Eastern Writers Reject TV, Film Pact, to Join Walkout

East Coast members of the Writers Guild of America voted Monday night to reject an $84-million contract offer and join their California colleagues in a midnight strike against the motion picture and television industries.

The walkout, effective this morning, would halt all movie and television script-writing, as well as entertainment scripts for radio. News writers, covered by their own agreement, will not be affected.

The guild’s East Coast members braved freezing rain to vote 236 to 35 to reject the pact, which offered 6% raises for each of the next three years. The 9,000-member guild reportedly had sought 7% yearly increases. On Saturday, West Coast members voted against the proposal, 1,526 to 604.

Picket lines will not be set up until Thursday or Friday, guild officials said.

The impact of a strike would immediately be felt by producers of daytime soap operas, who present five new shows a week, with a short lead time. Movie studios and TV networks have saved scripts in anticipation of a walkout, and most prime-time TV shows have finished taping for the season.

No new talks were scheduled in the dispute. Guild negotiators and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers last met Friday.

Binding arbitration began Monday in Los Angeles on the issue of percentages for writers from the sale of videocassettes and on whether writers were overpaid for certain types of work done for pay television.

Both sides agreed in December to handle these issues through arbitration, instead of negotiation. However, as part of their final contract offer, the producers offered writers a $1-million health fund contribution in return for dropping the arbitration.

J. Nicholas Counter, president of the producers’ alliance, said he anticipates that arbitration will “last several months, and if the writers are on strike because of that, then that’s their choice.”

However, guild Executive Director Naomi Gurian said the $1-million offer was never seriously considered by her union and she is confident that the writers could win the arbitration quickly.

The main obstacle in the negotiations has been the writers’ share of the lucrative videocassette market, an issue that went into binding arbitration with Paramount Studios Monday. To counter the move, producers filed a counterclaim challenging the writers’ demand for a share of pay television.

“If they withdraw their claim, we’ll withdraw ours and go back to the negotiating table,” said Chuck Weisenberg, a spokesman for the producers.

The maneuver would not prevent a strike, he said, but added that it could shorten any walkout.

The last writers’ strike, in 1981, lasted 13 weeks.