12/17/2007

Two from Jonathan Handel: How to Restart the Talks and a Tri-Guild Proposal


Legal eagle Jonathan Handel has a post on his site and on HuffPo about what has to happen to bring the conglomerates back to the table. This follows up his earlier discussion of a Tri-Guild committee to crack the new media issue.

2 comments:

BTL Guy said...

This is an excellent article by Mr. Handel, and I applaud UnitedHollywood for giving a moderate in this debate a voice on the UH forum.

The hard-line, militant stance from the WGA, combined with the constant mud-slinging, have contributed greatly to problems which have propped up this ongoing strike.

And as I have always said, it's not like this is WGA's fault alone. But the pushback occurs when so many writers lay the blame solely at the feet of the other side. The AMPTP are behaving extremely poorly, but their reactions to WGA actions would be laughable in their predictability, if they weren't so harmful to the industry.

The quickest way to resolve this strike is for the WGA to soften its stance in these negotiations; to open a window for the AMPTP to crawl back through.

Digging in your heels at this point (as you have done with last night's rally) only exacerbates the issues and ensures that the DGA will create a deal before you even resume the back channel talks necessary to pick up official negotiations.

As Handel out it, "Maybe this approach will work nonetheless – but it’s a scorched earth policy that could bring the entire industry to the brink of ruin."

samwright23 said...

I say go for it. The minute you show weakness, is the moment they come in for the kill.

They never planned to give the WGA what they wanted, and I doubt the DGA will do better than the $250 deal that the writers go.

Everyone seems so optimistic about it. If they are attacking your tactics, than your tactics are working. The AMPTP is to big and in the end they'll have to compromise. The public just won't stand for too much more reality tv.