Emotions Run High Over Writers’ Split : Dissidents’ Back-to-Work Threat Provokes Bitter Response

Shock. Anger. Uncertainty. Hope.

Emotions were high--and deeply mixed--among Hollywood’s striking writers Friday, following the news that some members were planning to break ranks with Writers Guild of America leaders and return to work if the 18 1/2-week-old strike isn’t settled by July 28.

Most writers queried by telephone and on the guild’s picket line at 20th Century Fox Film Corp. on Friday morning were deeply embittered by the threatened secession.

“They’re traitors. For all that the guild has done for them, they just turned. They have no sense of history,” writer John Sack said of the dissidents, as he joined about 2,500 fellow guild members picketing Fox.

But other guild members--particularly the high-income “hyphenates,” who also produce their shows--expressed empathy, if not outright sympathy, for the dissidents.

Asked if he planned to join the pullout, “L.A. Law’s” Steven Bochco said: “Not at this moment. It’s not something that’s on my agenda. . . . But with increasing frustration and despair, I see just a devastating paralysis in the guild and on the other side as well. And at some point, something’s got to happen. One week or 10 days from now, I might feel different.”

The moves that provoked such reaction are complex, and their ultimate impact remains unclear. In brief:

Twenty-one dissident guild members asked the National Labor Relations Board Thursday to invalidate provisions of the union constitution that prevent members from resigning and going back to work during a strike. The guild said it will fight the move. But labor lawyers--even those with pro-union leanings--say the board is almost certain to favor the dissidents because of clear court rulings on the subject.

The dissidents said they plan to elect “financial core” status in the union if the dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers isn’t settled by July 28. Under such status, which is sanctioned by courts, a union member can resign his active membership in the union--foregoing the right to vote and hold office, but continuing to enjoy protection of the bargaining agreement--as long as he pays dues.

The producers alliance said Friday that anyone who wants to return to work on that basis is welcome. The union said it might consider legal action resisting the concept or might refuse to do business with any company that hired “financial core” writers.

About 550 writers attended an “informational” meeting called by the dissidents Thursday night. Members of the group didn’t specifically ask other members to follow their lead. But one speaker, writer Dan Gordon, said that if a large number of writers elected “financial core” status, they would exert enormous pressure to end the strike--particularly if they included writers who work regularly, as opposed to those who sell scripts only occasionally.

On the guild’s prerecorded hotline Friday morning, Brian Walton, chief negotiator for the union, called the dissent movement “irrelevant, also unfortunate.” He added that “the (settlement) deal is going to be made when it embodies the principles for which you have been on strike and not by some artificial deadline,” an apparent reference to the July 28 target date.

Despite the large and generally enthusiastic audience that attended the dissidents’ Thursday-night meeting, only one writer queried on Friday, John Milius, openly said he was likely to join a return-to-work movement.

“I personally don’t give a damn if the writers guild strike goes on for the next 10 years if the working writer can go back to work. The working writers are not represented by the writers guild,” said Milius (“Dirty Harry,” “Red Dawn”), one of several writers who maintained that writers would need years to make up losses they’ve already suffered in the strike, even if they prevailed on foreign residuals and other disputed issues.

David Milch--one of the 21, and a former writer and producer of “Hill Street Blues”--said he felt deep ambivalence about a step that clearly could damage the union.

“I think it’s disingenuous not to acknowledge that there’s a potential harm to our union in doing this, and it makes me sad,” Milch said. “But there is a greater potential harm being done to our industry. Our leadership has abdicated its responsibility. They are more concerned at this point with justifying their own conduct than with responsibly bringing this strike to a conclusion.”

Among other writers, however, there was strong aversion to a group that union president George Kirgo said he was willing to write off. “They pretended to be with us, but they never were. . . . They shouldn’t be with us,” Kirgo said at Fox.

The greatest fear appeared to be that a secession of any kind would cripple the guild in all future dealings with management.

“What was being proposed here has the potential of tearing the guild in half,” said Michael Weithorn, a TV writer whose credits include “Family Ties.” “Whereas I agree with the motives, I can’t agree with the tactics. To go this route would play into the hands of management. . . . I could just imagine members of the producers alliance sitting in that room, smiling and nodding in approval.”

Sara Davidson, a television writer who produced the series “HeartBeat” last season, said she was afraid the guild would become another version of the shattered air traffic controllers union. “My gut reaction is that it’s a disaster,” she said of the possible break-away.

On the picket-line at Fox, reactions were, perhaps predictably, more severe in questioning the motives and loyalty of the dissidents.

“I wouldn’t be hesitant to ask these writers what deals they got for the future. . . . They’re just fat cats who have no significance to the movement,” said John Gilligan, one of the pickets.

“Bad ‘cess to them! It’s an old Irish curse,” veteran screenwriter Julius Epstein (“Casablanca”) said of the dissidents in a telephone interview.

At the Thursday-night meeting, speakers from the 21--including Gordon, Milch, Lionel Chetwynd, Bob Gale, George Schenck and Frank Cardea Jr.--took pains to emphasize what they believed was their fundamental loyalty to the guild, despite their threatened secession.

Several speakers said their only real quarrel was with guild leaders, who have voted unanimously to continue the strike even though a sizeable portion of the guild’s working members favor accepting the producers’ last contract offer.

“It may well be that dissent is the highest form of loyalty,” said writer-producer Chetwynd, whose credits include “Sadat,” “Hanoi Hilton” and other movies and TV shows.

If nothing else, it appeared certain on Friday that the potential split-off would considerably stoke the Hollywood rumor-mill, which has been grinding full-time with reports of potential settlements and secessions.

In his guild hotline message, Walton warned against the wildest rumors. One rumor, said Walton, “has had me in a sanitarium in Mexico, having suffered from a nervous breakdown. Another one has me sitting on an offer from the alliance and not telling anyone. Both of these are untrue.”