Writers Bypass Producer Alliance With New Offer

Saying that it wants to put people back to work after a long strike that has crippled the television and movie industry, the Writers Guild of America offered a new “interim” contract to producers Friday.

But the union, whose walkout starts its 18th week Monday, did not propose the pact to the producers’ negotiators, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents 200 members, including the major studios and the NBC, CBS and ABC networks.

Instead, the writers will make their offer to individual production companies, seeking to add to the list of 115 companies that already have signed such interim agreements. Those producers have been able to resume normal activities while the majority of the industry remains in limbo.

“We’re basically offering it (the new contract) because we’re interested in getting people back to work,” said Brian Walton, the guild’s chief negotiator and executive director of its Los Angeles office.

3 Already Have Signed

At a news conference Friday afternoon at the guild’s Los Angeles headquarters, Walton said that three production companies--Carolco, Kings Road Entertainment and OCC Productions--had already signed the new pact, which differs from the one offered earlier primarily in that residual payments for reruns are lower.

The proposed “interim” pact, to run until May, 1992, would be superseded by a final guild-alliance agreement, when and if one is reached, Walton said.

According to Mona Mangan, his guild counterpart in New York, those who signed the guild’s May 26 contract offer can exchange it for the new one simply by asking for it.

The alliance, headquartered in Sherman Oaks, responded to the union’s new tactic with a two-sentence statement: “As we have stated, the differences with the . . . guild are limited to the economics of television, particularly the depressed state of the one-hour syndication market. The writers, in the face of this, are asking for more than the other guilds with regard to foreign residuals.”

Must Be Ratified

The new proposal still must be ratified by guild members. It will be put to a vote Wednesday night in Los Angeles and New York, Walton said, with recommendations that members approve it.

The strike has forced all three networks to consider altering plans for introducing their new prime-time schedules in the fall, although only CBS has officially postponed the start of its season--until at least late October.

On Wednesday, NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff vowed at a press conference that his network will have a full fall season despite the strike. If the dispute is not resolved by July 24, he said, the top-rated network will announce a revised schedule that could include “writer-proof” reality shows, variety programs, shows with British or Canadian scripts, and remakes of old series.

The writers’ guilds of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have told their members not to write for American shows during the writers’ guild strike, Walton said Friday.

In his press session, Tartikoff also said that while NBC will honor commitments for existing series that it has made with producers who signed “independent” agreements with the guild, it does not want new shows from producers with such agreements.

NBC, in a show of support for the alliance, “will not buy new shows created from whole cloth by those who have signed or are about to sign (guild) agreements,” he said.

‘Antitrust Implications’

Asked if the guild had any comment on that, Mangan said: “We’re not really saying anything. But the antitrust implications are so ominous.”

Neither CBS nor ABC would say on Friday whether they plan to follow NBC’s strategy, or, for that matter, what they will do if the strike continues.

The TV and motion picture industry has another labor matter looming on July 31, the expiration date of its three-year contract with the 24,000-member International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

Negotiators for the alliance, IATSE and other unions--including the Teamsters--are scheduled to meet and exchange contract proposals on Wednesday at alliance headquarters in Sherman Oaks.

Those in the IATSE include camera operators, sound men and editors, as well as members of wardrobe, makeup, props and special effects units, according to Mac St. Johns, a spokesman for the union.

Unlike the writers’ guild, now on its third walkout in this decade, IATSE has not shown a tendency to strike. Its last walkout, involving a jurisdictional dispute, was in 1946.

Jay Sharbutt reported from New York and Diane Haithman from Los Angeles.