WGA, CBS still talking as contract expires
Guild: 'Strike not likely'
With a strike authorization in hand, negotiators for the 310 newswriters, promo writers, editors, desk assistants and graphic artists represented by the guild continued debating late Thursday in New York with company officials. A day earlier, the WGA had branded CBS demands as "outrageous and unacceptable."
"They're talking and they've been doing it a lot, and that's a good thing," said a WGA official close to the talks, which wrapped at 11:15 p.m. Eastern time. During the course of the day, he said, the talks had been interrupted three or four times so that each side could mull over their progress in private.
Despite an overwhelmingly positive strike vote a week ago, the official said, "I haven't sensed from any of the folks that they're looking for a strike."
Major issues include jurisdiction matters and the pension plan.
The atmosphere seemed somewhat more congenial than on Wednesday, when CBS negotiators were said to have "ambushed the guild" with a new proposal demanding that it relinquish jurisdiction over writing and graphics for new broadcast technology.
"The guild challenged the company's bad faith bargaining in coming to the table so late in the negotiations with such a complex issue, asking the guild to bargain away the members' future," a WGA statement said.
CBS agreed to give temps 48 hours' notice before changing their schedules and to attach the names of writers and graphic artists who made significant contributions to pieces being entered in competitions.
