WGA Won’t Extend Talks Past Monday Night If There’s No Deal, IATSE Chief Predicts; AMPTP “May Be Dragging Their Feet,” Matt Loeb Says
EXCLUSIVE: As the deadline approaches to avert a threatened writers strike, IATSE President Matt Loeb has told leaders of his locals that it’s probably going to be do-or-die when the WGA’s current contract expires Monday night at midnight PT and that “he doubts an extension is in the cards.”
That assessment was provided to his members by Chuck Parker, national executive director of the Art Directors Guild, IATSE Local 800, who attended a meeting today with Loeb and other union brass.
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Even so, Loeb reportedly told his team that “there was presently no new, or known, information about the status of the negotiations” between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which began March 20.
RELATED: WGA Reviews & Counters Latest AMPTP Offer As Potential Strike Deadline Moves Closer
Loeb also told his team that he expects to have conversations between now and Tuesday with Ellen Stutzman, assistant executive director of the WGA West and the guild’s chief negotiator, and Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA East.
Earlier on Friday, Loeb sent a message to his members in the U.S. telling them that they have the “legal right” to honor WGA picket lines, if and when a strike is called.
RELATED: WGA Members Prep Picket Signs Targeting Studios As Strike Deadline Looms
Parker, in his take-away from the meeting with IATSE leaders about the WGA talks, wrote: “Based on past experiences with the AMPTP, the employers may be dragging their feet and posturing. We should not be surprised if they had not even spoken yet about the issues most important to the Writers Guild with the executive CEOs at their member companies. However, and most importantly at this time, we must maintain the awareness that the WGA is a union and, therefore, a win for the AMPTP could only be construed as a loss for all of us. We must act like a union in solidarity!”
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