Late-night talk shows, heavily dependent on same-day, current-events-based comedy writing, were the first to feel the strike's effect. The group said it was prepared to improve its offers, but the union was asking for so much more than companies were willing to offer that it cut off negotiations hours before the contract expired. The AMPTP said that it had offered “generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals," including the highest first-year wage increase in a WGA contract in more than 25 years, and the creation of a new category of rates that would mean a new, higher minimum for mid-level writers. By that point writers, who voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call a strike, had already begun making signs for picket lines, Which they promptly put to use Tuesday. Talks, which often extend for hours or days past a contract deadline, instead ended hours before the most recent contract expired Monday night. The Writers Guild of America - whose East and West versions are technically two unions that act as a unit in these negotiations. Months of negotiations still left considerable distance between writers and the AMPTP. The group also said that writers' healthcare, child care and pension benefits set them far apart from the “gig economy” workers the writers have compared themselves to. "If writing needs to be done, writers are hired, but these proposals require the employment of writers whether they’re needed for the creative process or not," the group said in a document outlining its positions.Īnd the AMPTP says its offers included the first-ever minimums for streaming comedy-variety writers. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Hollywood’s studios, streamers and production companies, says the writers' demands would require that they be kept on staff and paid when there is no work for them. Writers of comedy-variety shows for streaming have no minimum protections at all, the guild says. For a writer-producer, the figure is $6,967 per week. They work an average of 29 weeks on a network show for $131,834 annually, or an average of 20 weeks on a streaming show for $90,920.
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The weekly minimum for a staff writer on a television series in the 2019-2020 season was $4,546, according to industry trade outlet Variety. And scheduled annual pay bumps under the current contract have fallen well short of increases in inflation.
The lack of a regular seasonal calendar in streaming has depressed pay further, the report says.
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