The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have broken off negotiations while the guild returns to its membership to conduct a vote that would authorize a strike. Talks are planned to resume April 25, the day after voting concludes.
Meanwhile, the current work agreement expires on May 1 and if no new deal is agreed upon, a writers’ strike could start as soon as May 2.
The AMPTP put a new offer on the table last Thursday, reports Variety, and that offer addressed one of the guild’s key concerns, which is compensation for writers working on series with limited episodes. That proposal would boost income for writers working on shows with fewer episodes, but would only apply to writers and not to showrunners and executive producers who are often compensated in lucrative overall deals.
Sources told the trade magazine that the offer represented a little movement forward, but not enough to avert a strike. This is the closest the industry has come to striking in a decade. The last time the WGA went on strike was Nov. 5, 2007, to February 12, 2008.
WGA writers learned about the break in talks after receiving a message from WGA negotiating committee co-chairs Chip Johannessen, Chris Keyser and Billy Ray on Monday night asking them to support a strike authorization vote.
READ MORE: Variety, Los Angeles Times
[Image courtesy of the Los Angeles Times]
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