Striking WGA writers, studios return to the bargaining table
Striking writers and Hollywood studios returned to the bargaining table on Wednesday in hopes of making progress toward ending the work stoppage that began in early May.
There was no public comment from either the Writers Guild of America or the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which is handling negotiations for studios, about the Wednesday meeting, but one report indicated that things were looking up.
Citing unnamed sources, Deadline reported that the Wednesday session was attended by the heads of the major studios — Netflix's Ted Sarandos, Disney's Bob Iger, Universal's Donna Langley and Warner Bros/Discovery's David Zaslav. One insider told the publication the discussion was “very encouraging,” and the two sides plan to meet again Thursday. One source told Deadline that “incredible progress” was made during the talks.
Wednesday's negotiating session was the first time the sides have met since mid-August.
WGA negotiators sent a message to union members Monday,
telling them “You might not hear from us in the coming days while we are negotiating, but know that our focus is getting a fair deal for writers as soon as possible. We'll reach out again when there is something of significance to report.”
With negotiations seemingly stalled, the WGA negotiating team issued a statement earlier this month suggesting that some traditional Hollywood studios should break ranks with the AMPTP and reach a deal directly with the writers' union. The WGA suggested it has spoken with some studio executives who believe a deal could be quickly struck.
“So, while the intransigence of the AMPTP structure is impeding progress, these behindthe-scenes conversations demonstrate there is a fair deal to be made that addresses our issues,” according to the WGA negotiating team. “… We have made it clear that we will negotiate with one or more of the major studios, outside the confines of the AMPTP, to establish the new WGA deal.
“There is no requirement that the companies negotiate through the AMPTP. So, if the economic destabilization of their own companies isn't enough to cause a studio or two or three to either assert their own selfinterest inside the AMPTP, or to break away from the broken AMPTP model, perhaps Wall Street will finally make them do it.”
The AMPTP, however, issued a statement of its own saying all of its members are committed to working within the alliance to reach a deal for all studios.
“The AMPTP member companies are aligned and are negotiating together to reach a resolution,” a statement from the alliance said. “Any suggestion to the contrary is false.
“Every member company of the AMPTP wants a fair deal for writers and actors and an end to the strikes, which are affecting not only our writer and actor colleagues, but also thousands of others across the industry. That is why the AMPTP has repeatedly put forward offers that address major priorities of the WGA, including a last round of offers on Aug. 17th and 18th.”
Writers, who went on strike May 2, were joined on the picket line in July by the SAG-AFTRA actors' union. There have been no known contract talks between the studios and SAG-AFTRA since that strike began. in a Superior Court courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, a man identified by prosecutors as Max entered the taqueria carrying the satchel, followed by a man identified as Orlando. The two greeted each other, appeared to conduct a brief transaction, which the prosecutor acknowledged could have been a drug deal, and then walked outside the restaurant, apparently to smoke.
A police car occupied by Long Beach officers Dedier Reyes and David Salcedo drove past the restaurant before making a pair of Uturns and parking. Before the patrol car stopped, both Max and Orlando are seen on the video going back into the restaurant, with Max dropping the satchel and then exiting again and Orlando going up to the register to order food.
The officers would later say that they recognized Max and Orlando as gang members who they knew to be on probation that included terms allowing them to be searched by law enforcement. The two were in a known gang area, the officers later said, and appeared suspicious.
The video showed Reyes enter the restaurant and order Orlando outside, at which point the officer didn't appear to look at or interact with the dropped satchel. About eight minutes later, the video showed Reyes come back into the taqueria, briefly talk to employees and then walk over to the satchel, which contained a firearm.
In their reports, Reyes, who was acting as a training officer, and Salcedo, who was the trainee at the time, both described seeing Orlando holding the Louis Vuitton bag, despite the video from the business showing it in Max's possession.
Reyes also wrote in his report that he saw Orlando going into the restaurant with the satchel, despite, a prosecutor argued, their police car being too far away at that moment for the officers to have witnessed it. The officers saw that Orlando was the only one inside the restaurant when they arrived, assumed it was his bag, and lied in their report about what they saw in order to take him into custody, the prosecutor argued.
“They knowingly made up observations to make an arrest,” Deputy District Attorney Kristopher Gay told jurors. “When two people get the same wrong answers on a test, they cheated on that test.”
Orlando was later released without charges after detectives discovered the discrepancies between the police reports and the surveillance video.
Attorneys representing the officers denied that they knowingly lied, instead describing it as a mistaken identification involving two men with similar builds who the officers spotted on a darkened street with the satchel between them.
“This was a reasonable mistake,” Defense attorney John Barnett, who is representing Salcedo, said. “It was not a lie.”
Reyes' attorney, Benjamin Karabian, also questioned the decision to charge the officers, noting that the previous DA, Jackie Lacy, chose not to file charges. Current DA George Gascón decided to pursue the case.
The allegations against the officers have already affected other cases.
A man serving 39 years in prison for allegedly assaulting a Long Beach officer had his conviction vacated when prosecutors learned that Reyes' testimony was responsible for the conviction and decided they no longer had faith that he had told the truth.
Long Beach also settled an alleged police brutality case involving Reyes for nearly $500,000, though the city's legal counsel said the settlement did not include an admission of liability.