Those who have been missing new episodes of their favorite shows can now look forward to the Hollywood machine rolling back into commission. After 100 days on the picket line, members of the Writers Guild of America will be going back to work after voting overwhelmingly yesterday to end the three-month strike. The organization says 3,775 writers turned out in Los Angeles and New York to cast ballots or fax in proxies, with 92.5% voting in favor of ending the work stoppage.
‘The strike is over. Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work,’ says Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West. ‘This was not a strike we wanted, but one we had to conduct in order to win jurisdiction and establish appropriate residuals for writing in new media and on the Internet. Those advances now give us a foothold in the digital age. Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as TV migrates to the Internet and platforms for new media are developed.’
WGAW and WGAE members will next vote to ratify the tentative three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Both sides agreed that writers would initially receive a fixed residual for online content in the amount of about $1,300, after a two- or three-week window in which distributors can use content for free. During the final year of the deal, writers will claim 2% of the distributor’s web revenue on a given project. The ratification vote will be conducted by mail and also at membership meetings on Feb. 25.
Photo: Writers Guild of America West president Patric M. Verrone announces at a news conference that the writers strike is over.
