It's now official: The Writers Guild announced moments ago that it will strike producers, networks and major studios on Monday at 12:01 a.m. And that means? Pretty much an immediate end to late night talk shows here and in L.A., and much much else (see blog entry below.)
Here's a partial transcript of the statement just released by Patric Verrone, chief of the WGA:
"Good afternoon.
"The Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America, West and the Council of the Writers Guild of America, East, acting upon the authority granted them by the members, have voted unanimously to call a strike effective 12:01 AM, Monday, November 5.
"As many of you know, three weeks ago the Members of the Writers Guild of America voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if we could not reach a fair and reasonable deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
"To avoid this outcome, we have been engaged in negotiations for more than three months to resolve our differences.
"Over that time, we dropped nine of our proposals in the interest of reaching a resolution.
"However, the studios have not responded to a single one of our important proposals. Every issue that matters to writers, including Internet reuse, original writing for new media, DVDs, and jurisdiction, has been ignored.
"In recent years, these conglomerates have enjoyed tremendous financial success off the backs of literally tens of thousands of people – including members of the creative community. One part of that community is the writers, whose work serves as the blueprint for programs and movies.
"And, although the industry’s pie is continually growing, our share continues to shrink.