The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said
that it offered a $97-million annual increase in minimum wages. A proposed 4%
increase in the first year of the contract was the highest in 25 years,
according to a document the alliance released on Thursday.
As writers wrap their third day of picketing productions and
studios, pressure is growing on both sides to explain how talks to negotiate a
new three-year film and TV contract broke down.
The writers’ strike, which has triggered pickets in Los Angeles
and New York, has already had an impact on late-night shows, forcing networks
to show repeats, and is prompting performers to cancel appearances.
The WGA had no immediate comment on the document.
Union negotiators have complained that the rise of streaming
is making their work more like a gig economy, where they have to cobble
together a series of jobs to make ends meet.
But studios, under pressure from Wall Street to cut costs,
rejected that characterization, saying most television writers are employed on
a weekly or per episode basis, with guarantees for work on a specific number of
shows.
“Writing jobs come with substantial fringe benefits that are
far superior to what many full-time employees receive for working an entire
year, including employer-paid health care, employer-paid contributions into a
pension plan and eligibility for a paid parental leave program,” the AMPTP said
in the document.
The producers alliance — which represents studios such as
Walt Disney, Apple and Netflix in contract bargaining — has said talks broke
down over WGA requirements for mandatory staffing and a minimum length of
employment for its writers.
The WGA has argued it wants to preserve the writers room in
shows, where groups of writers gather to create the show over months. And it
has blasted the prevalence of so-called “mini-rooms” favored by streamers —
where just a few writers are hired for short periods of time — saying they have
eroded writers’ pay and job opportunities.
As a remedy, the WGA had demanded writers’ rooms have six to
12 writers, and that writers be engaged for at least 10 consecutive weeks.
The studios said this would tie their hands and preclude
writers from deciding how they want to work.
“It is in reality a hiring quota that is incompatible with
the creative nature of our industry,” the AMPTP said. “We don’t agree with
applying a one-size-fits-all solution to shows that are unique and different in
their approach to creative staffing. Some writers are the sole voice of a show
and others work with only a small team.”
The AMPTP said that its members agreed to introduce an
entirely new payment structure for writers employed before a firm commitment
has been made to produce a series. The offer included higher minimum rates, a
15% premium on script fees and increased fees for pilot scripts involving high
budget streaming series.
Further, studios said they agreed to a proposal to pay staff
writers script fees — something the WGA has been pursuing for decades — adding
$42,000 to their salary.
On the contentious issue of streaming residuals, the studios
argued that they previously granted a 46% increase to streaming residuals
—royalties for re-airing shows — in the last contract they negotiated in 2020.
“In many cases, writers have only recently begun to see these
increases in their paychecks,” the AMPTP said.
Writers have complained that the amount they receive in
residuals, which they rely on to make it through leaner periods of work, are
much less than what broadcast networks would pay.
The AMPTP said that under the current formula for a one-hour
series produced for Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, a writer would receive
$72,000 in residuals for one episode over three years. Over five years, that
amount grows to $99,000, and then to $114,000 over seven years.
Another point of conflict: WGA negotiators sought to
regulate the use of artificial intelligence and felt insulted by an offer from
the companies to hold annual meetings on the advancements in technology
instead.
But the studios argued that writers are already protected by
language in their existing contracts that a writer has to be a person and AI
material can’t be copyrighted.
“AI raises hard, important creative and legal questions for
everyone,” the AMPTP said.