Calling media consolidations “one of the root causes” of its 109-day-old strike, the WGA West at present issued a “Call to Action,” urging members to file public feedback with the Federal Commerce Fee and the Division of Justice in assist of proposed revisions to their Merger Tips – a coverage doc designed to information legislation enforcement round consolidation.
The “Call to Action” comes after the fourth straight day of bargaining with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers to finish the writers strike and the day after the WGA West launched a report calling for extra authorities regulation of what it calls the “anti-competitive practices” of Disney, Amazon and Netflix, which it accuses of “abusing their dominance to further disadvantage competitors, raise prices for consumers, and push down wages for the creative workforce.”
“Make your voice heard about the harms of media consolidation,” the guild stated in a message to members at present. “Share your thoughts on media consolidation with policymakers at the FTC and the DOJ!”
“More than 100 days into our strike, as we continue to fight for the sustainability of our profession, events in Washington, D.C. provide an opportunity for writers to shine a light on one of the root causes of the strike: media consolidation,” the guild stated.
The message goes on to say:
“For many years, the WGA has advocated for stronger antitrust oversight, bringing consideration to the ways in which mergers and vertical integration in our business – from AT&T-Time Warner to Warner Bros.-Discovery to Amazon-MGM to Disney-Fox – have consolidated the facility of our employers and harmed writers in addition to the variety of content material.
“In quite a few stories and coverage filings – together with a brand new report referred to as The New Gatekeepers: How Disney, Amazon and Netflix Will Take Over Media, launched yesterday – the WGA has documented the risk to our business from previous and future consolidation and referred to as for extra aggressive antitrust enforcement.
“Our present strike highlights the urgency of the difficulty; studios gained energy by means of anti-competitive consolidation and vertical integration after which used that energy to push down wages and impose extra precarious working situations for writers whereas profiting off of their work, and presently – collectively – refuse to cut price a good contract for writers to mitigate these harms.
“Last month, the FTC and DOJ jointly released proposed revisions to their Merger Guidelines, a policy document designed to guide law enforcement around consolidation. These new Draft Guidelines are part of an effort by these agencies to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement. Compared with prior versions of Merger Guidelines, they give significantly more weight to the ways that mergers can be harmful and, for the first time, explicitly direct agencies and courts to consider how mergers can hurt workers. The Draft Guidelines have been released for public comment, and the FTC and DOJ want to hear from people who have been affected by consolidation – people like you.”
The FTC and DOJ are accepting feedback on their revisions of the Merger Tips till September 18.
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Writers Guild Strike
