Writers support deal to end 3-month strike

LOS ANGELES – Hollywood writers on Saturday gave resounding support to a tentative agreement with studios that could end a strike that has crippled the entertainment industry. However, it appeared the approval process might briefly delay their return to work.\nAbout 3,500 writers packed the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles to hear from union leaders about the proposed deal that was finalized just hours before meetings were held on both coasts by the Writers Guild of America.\nA person familiar with the guild’s plan, who requested anonymity because of a media blackout, said the WGA board would meet Sunday and decide on whether to authorize a quick, two-day vote of its members to determine if a strike order should be lifted.\nGiving writers a 48-hour window to vote on lifting the strike order would help alleviate concerns that the agreement was being pushed too rapidly by the guild’s board.\nIf guild members support lifting the strike order, they could return to work as early as Wednesday.\n“The feeling in the room was really positive,” said screenwriter Mike Galvin, adding that no one at the Los Angeles gathering said the deal “was crummy.”\nCompensation for projects delivered via digital media was the central issue in the 3-month-old walkout, which idled thousands of workers, disrupted the TV season and moviemaking and took the shine off Hollywood’s awards season.\n“I believe it is a good deal. I am going to be recommending this deal to our membership,” Michael Winship, president of the Writers Guild of America, East, told reporters before the New York meeting at a Times Square hotel.\nWinship said afterward that he was encouraged by the membership’s response.\n“We had a very lively discussion. I’m happy with what happened. ... At the moment, I feel strongly (the proposed deal) has a strong chance of going through,” he said.\nWriters leaving the two-hour-plus New York meeting characterized the reaction as generally positive and said there was cautious optimism that the end of the strike – the guild’s first in 20 years – could be near.