It begins

From Deadline Hollywood Daily:

Writers Call Strike At Tonight’s Meeting? AMPTP Says ‘No Progress Can Be Made’
Posted by Nikki Finke on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 04:37PM

Not even Writers Guild Of America bigwigs are sure exactly when the writers walkout will begin. But all will be explained at tonight’s general meeting at 7 pm inside the Los Angeles Convention Center. (Could they have chosen a more lousy location?) One top WGA source speculates to me that picketing will start as soon as a strike is called, and that could be as early as tomorrow. (But wouldn’t they want to wait until Monday when writers can turn out en masse for the TV cameras?) Stay tuned.

Just now, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers President Nick Counter issued this very negative end-of-day statement (continuing to refer to DVD residuals when what he really means is electronic sell-through residuals): “Due to overriding business reasons, no further progress can be made because of the WGA’s continuing efforts to substantially increase the DVD formula. We are ready to meet at any time and remain committed to reaching a fair and reasonable deal that keeps the industry working, but the DVD issue is a roadblock to these negotiations.”

From Variety:

Strike clock set to Monday
Sides no longer talking
By DAVE MCNARY

Hollywood’s holding its collective breath about a writers strike as prospects for a last-minute deal evaporated.

Some 12,000 WGA members could go on strike as early as today. But the emerging consensus was that the official start of the work stoppage would be at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

Waiting until after the weekend would enable the WGA to hit multiple locations with pickets on Monday morning and notify members of the Teamsters — the only Hollywood union that’s told individual members that they should honor picket lines. It would also allow the WGA to assert that it had given the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers one last chance to revamp its proposals.

Guild leaders were set to announce their plans at a Thursday night membership meeting at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The WGA East has scheduled leafleting for this morning at Rockefeller Plaza in Gotham.

I’ll update this post when there’s official word from the WGA; please check back. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for a rousing chorus of Dies Irae.

LIVE-BLOGGING: I just heard from a source attending tonight’s Writers Guild Of America general membership meeting that the exact timing of the writers strike will be decided tomorrow morning, then announced in the afternoon. In response, the producers’ rep Nick Counter said, “By the WGA leadership’s actions at the bargaining table, we are not surprised by tonight’s recommendation. We are ready to meet and are prepared to close this contract this weekend.” But earlier in the day, Counter had claimed that, “due to overriding business reasons, no further progress can be made”.

The Screen Actors Guild will be joining the WGA picket lines, and the writers guild said SAG has stayed in the background of all the negotiations. The actors’ contract with AMPTP doesn’t expire until June 2008, so SAG’s president told the WGA members tonight that the actors guild cannot cannot strike now but supports the WGA “100% and will walk the picket lines with the writers. Meanwhile, the meeting heard from the guild leadership that the Teamsters are getting threats from studios after Leo Reed’s “Hollywood” Local 399 — aka the Motion Picture and Theatrical Trade Teamsters which reps over 4,800 studio drivers, casting directors and location managers — urged members to honor the WGA’s picket lines. But there was no proof offered of this.

The WGA leadership said tonight it waited until the writers contract expired at midnight on October 31st to see if the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers prez Nick Counter came up with a last-minute (and expected low-ball) offer — but he didn’t. So now the Hollywood writers walkout is a reality. The WGA leadership gave final authorization for a strike and will email members tomorrow afternoon the exact date and time that labor action will begin. Tomorrow, the WGA West & East negotiations board decides when is the most opportune moment for the walkout. Tonight’s WGA meeting inside the Los Angeles Convention Center was attended by 2,000 guild members. Cheers and applause rose from the crowd when the WGA’s negotiating committee announced its recommendation to strike.

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