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Producers, Writers Negotiations Collapse

Posted on: Saturday, 8 December 2007, 00:00 CST

By LYNN ELBER

LOS ANGELES - Negotiations between striking Hollywood writers and studios collapsed Friday, the culmination of a day in which the sides traded barbs and accusations.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced that the round of talks that started Tuesday had broken down, stalling efforts to end the five-week strike that has sidelined many prime-time and late-night TV shows.

The alliance said it was "puzzled and disheartened" by the Writers Guild of America's ongoing negotiating strategy "that seems designed to delay or derail talks rather than facilitate an end to this strike."

In response, the guild said the chief alliance negotiator slammed the door on bargaining after presenting an ultimatum and before the union could respond to his latest proposal regarding crucial new-media compensation issues.

"As we prepared our counteroffer, at 6:05 p.m., Nick Counter came and said to us, in the mediator's presence, 'We are leaving. When you write us a letter saying you will take all these items off the table, we will reschedule negotiations with you,'" according to a union statement.

A detailed alliance announcement on the talks' collapse was released a short time later. Counter was unavailable Friday night for comment, the alliance said.

The guild said it remained "ready and willing to negotiate, no matter how intransigent our bargaining partners are, because the stakes are simply too high."

"If someone called tomorrow and said 'Let's start on Sunday and we want to hear your counterproposal,' I'd say 'great,'" chief guild negotiator David Young told The Associated Press.

The writers guild represents 12,000 members but not all are on strike, with about 2,000 or so news writers and others covered under a separate contract.

Hopes that a settlement might be imminent were dashed just two days after the sides had expressed their first hint of optimism.

The alliance reiterated its position that its latest offer aimed at settling a central contract issue - compensation for the Internet and other digital media - makes it "possible to find common ground."

Last week, the studios had proposed a flat $250 payment for a year's use of an hourlong TV show on the Web. That contrasts with the $20,000-plus residual that writers now earn for a single network rerun of a TV episode.

Friday night, the guild said producers were holding to their $250 offer and demanding that writers give up on proposals including unionization of animation and reality and, "most crucially, any proposal that uses distributor's gross as a basis for residuals."

As word of the breakdown spread, some writers expressed frustration.

"It's disheartening that a month into this, I'm not getting the overwhelming sense that we're getting any closer to a settlement," said Robert Port, a writer for the CBS series "Numb3rs.""I hope we can continue to negotiate and wrap this thing up."

Earlier Friday, in a letter sent to its members and released publicly, the guild said that "highly placed executives" have told some writers that the companies are preparing to abruptly end the talks by accusing the guild of an unwillingness to bargain.

The letter said any such anti-union claims are "absolutely untrue" and challenged studios to negotiate "day and night, through the Christmas and New Year's holidays" to reach a settlement.

The union's remarks reflect its vulnerability, said one observer.

"I think the producers are displaying their leverage quite publicly and aggressively and the writers know it and are fighting back," said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer at the Los Angeles law firm of TroyGould and a former associate counsel for the guild.

"At the end of the day, the companies have the leverage because they have the money," he said. Studios also can try to reach a favorable deal with the directors guild, Handel said, and use that to set a "pattern bargaining" template the writers would be expected to follow.

About 300 writers who are also members of the Directors Guild of America sent a joint letter asking the directors union to postpone negotiations on its contract, which expires in June, until the writers make a deal, according to a guild member who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to comment on the letter.

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Associated Press writer Daisy Nguyen contributed to this report.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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