Talks in Film Writers Strike Continue; List of Alternative Proposals Studied

Marathon bargaining between Hollywood writers and producers continued late Sunday night as a strike by the Writers Guild of America entered its 21st week.

The talks were convened Saturday afternoon by federal mediators. They recessed at 2 a.m. Sunday after a 13-hour session, and then resumed in the afternoon.

The sessions were conducted under a news blackout imposed by Floyd Wood, a district director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

As the session opened, several sources who talked with negotiators said that producers’ representatives essentially stood by the proposals contained in a June 16 contract offer that had been rejected by the writers.

Guild representatives subsequently spent most of the Saturday session devising a list of alternative proposals to end the impasse, which has centered on residuals for TV programs shown as re-runs or sold abroad.

What the guild proposed, or how producers responded to the list, was not clear.

Earlier sessions convened by the mediation service eventually led to the June 16 offer. Writers and producers had dealt with each other informally since then, but conducted no formal bargaining sessions.

Despite some internal dissension, the 9,000-member guild has remained firm in its demand for a bigger cut of residual profits, and has divided producers’ ranks by getting some independent film makers to defect, allowing them to hire writers under separate contracts granting guild demands.

Television networks, their fall schedules in shambles, have insisted they will broadcast new fall programming, even if they have to refilm old scripts with new stars.