WGA Grants Grammys a Waiver
Posted on January 28, 2008
The WGA has granted the Grammys an interim agreement that will allow Guild writers to write content for the February 10th show. The Associated Press notes that the interim agreement follows last weeks news that the WGA would not picket the Grammys in support of union musicians.
The Writers Guild of America gave its blessing last week to a picket-free Grammys. Now that the guild's board of directors has decided to sign an interim agreement for the Feb. 10 ceremony, the Grammys will escape the fate that befell this month's Golden Globes.According to a statement on the WGA, West's website the WGAW Board felt that this decision should be made on "behalf of our brothers and sisters in the American Federation of Musicians and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists."The Globes were stripped of stars and pomp when the guild wouldn't agree to an interim deal and the Screen Actors Guild encouraged its members to boycott the ceremony, which was reduced to a news conference.
The agreement allowing guild-covered writing for the Grammys is in support of union musicians and also will help advance writers' own quest for "a fair contract," the guild said in a statement.
"Professional musicians face many of the same issues that we do concerning fair compensation for the use of their work in new media," Patric M. Verrone, president of the guild's West Coast branch, said in the statement.
The WGA has resumed informal negotiations with the AMPTP. However, there is a press blackout during these talks, so no one knows how they're going. Certainly, everyone hopes they are going better than they did last time when the AMPTP stalked out in a huff.
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