Posted on 10/30/2007 12:58:30 PM PDT by SmithL
LOS ANGELES—A powerful Hollywood Teamsters branch has told its 4,500 members they can honor picket lines if TV and film writers strike this week.
Teamsters Local 399 advised its members in a Web posting late Monday that as a union, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts with producers.
But the local, which represents truck drivers, casting directors and location managers, said the clause does not apply to individuals, who are protected by federal law from employee retribution should they decide to honor picket lines.
"As for me as an individual, I will not cross any picket line whether it is sanctioned or not because I firmly believe that Teamsters do not cross picket lines," union local secretary-treasurer Leo Reed wrote on the Web site.
Negotiators for the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America and the group representing producers resumed their contentious negotiations Tuesday in the presence of a federal mediator, who was called in to break a stalemate before the current pact expires at midnight Wednesday.
A key issue involves payments for programming offered on DVDs, cell phones and other platforms.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents networks and studios, sent a letter late Monday to craft unions representing electricians, drivers and other trades, reminding them of the "no strike" clauses in their contracts.
"We expect each union to comply with this no strike obligation and order your members to work," alliance president J. Nicholas Counter wrote.
A possible strike was not expected to have an immediate effect on TV schedule or film production because most shows have enough scripts in hand to get through several months.
But scripts would start to run out in January or February, possibly prompting networks to turn to reality shows, news programs and reruns to fill the airwaves.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
Good grief...gonna be a whole lot of nothing getting done on Friday.
Funny how these clowns didnt honor the SAG strike 8 years ago or so.
This will be fun. Look forward to a lot of reruns but you will find the writing of years ago is vastly superior to the writing coming out today.
File cabinets and databases of Hollywood Producers are loaded with unsolicited scripts. This could be a long strike.
How nice, the Teamsters can honor the TV lines but can’t find the balls to shut down the country until the Mexican trucks stop coming here.
It’s sad to see what the Teamsters have become. Dave Beck, Jimmy Hoffa, and Roy Williams must be rolling in their graves. In their day no freight would have moved, no ship or train been unloaded, no fuel or food delivered until that crap was stopped.
Today’s “leaders” go to court over it. They are a joke. Jimmy Jr. is an embarrassment to his father’s name.
Thankfully, I have DVDs of classic TV programmes in my DVD collection.
“Will they boycott TV?”
Good question. Will they refuse to rent movies, etc as well? I doubt it. It is the next logical step though. Good thinking Smith.
I would say that reality TV is going to make a comeback, however from the little TV I have watched recently I don’t think it ever went away.
I was working in a talent agency in Hollywood during the last strike. Mostly I remember it just hurting the low level writers and episodic actors. It was the catalyst that closed the doors of many of the smaller agencies and sent a lot of agents into management (extra 5% on commissions).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.