Well, here's some nice news to wake up to…
Talks between the Writers Guild of America and AMPTP studio alliance went down to the wire Monday night but ultimately resulted in a three-year deal, averting a threatened walkout that could have cost jobs and homes, hit the California economy with a $200 million blow per week, accelerated cord-cutting and driven audiences off linear channels and onto digital platforms.
I have no inside info on this at all but I'm assuming, first of all, that it really is a good, sound deal. I know and trust enough folks on the Board of Directors and the Negotiating Committee to assume that. I also have to assume that that 96.3% Strike Authorization vote was a major turning point in the bargaining. As I wrote, these strikes tend to result when the Producers get it into their heads that the Guild is weak and divided and that a rotten deal can be forced on them.
In some past years, they've thrown such an offer on the table, ended the talks and, in effect, said, "There will be no bargaining. Take it or leave it." And once they do that, they have a lot of trouble coming back to the table and engaging in an actual give-and-take. They did that in 1985 and it worked for them…and worked very well. They did that in '88 and we had the longest strike in my guild's history…twenty-two weeks just to get them to drop demands for major rollbacks.
Details of the new pact will emerge over the next few days and there will surely be some grumbling from the more militant members. Whatever we got, they'll say it should have been more. But we'll vote to accept it by an overwhelming majority…and the world will be spared from having to watch Jimmy Fallon ad-lib.
So all will be well for a while…unless someone at the AMPTP says, "Hey, I'll bet we can lowball the Screen Actors Guild and wring some major rollbacks out of them." The Actors' contract expires June 30.