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UPDATED with more detailsThe negotiators of the WGA and the Association of Talent Agents met on Friday to end their eight-week stalemate. In a message to members, sent shortly after the end of the meeting, the guild briefed them on the progress of the meeting.
"This morning, the Negotiating Committee received proposals from the ATA," the WGA said in the message. "Although concerns have been expressed, including a revenue sharing proposal that, instead of 1%, equals 2%, the presentation was large and complex. We asked for a contract wording for their proposals in order to formulate the appropriate response. As we have said, whatever solution is found, it will have to resolve conflicts of interest and realign agency incentives with those of their authoring clients. "
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According to a senior agency official who spoke before today's meeting, ATA's revenue-sharing offer was actually 2.5 times higher than the one originally presented in the last session. negotiation, before the break in the talks. A substantial portion of this money is for young and emerging writers involved in profitable programs – writers who have not always been able to share their profits.
According to the head of the agency, the ATA proposals for a new five-year agreement also provided for greater transparency of the affiliated production entities, including a guarantee that the scripts of their customers would be competitively purchased to determine their value. real on the market. Like packaging costs, agency links with production companies through divided parent companies are a major stumbling block in the negotiations.
The proposals also include a $ 6 million inclusion fund that agencies would create to help create more jobs for historically under-represented writers. The ATA's proposals would also establish a reasonable, effective and fair arbitration process, another area of contention between the parties.
The meeting, held at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, began at 10:30 am. ATA Executive Director Karen Stuart spoke briefly, followed by Bryan Lourd, Executive Director and Co-Chair. CAA, read a statement that led to the unveiling of the new proposal. (you can read it here). According to a source, WME also explained how the agency was a completely different company from Endeavor Content and told the guild that "If a WME client was working for Endeavor Content, WME would not be their boss."
We heard 11 of the 26 members of the WGA negotiating committee attend the meeting. One of them, Meredith Stiehm, left immediately after reading the proposal.
After a two-hour break, the guild negotiators returned two hours later. At this point, David Young, the chief negotiator of the WGA, told the officers that the guild would recontact them next week.
According to a senior agency official, the guild negotiators did not ask any questions about the ATA proposals, other than whether the ATA had a "red" agreement.
Agency sources saw the tone of the message to WGA members, which was made public after today's meeting. "We are encouraged by a part of their statement, but I will really be when we hear them speak," said a very senior source. "That's where I'll be encouraged."
Today's meeting is the first since negotiations were suspended on April 12, after which the guild ordered all members to fire their agents who refuse to sign the agency's new code of conduct. The resumption of talks was sparked by an opening on May 22 between UTA Co-Chair Jay Sures and WGA West President David A. Goodman, a former UTA customer.
"If this dispute really concerns the packaging and the production of the subsidiaries, we are ready to resume the debate with you," Sures told Goodman by e-mail. "We are open to the concepts of true revenue sharing and have already committed to meeting the requirements of explicit customer consent as well as overall transparency and accountability."
Goodman quickly agreed. "Thank you for your meeting offer, which I accept on behalf of the WGA," he told Sures later in the day. "I want to clarify that we responded on April 12 to your last proposal. We continue to believe that an agreement must be reached to align the interests of agencies with those of writers. We can not wait to hear what you have to say. "
Negotiations for a new agreement began on February 5, but the guild has always said there is no need to compromise on its key demands. "There are negotiations where there is no ground for agreement, where there are basic principles that are not subject to compromise," Goodman said at a meeting members on February 13th.
On April 17, the WGA filed a lawsuit against the four major agencies (CAA, WME, UTA and ICM), accusing them of violating federal and regional laws by charging for packaging fees for television programs that they prepared. According to the guild's complaint, the long-standing practice "constitutes illegal bribes from an employer" in violation of the Taft-Hartley Act, which prohibits employers from "paying, lending or delivering or to agree to pay, lend or deliver, any money or other valuable object … to any representative of one of its employees who is employed in an area of activity affecting the business. "
"We do not want to be in dispute," a senior agency official told reporters this afternoon. "We want to make a market. But if our hands are forced, we will do what we need to do to protect our businesses. "
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