Studios Say Goal Is Keeping “Production Active” As Talks Between WGA & AMPTP Set To Start Tmrw

deadline.com:

Just hours before the WGA and the studios are scheduled to start stridulous talks on a new overall contact, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have decided to publicly play nice, firmly. “The AMPTP companies approach this negotiation and the ones to follow with the long-term health and stability of the industry as our priority,” the Carol Lombardini-led trade association declared Sunday in a pre-talks salvo. “We are all partners in charting the future of our business together and fully committed to reaching a mutually beneficial deal with each of our bargaining partners,” the AMPTP continued. “The goal is to keep production active so that all of us can continue working and continue to deliver to consumers the best entertainment product available in the world,” they concluded in a not so subtle ding at rumbles of strike action by the WGA in recent weeks.

With Ellen Stutzman as chief negotiator and past guild presidents David A. Goodman and Chris Keyser as co-chairs, the WGA’s 25-person will be sitting down tomorrow morning at 11 AM with the studios’ team at the AMPTP HQ in Sherman Oaks.

The guild’s pattern of demands, which WGA members approved recently by the widest margin ever (98.4% to 1.6%), provides a glimpse into the guild’s general goals going into the negotiations.

They include “significantly” increasing minimums across the board; addressing “the abuses of mini-rooms”; increased residuals; and “standardized compensation and residual terms for features whether released theatrically or on streaming.” If and when a tentative agreement is reached, the WGA West Board and the WGA East Council will then decide whether to recommend the deal and send it to the membership for a contract ratification