Striking Writers Seek Help of ABC Affiliates

Striking scriptwriters sought Friday to enlist owners of ABC-TV affiliate stations nationwide in their labor dispute, claiming the 13-week strike has caused television audiences to dwindle.

The Writers Guild of America sent letters to owners and managers of 198 ABC affiliates, urging them to press ABC to give ground in negotiations to prevent further delays in the start of the fall TV season.

Also Friday, union representatives met with top Hollywood studio executives whose companies are represented by the industry’s negotiating group, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The meeting, closed to the press, followed a morning bargaining session at the alliance’s headquarters in Sherman Oaks.

The session was informational and bargaining wasn’t expected, said Cheryl Rhoden, a writers’ spokeswoman, and Herb Steinberg, speaking for the producers.

Among those present were top officials of 20th Century-Fox, MGM-UA Communications Co., Walt Disney Co., Paramount Pictures Corp., MTM studios, Lorimar Telepictures Corp. and New World Entertainment Ltd.

The writers walked out March 7 in a dispute that centers on payments, called residuals, that they receive for reruns of one-hour television shows. Demand for one-hour shows in rerun, or syndication, is declining, and the producers had sought to index residual payments to a show’s success in rerun.

Lack of material has forced the networks to delay the fall premieres of a number of series, and the writers, in their letter to ABC affiliates, suggested that quality had suffered as well.

“This strike is not only hurting writers. It’s hurting you,” the union letter said.

It urged the local station managers to demand that ABC press for a settlement.

The union will send similar letters to CBS and NBC affiliates, Rhoden said. ABC letters went out first because the network’s annual meeting for affiliate stations will begin Monday in Los Angeles, she said.

TV’s viewing audience declined 3% in the May rating period, the letter said, “and it’s only going to get worse.”

The absence of writers has forced studios to order television movies without needed rewrites, and the delayed fall shows will be rushed into production, the letter said.

At issue in the strike, in addition to the residuals for one-hour shows, are writers’ demands for more say over changes made in scripts during filming and greater credit on and off screen for their work.