Leaders with the Writers Guild met with some key studio CEOs Tuesday night. While the union said it went to the meeting “in good faith,” they said they were “met with a lecture about how good [the AMPTP's] single and only counteroffer was.”
“But this wasn’t a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not 20 minutes after we left the meeting, the [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers] released its summary of their proposals,” the union said in a message to members.
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The WGA went on to say, “This was the companies’ plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other.”
The meeting came hours after the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, rallied outside Disney Studios in Burbank for “National Day of Solidarity."
According to the union, Disney CEO Bob Iger, Donna Langley, Chief Content Officer of Universal Pictures, CEO of Netflix Ted Sarandos, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav, and Carol Lombardini, President of the AMPTP attended Tuesday night’s meeting.
The AMPTP told the Los Angeles Times that their offer would increase residuals for high-budget streaming shows and provide “more transparency” on how streaming shows are performing. It also said the offer included protections for writers when it came to the use of artificial intelligence.
“Our priority is to end the strike so that valued members of the creative community can return to what they do best and to end the hardships that so many people and businesses that service the industry are experiencing,” Carol Lombardini told the outlet.
Sal Calleros, a WGA member and strike captain, told KNX News’ Jon Baird he thinks the AMPTP leaking their counteroffer shows their “desperation.”
“We’re supposed to be in a news blackout, right? No one’s supposed to be leaking anything and what happens right after the guild meets with the AMPTP, they leak this,” he said. “And they leak this because they know their backs are against their wall because the clock is ticking.”
The WGA is expected to send a “more detailed description of the state of negotiations” at some point on Wednesday.
The union has been on strike since the beginning of May. The two sides returned to the bargaining table on Aug.
11.
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