December 12, 2007

The following statement was released today by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers spokesman Jesse Hiestand:

"Talks between the AMPTP and WGA broke down Friday over jurisdictional demands that would expand the power of the Guild's organizers and have little bearing on the issues that matter most to working writers. As reported in Hollywood Today, the organizers' focus on union power and not negotiating on new media will be once again demonstrated today at a labor action in Southern California involving Arden Realty and its security personnel that has nothing to do with the core issues of new media. The WGA's jurisdictional demands have been rejected repeatedly in these negotiations, and in negotiations past, yet they were still front and center at Friday's negotiating session and at the concert that WGA's Patric Verrone attended on Friday while the negotiations were going on, as the video above, and subsequently reported comments from Mr. Verrone demonstrate."

For further reference on the WGA organizer's insistence on their jurisdictional issues, see WGAW President Patric Verrone's comment from the concert on Friday ( Daily Variety, Dec. 10, 2007, "Strike's war of words resumes"): And it's notable that negotiations melted down a few hours after WGA West president Patric Verrone insisted at a Friday rally outside FremantleMedia's Burbank offices that reality jurisdiction had been part of the guild's negotiating package contract from the start and had never been taken off the table. "It will be in our next contract," Verrone flatly told the crowd.