WGA: Studios Should Soften Stance or Break Away From ‘Broken AMPTP Model’ to End Strike

variety.com:

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America urged members Friday to stay strong, and argued that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will have to soften its hard-line stance in order to end the four-month strike.

The WGA suggested that legacy studios that want a “fair deal” with writers will have to either assert their interests within the studio alliance, or break away from the “broken AMPTP model.” The union also revealed that in private conversations with legacy studio executives, some have expressed openness to accommodating the guild’s positions on various issues.

But, the guild argued that the AMPTP as a group is trapped in a system that “favors inflexibility over compromise,” forcing all members to take a hard line. “They will continue attempting to get writers to settle for less than what we need and deserve, and encourage us to negotiate with ourselves.

But we are not going to do that,” the guild’s negotiating committee told members. “Instead, the companies inside the AMPTP who want a fair deal with writers must take control of the AMPTP process itself, or decide to make a deal separately.