According to a representative of the Writers Guild of America East, ABC has submitted its "final offer" in the almost 2-year-old negotiations over new contracts for newswriters, editors, graphic
artists, researchers and desk/production assistants. (The old contract expired Jan. 30, 2005.) The ABC proposal would remove newswriter/producers from the union (newsriters who have gained some
management functions) and lead to possible layoffs of newswriters, the guild said. Such removals are a key issue for the guild, which complained to the FCC last week that such removals would have an
adverse impact on news quality.
