by
the_real_linda
@ Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008 - 15:08:57
WGA members will have the chance to vote on whether to end the strike under an expedited 48-hour voting process, WGA leaders told members during Saturday's night's meeting to detail the contract deal just reached with the majors.
That means scribes technically will not be back to work on Monday, as had been widely expected in recent days. However, numerous members attending the meeting - which drew about 3,000 to the Shrine Auditorium -- said many people will unofficially be prepping projects and scripts.
The WGA negotiating committee, the WGA West board of directors and the WGA East Council will meet Sunday to formally endorse the contract and set the launch of the 48-hour vote to lift the strike. The ruling bodies are also expected to approve official launching a member ratification vote that would take place over 10 days.
The news of the 48-hour vote to end the strike took many attending the meeting by surprise. Many had speculated that the WGA leaders would issue a back-to-work order Sunday in order to minimize further damage to the TV season and pilot season.
But WGA leaders apparently decided that going to the membership to end the strike would ease the potential problem of telling members to return to work before the new contract is ratified.
The Shrine powwow began about a half-hour after is skedded start time of 7 pm and lasted roughly two and a half hours. Dozens of members were still flowing in to the Shrine as late as 7:45 pm.
According to several attendees, enthusiasm was running very high in the room at the outset. WGA leaders Patric Verrone and David Young received standing ovations and signifigant applause in their opening remarks. Young has done most of the talking in the first hour, walking members through the contract deal points that were distributed on paper to members at the meeting, as well as by email earlier today.
"People are ready to go back tob work," said WGA member Jon Michaels. "When we started this the companies were talking about rollbacks on residuals, and now we have new media jurisdiction. It's not a perfect deal by any means. But there are a lot of people working in other (areas of the biz) who are suffering. We're not indifferent to that."
Michaels said he was personally disappointed about the guild dropping its push for reality and animation jurisdiction. He moves between scripted and unscripted shows and said working conditions in reality tv are getting worse and worse.
Although guild leaders issued a lengthy statement detailing the terms of the new contract reached this week with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, members said they were still reserving judgment until hearing the presentation from WGA toppers Patric Verrone, David Young and negotiating committee chief John Bowman. Some said they were encouraged by reports from the WGA's Gotham meeting earlier today that the contract was generally well-recieved by members who attended that afternoon meeting.
WGA West prexy Patric Verrone arrived at the venue about 6:25 with his son in tow. Verrone would not comment on any aspect of the meeting or on the generally optimistic reports out of the Gotham gathering.
"I love New York - it's my home town," is all Verrone would say as he walked into the auditorium.
As the start time of the meeting drew near, numerous members made their way out to Jefferson Boulevard to share their thoughts with the hive of reporters who buzzed around the sidewalk but were kept strictly at bay from the auditorium grounds by security.
"The strike was definitely worth it," said "Dirty Sexy Money" creator Craig Wright. "There's not a single gain that we made that we would have got if we hadn't been on strike. But it's time to end it. It's time to go backto work."
Wright quipped that in preparation for a celebratory meeting, he packed along a fair number of "Jell-O shots made with Bombay Sapphire gin."
Source: Variety.com
