Screenwriters Picket as Strike Begins – New York Times
More than 12,000 movie and television writers represented by the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East walked out today, after three months of acrimonious negotiations proved fruitless. It is the first industrywide strike by writers since 1988; that strike lasted five months and cost the entertainment industry an estimated $500 million.The sides have been at odds over, among other things, writers’ demands for a large increase in pay for movies and television shows released on DVD, and for a bigger share of the revenue from such work delivered over the Internet.
A federal mediator, who joined the talks last week, asked the sides to continue talking in a Sunday session, but neither a deal nor an agreement to keep talking was reached.
Writers in Los Angeles have also begun picketing more than a dozen studios and production sites in four-hour shifts, one beginning at 9 a.m. Pacific time, the other at 1 p.m.
Yes, I think the creative types (writers) should get more dough. The internet issue should be addressed even though I expect it will mean that YouTube and other sites will be devastated of their content.
I will miss you, Jon Stewart!
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Tags: writers, strike, entertainment, TV, movies, internet
Musings from Sumigirl 
November 5, 2007 at 5:17 pm
It kind of sucks that all late-night talk shows are off of the air…but if they weren’t, bloggers like you and me wouldn’t have anything to cover, would we? It’s nice to read a post by somebody who sympathizes with the writers (most people think they make enough money already!).