Guild defends decision to allow writers to work on Grammies
The Writers Guild of America has defended its decision to allow striking writers the go-ahead to work on the Grammy Awards show next month.
The organisation gave its blessing last week to a picket-free Grammys.
With the board's decision to sign an interim agreement for the February 10 ceremony, the Grammys will escape the fate that befell this month's Golden Globes.
The Globes were stripped of stars and pomp when the guild would not agree to an interim deal and the Screen Actors Guild encouraged its members to boycott the ceremony, which was reduced to a news conference.
The agreement allowing guild-covered writing for the Grammys is in support of union musicians and will also help advance writers' own quest for "a fair contract", the guild said in a statement.
"Professional musicians face many of the same issues that we do concerning fair compensation for the use of their work in new media," Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West, said in the statement.
Payment for projects distributed via the internet is a central issue in the contract dispute between the writers union and the alliance that represents studios.
Informal talks began last week between the union and several studio chiefs in an effort to resolve the nearly three-month-old strike that has disrupted movie and TV production. Formal negotiations had broken down early in December.
During the impasse, the Directors Guild of America reached a tentative deal with the alliance that addressed new-media issues and created pressure for the writers to resume talks.
The guild has agreed to allow next month's NAACP Image Awards to proceed with guild support, a courtesy also granted on Sunday night's Screen Actors Guild Awards.
