Hollywood writers vote to end three-month-long strike
13/2/2008 16:06
Striking Hollywood screenwriters voted yesterday to end their
three-month-old work stoppage that has cost the entertainment industry billions
of US dollars and devastated the annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony.
After
the voting by members of the Writers Guild of America (WAG) in Los Angeles and
New York, union officials announced in Los Angeles last night that the strike
was formally over and writers would go back to work today.
The WGA board of
directors earlier over the weekend approved a tentative contract between the
union and Hollywood studios and entertainment companies, which agreed to give
writers a share of revenue from programs distributed through new media like the
Internet and cell phone.
"If an end to the strike is approved, writers could
be back on the job as early as Wednesday morning," Patric Verrone, president of
the WGA-West said over the weekend.
Tuesday's voting by thousands of WGA
members was held simultaneously at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills
and the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.
According to estimates by the
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the TV
networks and big movie studios, the strike, which began Nov. 5, has cost WGA
members an estimated US$273 million in wages.
Xinhua
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