After walking out to protest Sony’s reluctance to grant them a WGA contract, writers are reportedly returning to FOX’s upcoming primetime animated series Sit Down, Shut Up! Deadline Hollywood cites sources that say Sony lured most of the scribes back with bonuses including pay bumps of as much as $200,000. Two writers, Bill Oakley and Ken Keeler, are apparently the only holdouts. The show is back in production under the jurisdiction of IATSE Local 839, also known as the Animation Guild.
The scribes that returned to the show reportedly turned down the pay increases offered to them in June, but agreed to get back to work when they got WGA-parity residual protections for themselves and future writers on this show.
The WGA issued a statement that reads, ‘The fundamental issue here was WGA jurisdiction. Every primetime animated show currently on the air has been done under WGA jurisdiction with terms enforced by the WGA. Every single one. In the case of Sit Down, Shut Up! Sony insisted on hiring WGA writers, and Sony execs repeatedly assured them the show would be WGA. When the writers were told it would not be WGA, they walked out and demanded WGA coverage. For five weeks, they faced continuous ultimatums and illegal threats from Sony, while at the same time Sony offered enhanced economic terms. Finally, when Sony offered to pay ‘WGA-equivalent residuals’ and to give each writer up to $200,000 in additional compensation through a blind script deal, most of the writers decided to accept. We understand why they did so but wish they hadn’t. Had they stuck together we believe that they would have won WGA coverage for Sit Down, Shut Up! Two WGA members refused the deal, and we and their fellow writers applaud them.’
