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"We will negotiate with the agencies," said WGA West President David Goodman, but ahead of the March 25 measures, "there is no significant trade-offs in conflict of interest. ".
Just a day after the Writers Guild of America and the Association of Talent Agents held a meeting that a source close to the agency described as "not in the right direction" towards a negotiated renewal of the WGA-ATA agreement , the guild has posted a video, audio file, and text of a February 13 speech by the president of the organization to members, clearly explaining that the union is now at war with the community of talent agencies, especially the four big agencies.
"Renowned writers will be invited at some point to publicly express their support for this campaign and their willingness to withdraw from their agency if necessary," said WGA West President David Goodman. "It may be that some of us have to struggle and experience difficulties."
A negotiated deal is unlikely, said Goodman, who asked members to vote on a mandatory code of conduct on March 25 for agents who would uproot the current business models of large talent agencies by banning the packaging of movies and series television and prohibiting production. type activities. This would split the ATA, with WGA members (and possibly some agents) being forced to move to smaller agencies while the big agencies would wonder what to do on April 6th, at the same time. 39, expiration of the current agreement.
"The four big agencies have developed a monopoly that harnesses the collective power of writers and uses it to enrich the agencies themselves," Goodman said in his speech. "This has resulted in long-term stagnation of authors 'incomes and real downward pressure on authors' quotes [i.e., pay rates]. "
"Yes, we are seizing power," he continued. "A necessary, appropriate and fair coup de force. While agencies have used our collective power and used it to maximize their power and revenue, we must regain our power and ensure that it is used to maximize our revenues. "
Goodman also said that he anticipated melee combat. "We plan to register many small agencies [to the Code of Conduct], "he said." Regarding the four major groups, we will seek your help to organize the key agents so that they move to independence so that they can continue working with you if their agency does not sign our code of conduct … [O]Our collective power here is the power to divide and conquer. "
ATA, or the four largest agencies, could possibly initiate legal proceedings, but their effect is unclear. Goodman argued that the guild had the right to regulate talent agents and that a 1981 US Supreme Court decision upheld Actors' Equity's regulation of talent agents in the theater sector.
The guild states that television shows, in which a studio pays fees to an agency rather than to an agency that controls the writer's salary, constitute a conflict of interest because "the agency has no financial incentive to get more writers for TV writers. Sometimes, they collect fees from producers and sponsor writers and other talent, Goodman said. Agencies can end up earning more money in a show than the creator. But agencies argue that authors benefit from the absence of a 10% commission on their salaries.
Packaging is a decades-old practice and involves a number of agencies beyond the big four (CAA, Endeavor / WME, UTA and ICM), but the guild also targets a newer area where until now, only the three largest agencies are involved. production-type activities that may include financing and ownership of content. It should be noted that all that is old is new: in the late 50s, the talented MCA mall acquired Universal Pictures and other means of production. The US Department of Justice disapproved of this and forced an assignment for antitrust reasons, but Goodman expressed doubts that the DOJ would do the same today.
Agencies argue that these activities create new buyers and that many current buyers are themselves in conflict because they are under the same corporate umbrella as the networks to which they sell their products. This relationship leads to a reduction in fictitious and theoretical license fees, or even implicit "implicit license fees," which in turn reduce the revenues of broadcasters and others who receive a share of license fees (ie. Profit sharing).
But the guild says that when agencies come into production, the agent or his colleague becomes both the boss and the agent of the writer, which constitutes an unsustainable conflict of interest. . "There is no significant trade-off in conflict of interest," Goodman said.
The guild has made several dozens of other requests, one of which is particularly contentious for agencies: the WGA insists that when writers are paid at the union minimum rate, such as that, it is important to note that the writers are not allowed to pay. is often the case for TV staff writers, not to be commissionable. In the entertainment world, many people are familiar with the "plus ten" concept, meaning that talent is paid at least 10% more than the ladder for agent commission to invade. not the minimum, but this practice mainly applies to actors. The WGA movement could force the studios to adopt the same approach towards screenwriters.
The creation of WME's production subsidiary, Endeavor Content, in October 2017, has been at the origin of the WGA's strongest action since the 2007-08 strike. This resulted in a series of meetings and a termination of the guild in April 2018 which began the countdown from April 12 to April 12.
If writers leave their agents, how will they find work? Goodman said in his speech that 75% of writers who responded to a WGA survey in 2018 said their agent did not help them get their last job. He also added, "We must also be ready to help each other in any way possible to deal with the dislocation of the job search during a period when some of us will need new sources of information. Information to be able to connect to other writers and other jobs. Screenwriters in particular, but also leading screenwriters and captains will be invited to lead, to help other writers. "
ATA and the WGA intend to continue to meet, according to a source, but no specific date was set at the end of their meeting on Tuesday.
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