LOS ANGELES – Undaunted by the morning rain, members of the Writers Guild of America returned to picket lines outside most Hollywood studios Thursday, while the head of one of those studios — Paramount — told investors and reporters the company is prepared to weather an extended work stoppage.
“Obviously, we’ve been planning for this. We do have many levers to pull and that’ll allow us to manage through this strike, even if it’s for an extended duration. In terms of those levers, we have a lot of so-to-speak content in the can. So with the exception of things like late-night, consumers won’t really notice anything for awhile.”
Outside Disney studios in Burbank, about a dozen picketers braved the rain Thursday morning to continue their picketing. “Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal — and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains — the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” the union wrote in a message to its membership Monday.
According to the union, its latest contract proposal would net writers roughly $429 million per year, while the studios’ latest offer would equate to about $86 million annually.