LOS ANGELES — Union officials representing striking Hollywood writers said Thursday they had filed an unfair labor practices complaint claiming studios violated federal law by breaking off negotiations.
The Writers Guild of America also demanded that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers return to the bargaining table so the six-week strike can be ended and thousands of workers idled by the walkout can return to their jobs.
Negotiations broke off Dec. 7 when the alliance refused to bargain further unless the union dropped a half-dozen proposals that included the authority to unionize writers on reality shows and animation projects.
The producers alliance criticized the complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
The “baseless, desperate NLRB complaint is just the latest indication that the WGA’s negotiating strategy has achieved nothing for working writers,” the producers fired back in a prepared statement.
Both sides in the writers strike have said the central issue is compensation for programs, movies and other content streamed or downloaded over the Internet.
That issue is also expected to dominate upcoming studio negotiations with directors and actors. The contracts of both those guilds expire in June.
In a statement, directors said they were deeply disappointed by last week’s collapse of talks between writers and the studios.
Directors delayed starting their contract talks for two months “out of respect for our sister guild,” directors union President Michael Apted and negotiations chair Gil Cates said in the statement.
“But now the situation is dire. The WGA-AMPTP impasse has cost the jobs of tens of thousands of entertainment industry workers, including many of our own members, and more lose their jobs every day the strike continues,” the statement said.
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