Writers’ Guild Board Rejects Pact; Members to Vote on It

The Writers Guild of America board voted down a final offer from producers on Friday, but the guild’s 9,000 members will have the final word on ratifying or rejecting the offer at general membership meetings Wednesday in Los Angeles and New York City.

The latest impasse in the 15-week-old dispute between writers and television and film producers has already resulted in some small-scale internecine warfare in the guild.

The Writers Coalition--a splinter group of about 200 within the guild--issued a statement Thursday urging members to “carefully weigh” the damage that an additional three- to six-month work stoppage might have on both the writers themselves and the entertainment industry at large.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers estimate that about 20,000 people work directly in production and another 200,000 are indirectly supported by the film and television industry.

Producers Disappointed

Alliance spokesman Herb Steinberg said Friday that producers remain disappointed with the writers’ guild board’s rejection decision, reached after a three-hour Friday morning teleconference between board members in Los Angeles and New York.

“We’ve given all we can give and have nothing further to say,” he said. “So it’s up to the members.”

Spokeswoman Cheryl Rhoden said guild leaders believe that the proposed four-year contract offer will be rejected by the members.

Guild officials said the offer does not resolve disputes on the residuals writers would be paid for domestic and foreign syndication of television programs--two key sticking points that brought about the March 7 walkout.

Formula for Residuals

Under the producers’ proposal, a formula basing the residuals for one-hour TV programs on a percentage rather than a fixed-fee basis would be submitted to a neutral arbitrator in 1991. Producers want the percentage formula while writers have adamantly protested the proposed method.

The contract would also establish a permanent guild-management committee overseeing writers’ creative rights. Minimum compensation and residuals would go up 14.7% over the four-year term of the contract.

Producers will launch their campaign to urge writers to approve the contract with a three-page advertisement scheduled for publication Monday in the Hollywood Reporter and Tuesday in Variety. The ad will contain a summary of the proposed agreements that have been submitted to the guild during the course of the strike.

Producers returned to the bargaining table with the guild three weeks ago at the behest of a federal mediator. The guild began approving new contracts with independent producers two weeks ago, pending the outcome of the ongoing alliance-guild talks. As of Friday, 95 independent production companies had signed the writers’ guild contracts that concede to the guild all of the points that brought on the walkout: foreign residuals, one-hour drama syndication residuals and creative rights.

Although the independent companies include such influential firms as Carsey-Werner (producers of “The Cosby Show”) and Carson Tonight Inc., they represent less than 10% of the total television and film production conducted in Hollywood. Most production is done by the 217 member companies of the alliance.