Writers Guild President Starts the Countdown Toward Contract’s End

WRITERS GUILD PRESIDENT STARTS THE COUNTDOWN TOWARD CONTRACT'S END
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Cieply]
Patric Verrone -- president of the Writers Guild of America West -- his union and its East Coast counterpart will begin what are expected to be exceedingly difficult negotiations with the conglomerates that own the networks and studios. Whether the entertainment business continues to operate as usual over the next year will depend in no small part on how he handles the encounter. Hollywood’s last extended shutdown occurred in 1988, when the writers began a five-month walkout over residual payments for the foreign sale of television shows, among other issues. The sides now face a potentially deeper dispute. The main areas of contention are the expansion of nonunion work by units of large media conglomerates like Viacom and News Corporation, and the way artists will be compensated for their work for the Web, mobile devices and other technologies still falling into place. Company executives have argued that it is impossible to devise pay formulas for systems that are still in flux. But Mr. Verrone is clearly intent on pinning down as much as possible now -- and on avoiding the kind of arrangements (like the one regarding home video) that many in Hollywood’s creative world believe deprived them of rightful gains in the past.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/movies/11guil.html
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