Other Studios Say Directors’ Strike Could Bring Lockout

Members of the Directors Guild of America were warned Sunday that they may be locked out of non-struck major studios and TV networks if they proceed with a declared selective walkout on Tuesday against Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. and NBC.

The sharp warnings were issued by a CBS spokesman and by studio representatives, even as union officials and negotiators for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers held a previously unannounced informal meeting Sunday afternoon at the alliance office in Sherman Oaks.

The new round of talks was called a day after the national board of the 8,500-member guild rejected a “final offer” from the three major television networks and the bargaining group for more than 200 movie and television producers.

By the end of Sunday’s informal meeting, however, the only resolution that was reached by both sides was an agreement to meet again today at 10 a.m.

Widening Labor Dispute

The latest escalation in the widening labor dispute was triggered by the guild board when it moved on Saturday to authorize what could be the union’s first strike in 51 years.

But on Sunday management threatened, in effect, to raise the stakes and expand the guild’s selective strike by barring DGA members from working at CBS, ABC and the more than 200 companies represented by the alliance.

“The employers in this multi-employer bargaining unit have a solidarity pact under which a strike against one is a strike against all,” said Carol Akiyama, a senior alliance vice president, in a prepared statement issued during the informal talks.

“ If the guild strikes one or more of these employers, as the guild said it will, the other employers in the multi-employer bargaining unit consider the strike is applicable to them and therefore will lock out DGA-represented employees pursuant to this solidarity pact.”

The lockout pact formed by the alliance’s members, she said, has been in place since the start of negotiations over two simultaneous, but separate, contracts: one for the film and television producers; the other for the television networks. She added that the alliance has never called for such an action since its formation in 1982.

However, the first hint that the dispute would expand into a full-fledged war came earlier in the day when CBS network officials announced that they would not let NBC stand alone.

“We cannot let one company be singled out for a strike and if that happens, we will regretfully ask our DGA-represented employees who are covered by this contract not to come to work until the action is over. We cannot let NBC be singled out,” said George Schweitzer, a New York spokesman for CBS/Broadcast Group.

Although guild representatives were initially surprised by the strike countermeasures announced by the alliance, their repudiation was nonetheless swift.

“It’s outrageous to have an entire creative community punished as a result of this dispute,” said guild President Gilbert Cates, who claimed he did not learn of the potential lockout until well into Sunday’s informal meeting. Nevertheless, Cates asserted that the guild would stick to its strike plan, “doing exactly what we said we would do.”

‘Minimize . . . Tragedy’

Guild spokesman Chuck Warn said the union called for a selective strike, in part, “to minimize the human tragedy that is a part of any strike.” He referred specifically to non-guild members whose jobs might be affected by the strike.

CBS’s threatened move would affect about 150 workers at CBS News, sports and some daytime soap operas in New York and Washington and at network-owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, Schweitzer said.

NBC, which was struck June 27 by 2,800 members of the National Assn. of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET), stands to lose 161 more employees nationwide in the event of a guild walkout, said Jay Rodriguez, a network spokesman.

Jeff Tolvin, a spokesman for Capital Cities/ABC Communications Inc., said that only guild employees covered in contract negotiations with the movie and television producers, such as the soap opera directors, would be shut out if Tuesday’s strike goes ahead.

Tolvin said the network still was considering whether to follow CBS’s lead and lock out its staff directors in sports and news.

NBC’s striking technicians, writers and others welcomed the news of the impending guild walkout.

“I think the combination of the two strikes will help them (management) to see how it is in their best interest to settle both quickly,” said Chris Hanson, a spokesman for striking NABET Local 53.

One effect of the combined work stoppages, Hanson claimed, would be to knock out the last trained professionals currently sustaining NBC’s national and local news operations.

The first major program likely to be affected by the two walkouts would be Tuesday night’s telecast of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Oakland.

Hanson said the roughly 600 mangement personnel NBC is presently using to cover for the striking NABET members will be spread too thin when the guild’s members go on strike.

‘Last Professionals’

The guild members “are the last professionals in there,” he added. “They are the Band-Aid that is keeping (NBC) limping along. Now those people will be replaced by non-professionals. If you thought (their newscasts) were bad before, wait till you see them without the professionals.”

NBC’s Rodriguez acknowledged that the guild’s members do hold “important” positions within the network.

But Rodriguez claimed the added strike would have little effect on program quality because, according to his estimates, only 20 guild members work for both NBC and KNBC at its Burbank studios.

Rodriguez said the latest round of talks still could avert a walkout by the guild. “We see no differences that can’t be worked out between now and Tuesday and we remain hopeful we can avoid a strike,” he said.