Ghost of contracts past?

In The Times' coverage of the contract negotiations of 2001, staff writers Claudia Eller and James Bates wrote that the "day of reckoning" would come on the very issues at the center of today's WGA strike:

NEWS ANALYSIS

Complex New Media Issues Are Put Off Until Next Time

By James Bates and Claudia Eller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
July 4, 2001

Although Hollywood averted actor and writer strikes this year, maintaining labor peace will only get harder amid rapidly changing technologies, huge media mergers and shrinking film and TV profits.

While writers and actors made some gains in contract negotiations, they fell short of a full-scale restructuring of pay formulas they believe inadequately reflect the growth in cable TV, foreign, video and DVD markets. They also made few inroads into fledgling new media outlets such as the Internet. As a result, the day of reckoning that many in Hollywood thought would come this year has only been postponed, perhaps for as little as three years.

Read more of the July 4, 2001, story

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[Blog Dog]

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