Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/832212
85 Q2 2017 / CINEMONTAGE WGA APPROVES NEW DEAL WITH PRODUCERS On May 24, members of the Writers Guild of America voted to accept their new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. They agreed to a package of improved contract terms, including an increase in employer contributions to the writers' health plan by more than $85 million over three years. The writers described new "gains on the issue of short seasons in television, winning a definition…of 2.4 weeks of work for each episodic fee. Any work beyond that span will now require additional payment." Writers also won "a 15 percent increase in Pay TV residuals, roughly $15 million in increases in high-budget SVOD residuals, and…residuals for comedy- variety writers in Pay TV. And, also…job protection on Parental Leave." Earlier, the Writers Guild had called on employers to agree to $156 million annually in pay increases to meet its original proposal. The guild said the six major signatories to the previous agreement had posted approximately $50 billion in operating profits in 2016. SAG-AFTRA began its negotiations with the AMPTP in late May. US WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM SCORES BETTER PAY Team Captain Meghan Duggan understood the risk, writes Seth Berkman in The New York Times. Her 22 teammates on the United States women's national hockey team did too. They put their careers on the line when they announced March 15 that they would boycott the coming world championship if USA Hockey, the sport's national governing body, did not increase wages and development support for the women. Their courage and unity paid off two weeks later when the women's team reached an agreement with USA Hockey and ended the standoff. The four-year deal includes the formation of a Women's High Performance Advisory Group to develop girls' hockey at youth levels. Until the deal was struck, USA Hockey only paid them for the six months leading up to the Olympics, and that was only $6,000, writes Craig Custance for ESPN. By the final year of the four-year agreement, $950,000 will be set aside in a compensation pool for the players. The women's hockey players got support from a wide range of professional athletes and players' unions — not only from the National Hockey League but also the NBA, the WNBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball and the United States women's soccer team. Twenty US senators wrote a letter to USA Hockey supporting the players. Many of the men's national team refused to play at the same tournament if the women's wages were not increased. The men's side is largely made up of NHL players who make seven-figure salaries and do not get financial or training support from USA Hockey. The NHL also provides $9 million a year to USA Hockey, much of which goes to the National Team Development Program for top boys who are under the age of 18. Many female players approached by USA Hockey to be potential replacements responded publically by tweeting "I said no to USAH & will not play in the 2017WC," followed by #BeBoldForChange, the hashtag members of the boycotting US Women's National Hockey Team used. TELEMUNDO ACTORS VOTE TO JOIN SAG-AFTRA Actors at the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo have overwhelmingly voted to unionize with SAG-AFTRA in early March, ending a long dispute between Hollywood's largest union and NBCUniversal, which owns the network, writes David Ng in The Los Angeles Times. Miami-based Telemundo, which was bought by NBCUniversal in 2001, is the single biggest employer of Spanish-language performers in the US. In the past, SAG-AFTRA has said that Telemundo pays its actors half of what English-language actors earn on other NBCUniversal-owned networks, and that Telemundo doesn't provide its telenovela actors with health care, contribute to their pensions or pay overtime. NBCUniversal agreed that Telemundo would start offering health-care and retirement benefits to performers starting in 2017, but declined to elaborate. In early April, SAG-AFTRA won the support of the Latin American sector of the International Federation of Actors, in case Telemundo decides to undermine unionization efforts. "FIA-LA's statement of support includes a unanimous declaration that the unions and their members will not permit Telemundo to move productions to their countries if the network carries out its threatened LABOR MAT TERS Team USA's Jocelyne Lamoureux- Davidson, left, celebrates teammate Alex Carpenter's winning goal to defeat Canada and win the gold medal at the Women's World Hockey championships in Kamloops, British Colum- bia last year. Photo by Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press, AP Images