You’ve probably read already that a deal was struck between David Letterman and the Writers Guild of America so Letterman’s writers will be back at work on Wednesday. Letterman was able to cut a deal because he owns his production company and the rights to the show. The Writers Guild explains the deal in a letter to its members, underscoring three main reasons the agreement was reached:
First, the AMPTP has not yet been a productive avenue for an agreement. As a result, we are seeking deals with individual signatories. The Worldwide Pants deal is the first. We hope it will encourage other companies, especially large employers, to seek and reach agreements with us. Companies who have a WGA deal and Guild writers will have a clear advantage. Companies that do not will increasingly find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Indeed, such a disadvantage could cost competing networks tens of millions in refunds to advertisers.
Second, this is a full and binding agreement. Worldwide Pants is agreeing to the full MBA, including the new media proposals we have been unable to make progress on at the big bargaining table. This demonstrates the integrity and affordability of our proposals. There are no shortcuts in this deal. Worldwide Pants has accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on December 7.
Finally, while our preference is an industry-wide deal, we will take partial steps if those will lead to the complete deal. We regret that all of us cannot yet return to work. We especially regret that other late night writers cannot return to work along with the Worldwide Pants employees. But the conclusion of your leadership is that getting some writers back to work under the Guild’s proposed terms speeds up the return to work of all writers.
It will be interesting to see what happens here:
On the one hand, this deal is an attempt to try to split the employers–there has been a basic belief that the employers (grouped under the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) are divided, with one group wanting to reach some deal with the WGA and another group, lead by Warner Brothers, in favor of keeping a very hard line and seeking to punish the WGA. We’ll see if other employers like Letterman break ranks.
On the other hand, the WGA will need to manage the internal issue: some writers are now going to go back to work and get paychecks while others are still out on the streets. I’d guess that the public hard line the industry has taken–and it’s pretty clear that the writers have seen what jerks the studios have been–will make it possible to maintain the unity within the union if additional separate deals are made. But, it will be a chore.
