STRIKE COVERAGE: Hawaii Rep. Abercrombie Sides with WGA

Unlike Obama, Edwards, No Mention of Media Consolidation

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/6/2007 3:39:00 PM

Another Democratic came out in favor of the Writers Guild of America in its strike against TV and movie producers over compensation for new media.

The latest was Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, who said he "fully supports the WGA" and urged the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to get back to the table.

Unlike statements from presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John Edwards, there was no evocation of media consolidation as a culprit in the impasse, with Abercrombie sticking to the issue of a fair pay for a fair day's work of creating content.

“Our country’s great middle class was built on the right of people who work to be paid a fair wage for their work," he said in a statement sent to B&C by an Abercrombie staffer. "The Writers Guild of America is on strike to protect that right.”

Abercrombie continued, "The intellectual work product of professional writers entertains and informs millions upon millions of Americans every day and night. What they are seeking now is fair compensation, no less than producers, media corporations and others receive from the reuse, adaptation and extension of their work."

The WGA dropped its demand to double the DVD residual from 4 cents to 8 cents in an attempt to keep the talks going, but they broke off and the strike was called at midnight Sunday, with the union vowing not to go back to work without a contract that deals with new-media residuals.

For full coverage of the strike, click here.