10-26-07
Local Industry Holds Its Breath as Labor Strikes Approach
Last week, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) authorized a strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Their current contract expires Oct. 31. Writers could be walking the picket lines the next day.
This doesn’t affect Chicago all that much. TV shows—such as “Family Practice,” which recently wrapped its pilot here—will be halted mid-stride, but films can be produced from scripts already written.
There is some evidence that film production may step up this fall, as the writers aren’t the only union at odds with the AMPTP. The contracts of both the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and AFTRA and SAG expire June 30, 2008. If the writers don’t have a deal by then, Hollywood could be in for a three-pronged strike.
The looming prospect of strikes presents a double-edged sword for local production: a possible surge in short-term work, followed by threat of a suspension of union productions whose duration, if it happens, is uncertain. A “short list” of movies that need to be finished before the negotiation deadlines has been circulating; there are few certainties.
“Despite the weather, we’re fielding calls from productions that are rushing preproduction in the hopes of starting shooting later on this year or early next year to meet the deadline,” said Rich Moskal, director of the Illinois Film Office. “There doesn’t appear to be any movement on national negotiations and the industry is anticipating that [a strike] will happen. Even if it doesn’t happen there will be increased production in the winter when we generally have less to report.”
Local union leaders are less optimistic about the coming season.
“We’re waiting for this big rush of work that they supposedly want to do, and it hasn’t happened yet,” said Mark Hogan of IATSE Local 476. “We’re bracing for June 30, which is supposedly the big D-Day. Hopefully they can reach some kind of settlement, but that doesn’t look likely.”
The WGA and AMPTP seem to have dug in their heels. The union has issued strict rules about who can work during a strike, limiting even work on animation and Internet—jurisdictions which are not part of the current talks. The AMPTP, for its part, has put instructions on its Web site telling writers how to achieve “Financial Core” status and is threatening to sue writers who walk out in the middle of the television season.
“That’s not good news at all,” Hogan said. “The hope was that everybody was going to go out together and bring it to a head and get it over with.”
The four unions are clashing with studios over similar issues, mostly tied to jurisdiction and residuals from reality and online programming. The studios are asking to roll back some past benefits to cut costs.