Writers Guild Set to Strike on Monday

Over the past couple of months the WGA has tried to negotiate their new contract with the studios. This past week negotiations closed and the members of the WGA decided that it was time to strike. The strike will officially begin at 12:01 am on Monday November 5th.

The strike comes as no real surprise to the members of the guild, especially when “the studios have not responded to a single one of the WGA’s important proposals, including Internet reuse, original writing for new media, DVDs, and new jursidiction.” This comes from an official press release from the WGA.

So what does this mean? Effective Monday morning writers are not allowed to write for any studio until the strike is over. This will not effect movies very much because studios have been preparing by purchasing rights to tons of scripts for the past couple of months. Most of these movies will be rushed into production though because the SAG and DGA union contracts expire early next summer. With a strike already starting with the WGA over the same topics, it does not look good fro the other two major studios.

The area that will be hit largest will be television. Writers are usually kept on staff and write for the shows on a weekly basis. Several series will more than likely end their seasons early because they will run out of new material. TV Guide reported that Heroes is planning on shooting an alternate ending to their December 3rd episode. The episode was suppose to be a conclusion for their “Generations” arc and serve as a mid-season finale. They would then restart their season on February or March and have an official ending to the season in May. Now with the strike less than 48 hours away they are preparing to reshoot an alternative ending to serve as a season finale.

This strike could last a long time and it could greatly affect the lives of those precious writers in Hollywood. Please try and be supportive and understanding as they strike. Just view this as a time to do more active things in your life, like people use to do before TV was invented.