WGA Rebuffs Latest Proposal by Producers 

The companies, hoping to head off a work stoppage, presented a detailed package at the Oct. 25 negotiating session at WGA West headquarters.

"Minor adjustments to major rollbacks do not constitute forward motion," said John Bowman, chair of the Writers Guild of America's negotiating committee in a statement issued Thursday evening. "To make a deal, the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers must engage with us on issues that matter in this negotiation. With that in mind, we will respond to their proposal tomorrow."

The harsh tone made industry anaylysts more skeptical that a deal could be reached by Oct. 31, the date the writers' contract expires.  

The new proposal doesn't address WGA demands such as expansion of jurisdiction on new media, animation or reality, and it retains a key AMPTP proposal seeking to lift restrictions on promotional use of programming. In addition, the AMPTP is still asking for a four-year deal even though the WGA's recent deals have been for three-year terms.

But it does grant the writers the right to consult on product-integration issues and removes part of the "separated rights" proposal that the WGA had asserted would limit the ability of writers to exploit their work on TV.

And it proposed that both sides take several proposals off the table as a quid pro quo -- for example, the AMPTP would agree to the WGA's increased pension and health contributions in exchange for imposing new AMPTP ceilings in those areas, and the guild would remove a demand that ringtones be covered by the merchandising language in exchange for the AMPTP dropping a proposal for eliminating payments for new characters in some limited circumstances.

The presentation of the new AMPTP proposal came after two days of meetings by producers in an effort to stave off a strike, which could start as early as next Thursday.

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