Offer Is Calculated to Force Strike, Writers Guild Asserts

Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America said Tuesday that a final contract offer from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was calculated “to force a strike” by movie and TV writers.

The harsh statement apparently increased the likelihood that guild members would reject the offer at membership meetings Tuesday night in Los Angeles and today in New York, possibly leading to a writers’ strike later this week.

A three-year contract between the 9,000-member guild and about 200 production companies, including all the major studios and networks, expired at midnight Monday.

The final offer came Tuesday afternoon, after an all-night bargaining session. Spokesmen for both sides declined to discuss the offer in detail.

In their statement, however, guild negotiators said the alliance’s offer did not address “primary issues” of concern to the writers. Negotiations toward a new three-year contract stalled over a producers’ demand that writers give up some TV residuals and writers’ demands for higher residuals from foreign sales and more control over producers’ use of original movie and TV scripts.

A short strike might quickly affect some soap operas and other daily TV shows. A prolonged strike could seriously disrupt movie production and might delay the start of the fall TV season.

The guild struck for two weeks in 1985 and for three months in 1981.