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February 12, 2015

WGA West’s Deadbeat Producers Hunt Yields $85 Million Since 2013!

Arlin Miller

by David Robb February 11, 2015 4:35pm

EXCLUSIVE: Going after deadbeat producers continues to be a major source of income for WGA West. In the last two years, the guild’s legal and claims department has collected more than $85 million in unpaid residuals and other compensation on behalf of film and TV writers, Deadline has learned. That’s nearly twice as much as they paid in membership dues during that same time span. It’s also considerably more than the $71 million in total assets the guild reported last year

The pace of collections has increased dramatically in recent months. In the six months ending November 24, the guild’s legal department collected a whopping $42 million in unpaid monies that was owed to writers, according to a guild source. That’s up over 37% from the $30 million collected during the previous 12 months.

The guild’s legal department has hundreds of open cases against deadbeat producers going on at any given time, and goes after them through the aggressive use of dispute-resolution provisions contained in its contract. Last November, for instance, it was working on more than 500 open cases, about a third of which involved major studios, big-name indies and the major TV networks. A sampling:

Fox/Regency – 34
Viacom/Paramount – 26
Warner Bros./Turner – 23
Disney/Touchstone – 22
Sony/Columbia/Tristar – 18
NBC – 16
Universal – 15
Lionsgate – 14
HBO – 5
CBS – 5
MGM – 5
ABC – 4
New Line/Katja – 4
Showtime – 2

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

——

Hmmm, so producers who diminish union members residuals belong to the Deadbeat Society!  So where does that put our current sag-AFTRA UFS/USAN leadership?

But, but, but…read the article below, the members in New York aren’t effected! So, those in New York get the Big Apple! Uh, while those in LA and the others on the list are stuck with the Worm!

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

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** Occasionally we update you on the number of reads we’ve gotten since the beginning of 2012:  Total reads: 300129.  Thanks guys!!!!

And the reports Just keep on coming: SAG-AFTRA Approves Higher Commissions for Agents!!! L.A. Film Czar to Pitch Incentives.

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