The Strike Is Over

It's a landslide.

Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) turned out in droves on February 12 to vote on whether to return to work after learning the details of the proposed contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). In the end, the results were clear: 92.5% of the 3,775 WGA members who cast ballots on the issue voted to put down their picket signs and pick up their pens.

The vote ends a 100-day strike that began on November 5 and brought the entertainment industry to a screeching halt. Now that the members of the guild have gotten a chance to voice their opinions, the leaders of the WGA will go through the process of ratifying the contract. The three-year agreement is expected to go into effect on February 25.

"They successfully faced down six multinational media conglomerates and established a beachhead on the Internet," said Jonathan Handel, former associate counsel for the WGA, West. "When you consider what they were initially offered and the enormous odds they faced, that's quite an achievement." However, the contract is far from ideal, and both sides were forced to make compromises. "It's a good deal, but not a great one," Handel explained. Steven Beer, an entertainment attorney at Greenberg Traurig, said that the months-long strike could have a negative effect on the opportunities available to scribes. "Writers got hard-fought and well earned improvements but it could be tougher sledding for the rank and file in the future," he explained.

The strike put more than 60 shows out of production and damaged the economy of Los Angeles. With things finally pushing forward and the writers ready to get back to work, networks are eager to get the industry moving and get shows back on the air. A list compiled (and updated) by Ausiello gives statistics on how many episodes the various shows are hoping to complete. At the moment, CBS is planning to produce 4-8 additional episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: New York for this season and 4-9 episodes of CSI: Miami, all to air in March, April and May. This is up from the previous estimate of 4-7 episodes for all three series. New York lead-in Criminal Minds and CSI lead-out Without a Trace are both expected to complete 4-9 episodes for the current season as well.

The article about the voting to end the strike is from the Los Angeles Times. To find out how many episodes of your favorite shows could be added to the schedule this season, check out Ausiello's list (keep in mind that all numbers are subject to change). Also check out this article from Variety that gives tentative information about the networks' plans.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!