By JUDY RATTNER
Three months later, on Feb. 12, his prediction became reality, as Guild members voted to ratify a three-year contract, lifting their strike ban and returning to work.
"The Guild considers this a great victory because for the first time in Guild history, or in the history of any entertainment union, we're going to get a percentage of the distributor's gross for the reuse of our material on the Internet and other digital devices," said Coopersmith.
He explained that for the first two years of the contract, writers will receive approximately three times as much as what was originally offered by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
In the first year, for a one-hour drama, the writers will get $654 for one year's Internet streaming of their material, in the second year that goes up to $677 for one year's streaming. For a half hour sitcom, said Coopersmith, it's $360 for the first year and $373 for the second year.
But it's in the contract's third year, said Coopersmith, "that we get what we've always wanted -the percentage of distributor's gross." Under terms of the new contract, the writers will get 2 percent of that amount.
Another victory that the writers achieved, said Coopersmith, "is getting jurisdiction over original material created for the new media."
And outside of the new media, for regular, traditional broadcast material, writers will see a 3 percent increase per year in prime time rates.
As a member of the Guild's strike fund committee, Coopersmith said he was involved in arranging $164,000 in interest-free loans to about three dozen striking writers who had emergency needs during the three-and-a-half-month walkout.
Coopersmith said he had attended an informational Writers Guild meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manhattan on Feb. 9, as word of the tentative strike-ending deal spread. "There were alot of questions raised at that meeting " he said, "but they were mostly requests for definitions of the terms of the contract. I didn't hear anybody advocate rejection. It was a large turnout of between 300 and 400 writers," said Coopersmith, "and our big celebrity writer was Michael Moore. When I left that meeting, I heard him being interviewed by an army of reporters and photographers and I had to fight my way through that crowd to get back to Penn Station."
The vote to lift the strike, conducted by e-mailing a proxy or attending a second meeting, he said, was positive by 92 percent.
"Altogether, " said Coopersmith, "we think that's a wonderful contract."
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