Inside the last meeting of the WGA-ATA before the dissolution, while the balance of power is transferred to the authors of ranks and files – Deadline



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For those hoping for a miracle trading session between the WGA and the ATA this afternoon, that would break the stalemate between the two parties on the agency's new code of conduct before the Midnight deadline, there was no miracle, and there was trading session either.

I hear that the WGA negotiating committee leaders immediately told agency officials that they rejected the latest proposal tabled by the ATA yesterday, which provided for agencies to share a percentage of their packing fees with the authors. (In the WGA's long statement after the negotiations broke down today, the guild said the proposal only covered 0.8% of the backend of the agencies. ") The WGA did not propose a counter-proposal.

Senior negotiators, as well as the WGA and ATA legal teams, attended the meeting from both sides. I've heard that West WGA President, David A. Goodman, Executive Director, David Young, David Shore, Michelle Mulroney, Mike Schur, Travon Free, Marjorie David and Deric A. Hughes on the side of the Guild, and ATA General Manager, Karen Stuart, Rick de WME Rosen and Ari Greenberg, CAA Bryan Heavy, Jay Sures of UTA, Chris Silbermann of ICM Partners, Elliot Stahler of Kaplan-Stahler and Jim Gosnell of APA, who is president of the ATA, on the agencies side.

The agents allegedly suggested staying in the room to try to negotiate a compromise until the end of the allotted time, but the editors replied that the two parties were so far apart from each other, This closed the gap a few hours after little progress was made in recent months. . In Young's statement after the end of the meeting, he clarified where the two sides were on all the main issues, noting that independent films were the only area in which they had made progress in their discussions.

Stuart said in the ATA statement at the end of the meeting that "the WGA leadership today said there is no compromise way."

I hear that only five people spoke at the meeting, three on the side of the ATA and two on the WGA side. Some controversial speeches were sparked by some of the guild's speeches, mainly Young, who repeated some accusations of agency connivance emanating from guild statements made earlier in the negotiations, again citing the RICO law and qualifying the agencies of mafia. .

Immediately after the adjournment of the brief meeting, the WGA informed its members that there had been no settlement and, since the members had approved a new code of conduct prohibiting the packaging of agencies and their involvement in the production, the guild invited its members to dismiss the agencies. would not sign it. This is the vast majority of Hollywood's talent agencies, including the largest ones.

Thus, the standoff between WGA and ATA is once again coming back to the WGA members after their overwhelming vote for the new code of conduct gave the guild extra weight in the negotiations last month. This time, the number of 13,000 WGA members returning their agents would determine who has the upper hand. The WGA needs the majority of its troops to break ties with their agents in order to continue its campaign against the agencies on conditioning and production in a strong position.

If a significant number of writers do not follow and stay with their agents, this would tip the balance of power toward the agencies.

In private, many writers have stated that they would support their guild and fire their agents even if they liked it, although some said they might not do it.

Discussions between WGA and ATA were interrupted in the late afternoon when WGA members received the server order related to their agency if they had not signed the new code of conduct. Friday, at the end of the work day, I learned that there had been a small number of layoffs, about two dozen or so, in each of the major agencies. This number, if we expect it to increase significantly; The question is how much.

As a sign of solidarity, the writers tweeted all evening their signed letter letters, provided by the WGA, with which they let their agents leave. (The guild announced today that it will send mass emails to the relevant agencies "in a few days".) There have been some well-known names among them, including the big names Steven DeKnight, Tim Doyle, Alexi Hawley, Danny Zucker and Chrissy Pietrosh as well as actor / writer Patton Oswalt and Jon Cryer.

At 11 pm, #IStandWithTheWGA was among the top 10 global trends on Twitter.

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