WGA STRIKE UPDATE: WGA’s David Young Discusses Pressure to End Strike

WGA West Executive Director David Young Acknowledged that There Was Pressure from Certain Members to End the Strike but Maintained that He Never Felt in Danger of Losing the Backing of the Membership

By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/12/2008 1:00:00 AM

Writers Guild of America West executive director David Young acknowledged that he was feeling pressure from members to get a deal on the heels of the Directors Guild of America’s deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but also maintained that he never felt in danger of losing the backing of the membership.

“Did we feel [pressure] from members? Sure, and I think it is absolutely natural at this point,” Young said in an interview at WGAW headquarters in Los Angeles. “You are worried about it every day of the strike, but it became more of an issue every day. But I never felt at the end that we were going to fall apart.”

Young’s comments came as the WGA membership is expected to vote Tuesday to end the strike that began Nov. 5. They also came as sources from both sides acknowledged that there was an increasing push by a group of writers on the WGA brass to strike a deal.

Young said that after the DGA deal was completed and with enough time still to salvage part of this season, the Oscars and a truncated development season, it was time to cut the deal.

“The people working in television, it is a classic double-edged sword where you’ve gotten to the point of your maximum leverage in terms of what damage you can inflict, but inevitably, if you inflict it, you are inflicting it on yourself, too,” he added. “You are losing the television season and the pilot season, so that increases pressure on both sides. But the question [with continuing the strike] was: Where are you taking [the guild members] and what are you getting for them if you take them there?”

He said the actual turning point in negotiations came in a Feb. 1 meeting at the Luxe Hotel in Los Angeles -- a face-to-face encounter with News Corp.’s Peter Chernin and Disney’s Bob Iger.

“It was their involvement and I think their attitude and professionalism that allowed things to go forward,” he added.

But even with the strike now apparently settled, he still blamed the media companies as a whole for not coming to table early enough to prevent it from ever happening, although he admitted that both sides have to take responsibility for what happened.

“The question is: Why are we at a point in the relationships in this town where you have to have this kind of strike?” he added. “I’m not even sure this strike had to happen. I’m pretty sure. But the other side never bargained until we were five weeks into the strike. So it’s reflective of a circumstance where they’ve just become accustomed to running us over. It was almost like they were daring us to strike.”

For full coverage of the strike, click here.