Writers Guild of America East Files Arbitration Cases Against Corday Productions and ABC

The Writers Guild of America East filed separate arbitration cases against Corday Productions and ABC on Tuesday, April 1 for apparently violating the strike termination agreement by retaining replacement workers on All My Children and DAYS instead of allowing the striking writers to return to their jobs. As previously reported, the 100-day Writers' Strike of 2007 - 2008 officially ended on February 12, 2008. In the Strike Termination Agreement, it states that "no replacement writers hired during the strike period shall be retained on a show over a striking writer who offers to return to work on the same show on which he or she was employed when the strike began."

The arbitrations charge that the striking writers are being denied their rights to return to their positions on the two above shows. As fans may recall, DAYS shockingly fired its entire writing staff on Friday, February 1, including Head Writer Hogan Sheffer and the other seven staff writers. This came at a time when negotiations in the Writers' Strike between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) were proceding so well that the strike would end very soon.

The April 8, 2008 issue of Soap Opera Digest has confirmed that Dena Higley is the official head writer of the show. Fans may recall that she was previously the head writer from March of 2003 until August of 2003. Additionally, she was an associate head writer for the show from 1985 until March of 2003, and then again from August of 2003 until October of 2003. Ken Corday states in the April 8, 2008 issue of SOD that he’s thrilled to have her at the helm of the writing team and describes her as “a very facile, hard-working head writer.” There are some fans who have indicated that they are not quite as thrilled at the thought of having Higley back as head writer, as it’s no secret that she was fired from One Life to Live as head writer back in June of 2007 and garnered much criticism from both the fans and actors. However, Higley has still managed to garner several Daytime Emmy Nominations for Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team in 1994 and 1997-1999 for Days of Our Lives. Additionally, she garnered the same nomination for One Life to Live in 2006.

Ira Cure, senior counsel for the WGAE, has stated that "the Strike Termination Agreement does not allow the retention of replacement writers in lieu of allowing striking writers to return to their jobs. ABC and Corday Productions are clearly violating this agreement. They have left us no other option but to file arbitrations to ensure our members will be afforded their rights outlined under this agreement."

As of April 1, representatives from Corday Productions had no comment. The companies have ten days to respond and pick an agreed upon arbitrator to hear both cases. This could turn out to be as interesting as the soaps. In the meantime, I will keep you posted on how this real-life drama develops.