Contract Talks 1988

August 14, 1988

Strike Reflections: A Pyrrhic Victory for the Odd Men Out

Shortly after the vote to end the writer's strike came through last Sunday, I drove up to a friend's house in Beverly Hills to wish him well on an upcoming trip and chat about the life of the writer in Hollywood. Just before leaving home, I caught a couple of live TV reports on the vote and some interviews, the general tone of which expressed "cautious optimism about the future" and a certain pride in how well the writers had expressed solidarity with each other (not quite true) and how they could now look forward to being treated with "respect" (that word came up more than once).

August 9, 1988

Hollywood Drama

When Hollywood's professional storytellers voted approval of their new contract Sunday, ending the longest strike in Hollywood film making history, many screenwriters were not even sure how the settlement came about.

August 8, 1988

Writers Guild Approves Pact in 83.7% Vote

The nation's screenwriters will go back to work today after the approval of a new four-year contract Sunday that ends the crippling 154-day strike by the Writers Guild of America, the longest walkout in film industry history.

August 6, 1988

Conciliatory Words Flow in Aftermath of Bitter Strike

After five months of often bitter feuding, officials from the two sides of the Writers Guild of America strike expressed a measure of sympathy for one another during a joint appearance at a news conference Friday.

August 4, 1988

Tentative Accord in Writers Strike

Hollywood producers and writers reached a tentative agreement Wednesday to end a crippling 150-day strike by the Writers Guild of America, one of the longest in film industry history.

July 7, 1988

Scripts: the Next Big Issue in Strike

Among producers, the polite term is "non-union scripts."

June 30, 1988

Deadlock: Writers' Strike Reaches the Crisis Stage

The writers' strike has escalated from a thunderstorm to a hurricane.

June 24, 1988

Writers' Rejection of Pact May Further Slow Industry

By a wide margin, members of the Writers Guild of America voted to reject a producers' contract offer and continue their 16-week-old strike against the motion picture and television industry, the union reported Thursday.

June 14, 1988

Writers' Talks Bog Down Over Residual Issue

A potential settlement between Hollywood producers and the striking Writers Guild of America has snagged on a continued dispute over residual payments for foreign sales of movies and television shows, sources familiar with the closed-door negotiations said Monday.

May 20, 1988

Producers and Writers to Talk With Mediator

With charges still flying from both sides, the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed Thursday to sit down with a federal mediator on Monday--the first such meeting since an abortive 20-minute session on April 8.

May 10, 1988

Long Writers Strike

Hollywood can't come to terms with its writers, and Best Auto Painting in Sun Valley is paying the price.

March 25, 1988

No Writers: The Strike at a Glance

Near the end of its third week, a strike by movie and television writers has begun to take a significant toll on Hollywood economics and TV viewing schedules.

March 8, 1988

TV Networks Prepare for Long Strike

As Hollywood writers began a strike Monday against movie and television companies, producers and TV networks prepared to weather a prolonged work stoppage.