AMPTP: SAG out of touch

From Deadline Hollywood, 11.23.08
By Nikki Finke

The AMPTP today sent the following message to its employers:

"We are disappointed to report that the federal mediation efforts between SAG and AMPTP failed in the early morning hours of Saturday, November 22nd, when mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez ended the process.

"The mediation failed for one fundamental reason: SAG continued unrealistically to insist on a substantially better deal than all of the other major Hollywood Guilds and Unions have negotiated so far in 2008. In the end, it was clear that SAG was not serious about using the mediation process to make a deal. Instead, SAG appears to have manipulated the mediation process in an attempt to achieve precisely the result it has wanted all along: A strike by SAG members.
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From the WGA --

Conglomerates Not Making New Media Payments to Writers

Studios and networks not complying with new media provisions of contract they agreed to nine months ago. WGAW files for arbitration against AMPTP companies.
LOS ANGELES -- The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) today announced that the media conglomerates of the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers – the AMPTP – have failed to comply with the contract negotiated to end the Guild’s 100-day strike and are not paying residuals for writers’ work that is reused on new media. The payment of residuals for new media reuse was a core issue of the WGA strike. The Guild is embarking on an aggressive contract enforcement program – including legal action – to ensure that the AMPTP companies make good on their obligations.

The WGAW filed for arbitration today against the AMPTP over residuals – payments made for the reuse of writers’ works – for programs sold as electronic downloads, referred to as Electronic Sell-Through (EST). EST involves the sale of video content via the Internet and allows the purchaser to keep a copy of a program permanently on a computer hard drive or other device.

“Our agreement with the companies on material released to EST covers feature films produced after July 1, 1971, and television programs produced after 1977,” said John F. Bowman, WGAW Board member and chair of the 2007 WGA Negotiating Committee. “The companies have reneged on this agreement and are taking the position that only programs produced after February 13, 2008 are covered by the new provision. This may be their deal with the DGA, but that was never our agreement. Every proposal we made during negotiations made clear our position that library product was covered, and the AMPTP never objected to that position. The Guild will not allow this to stand.” Read more at WGA.org.