Writers File Labor Charge Against Studios

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http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-fi-strike14dec14,0,365872.story

STRIKE REPORT
Writers file labor charge against studios

The producers alliance broke federal law by cutting off negotiations last week, the complaint says.
By Richard Verrier,, Claudia Eller and Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
December 14, 2007
Hollywood's bitter labor dispute intensified Thursday when striking writers filed a charge against the studios, alleging they had not bargained in good faith.

In a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, the Writers Guild of America, the union that represents more than 10,000 writers, asserted that the studios had violated federal law by ending contract negotiations last Friday after the guild refused to meet their demand to take several proposals off the table.

Thursday's development exacerbates the hostility between the two sides and could prolong a costly strike -- now in its sixth week -- that has virtually shut down scripted television production in Los Angeles County and imperils the current and upcoming TV seasons. Since the strike began, production of more than 60 dramas and sitcoms has been halted in the county, at a cost of more than 10,000 jobs, according to one estimate.

"This is a laying down of the gauntlet in some sense," said David Smith, a labor economist at Pepperdine University. "It's a strategic move that in my mind is likely to set up further tension between the two groups."

The two sides are deeply divided over how writers should be paid when their work is distributed on the Internet.

"It is a clear violation of federal law for the to issue an ultimatum and break off negotiations if we fail to cave to their illegal demands," the Writers Guild said in a statement Thursday. "It is the height of irresponsibility and intransigence for the to refuse to negotiate a fair agreement with the WGA."