Pencils Up, Laptops On: The Writers Strike is Over

Posted by on February 12, 2008 in Writer's Strike | 0 comments


The Writers Strike has ended. Scribes will return to their craft, and films and TV shows will resume production.

The only task remaining for members of the Writers Guild is to vote in favor or against the tentative 3-year contract with the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers), which they will do in a few weeks.

Below are excerpts from the official announcement, released by the Presidents of the WGA West and East:

On Tuesday, members of the Writers Guilds East and West voted by a
92.5% margin to lift the restraining order that was invoked on November
5th. The strike is over.
 
Writing can resume immediately. If you were employed when the strike
began, you should plan to report to work on Wednesday. 

 
The decision to begin this strike was not taken lightly and was only
made after no other reasonable alternative was possible.  We are
profoundly aware of the economic loss these fourteen weeks have created
not only for our members but so many other colleagues who work in the
television and motion picture industries. Nonetheless, with the
establishment of the WGA jurisdiction over new media and residual
formulas based on distributor’s gross revenue (among other gains) we
are confident that the results are a significant achievement not only
for ourselves but the entire creative community, now and in the future.
 
We hope to build upon the extraordinary energy, ingenuity, and
solidarity that were generated by your hard work during the strike. 
 
Over the next weeks and months, we will be in touch with you to discuss
and develop ways we can use our unprecedented unity to make our two
guilds stronger and more effective than ever.
 
Now that the strike has ended, there remains the vote to ratify the new
contract. 
 
Thank you for making it possible.  As ever, we are all in this together.

I am very happy for the writers, and to hear that the strike was resolved on their terms. Without their words, you would be bored and I would have nothing to talk about. They deserve fair compensation for their work, no matter the medium where it appears, and they earn it with every episode and movie that we are fortunate enough to view across many platforms.

So keep the writers in mind after you fall in love with a film, or laugh for days at a line that a character on one of your favorite shows said. Stay through the credits at the movies, and don’t TiVO fast-forward through them at the end of an episode.  Because the ones in front of the camera would be nothing without those behind the scenes.

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