yourselves and the people who work for you.
Because so much time has gone by without any resolution, we find ourselves faced with some hard questions. Is a fresh perspective -- and additional muscle -- needed to get the job done? Is it our turn to sit across the table from the AMPTP? What we know is that we cannot abdicate our responsibility to our members by putting their fate in the hands of another union whose tactics and strategy we have not been able to influence. Our members expect the Guild to fight for them when things get tough. We promised all of you we would do that in our most recent membership letter. We believe this is the essence of responsible unionism, which is the least you and all our members have a right to expect from us.
Hell, maybe everybody's got a point. Maybe it's bad news when writers strike because they'll do it with the most dramatic flair possible. That's what they do. They're writers.
