A source close to the negotiations — not someone on the WGA Board or Negotiating Team but close enough for me to pass it on — tells me a strike may not be inevitable…and that if it does happen, it won't be because the Writers Guild didn't do everything possible to prevent it. (I assume this person means "everything possible short of taking a rotten contract full of rollbacks.")
There is a new WGA proposal — a new package of demands, compromises and even a few concessions — and it will be presented to the Producers tomorrow. My source says it could have been presented tonight — "they could be in there right now, hashing it out or at least studying it" — but the Producers closed down the bargaining session rather than work into the evening. The thinking is that this is their way of saying, "We haven't seen your proposals but we're already inclined to reject them just because they aren't our proposals."
A Federal Mediator was in today, mostly talking to the two sides in separate sessions. The Mediator, I am told, wants to keep the talks going and one possibility is that there will a kind of "cooling-off period." The Producers will agree to keep talking for at least X days and the WGA will agree to not go on strike for at least X days. My source says that whether that has a chance of happening will probably hinge on the Producers' response tomorrow to the new WGA proposal.
Personally, I'm feeling good about this; not that a strike can be averted but that the WGA is playing it smart and doing everything it can to make a mature, sensible deal. I've lived through many of these. I've seen us self-destruct and be divided in purpose and strategy…and while I may be surprised at the General Membership Meeting on Thursday night, I don't get that this is the case this time. I've also seen us painted as the Bad Guys who "shut down the town" and caused all those stagehands to be outta work. (It's always been our fault, not the fault of the Studio Heads making 50 million a year apiece who said we were greedy for wanting a fraction of that.) I don't sense that's happening this time, either. Again, I could be wrong and if there's a long strike, things will change in all corners…
…but if I'm picketing this Friday, it won't be because my side didn't try to make things work.
One other thing. In all the news stories about the strike, you'll see mention of a man named Nicholas Counter. I wrote a little about Mr. Counter back in July in this post. The article to which it links is no longer accessible but it basically said that he has a very hard job and he's good at it. There's a tendency to think of him as The Enemy and to act like mean ol' Nick Counter is too stingy (or maybe too pound-foolish) to just give the Writers what they want and get the business back to business. But really, Mr. Counter is just the spokesguy and behind-the-scenes coordinator for those with the real power to say no. He's only the Bad Guy if he forgets to remind them that they can also say yes, and that "yes" is sometimes less destructive all around.